Ballinger City Park, located on the banks of Elm Creek, offers 19 RV camping spaces with water and electricity hookups. Adjacent to the City Park camping area is the municipal swimming pool and a miniature golf course. The pecan tree-shaded, 20-acre park also features hiking and biking trails.
KOA has a campground in San Angelo, less than a mile from Lake Nasworthy on the western edge of town. Native mesquite trees cover the 10-acre campground. Besides boating and water sports on the lake, San Angelo's other attractions include the planetarium at Angelo State University and a river walk winding through town. The RV sites offer 50-amp service. The campground features a pavilion/meeting room and free Wi-Fi access.
Spring Creek Marina is located at Lake Nasworthy in San Angelo. The shaded park that abuts the lake contains 83 RV sites with gravel streets and driveways. All sites accommodate double slide-outs. Each is equipped with full hookups, including cable TV.
The Santa Fe Depot, built in 1911 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, was renovated in 1983 to house the Ballinger city offices and Chamber of Commerce. The town of 4,200 boasts one of only four Carnegie libraries still in use. Built in 1911, the library was one of 34 U.S. public libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie. The Runnels County Courthouse, a three-story structure built of native stone, was first completed in 1889, then renovated and expanded in 1941, using stone from the same quarry. Ballinger won an award in 1976 for the Pioneer Plaza downtown, a bicentennial project. The area has benches, trees, a gazebo and a lighted fountain.
The Texas State Festival of Ethnic Cultures and Arts & Crafts, held the last weekend in April, begins with a parade and features the Colorado River Bike Fest, ethnic food booths, handmade arts and crafts by 100 artists, live entertainment and a Saturday night dance with a popular band. Ballinger is home to a small, offbeat archive and the Memory Lane Automotive Museum.
Thousand-year-old Native American pictographs can be viewed at Paint Rock, a town about 16 miles south of Ballinger on U.S. Highway 83. The pictographs are painted on stone on steep canyon walls above the Concho River. Bring your binoculars because no one is allowed on the cliffs where the hundreds of paintings appear. Going west about 10 miles from town, the New Ballinger Lake offers catfish, crappie, sunfish and white bass fishing.
