Bastrop
Heritage District · Bastrop, Texas
One of the oldest towns in Texas, on the Colorado River half an hour southeast of Austin, with a long main street of 19th-century buildings and an opera house still in use. Around it stand the Lost Pines — an isolated island of loblolly pine cut off from the East Texas forest by a hundred miles of prairie, and burned catastrophically in 2011.
904 Main Street, Bastrop, Texas, 78602, United States
The town is free to walk and always open. ⚠ BASTROP STATE PARK, where the 2011 fire recovery and the Lost Pines are, charges state park entry and keeps its own hours. The Bastrop Opera House is an 1889 building still running performances — check the schedule, as ticket prices are not stated here. Weekends bring Austin, thirty minutes northwest.