Texas Parks and Wildlife is targeting late fall 2026 to open the gates of the Albert & Bessie Kronkosky State Natural Area, a 3,814-acre site straddling Bandera County and Kendall County along Highway 46 between Boerne and Bandera. The timeline and the reasoning behind the site's designation were detailed by new site superintendent Stephanie Kwiatkowski on the latest episode of New Texas State Park Near Boerne: Why It Isn't a Park | ABK, hosted by Justin McKenzie and published October 21, 2026.
The distinction matters because ABK was classified as a state natural area rather than a state park. Kwiatkowski, who stepped into the superintendent role in June, walks listeners through the legal and operational difference between the two categories under the Texas Admin Code, drawing comparisons to Government Canyon, Lost Maples, Inks Lake, and McKinney Falls. She frames the park-versus-natural-area question as a spectrum between recreation and conservation, a framing that carries real weight for how the land will be managed and visited.
That protective designation is grounded in the ecology of the property. The episode digs into the specifics that justify it: bigtooth maples that rival those at Lost Maples State Natural Area, riparian corridors along Red Bluff Creek and Pipe Creek, and transition zones between ash juniper woodlands and creek bottoms. Kwiatkowski is candid about the stakes of protecting the ABK viewshed. Standing in a UTV above the canyons during her first weeks on site, she described the moment this way: "The site owns both sides of those canyons. And so that view, that viewshed, it is safeguarded for, um, forever."
Public access will not be limited to passive viewing. The site will offer 28 miles of multi-use trail open to hikers, mountain bikers, joggers, and strollers. Construction crews, subcontractors, and a six-person site team are now preparing cabins, screened shelters, tent sites, backcountry camping, and hike-and-bike infrastructure for public access. The episode also covers operational lessons from the July 2026 flooding event, which washed out landscaping, trails, and campsites before any public visitation, a reminder that the site's opening plans are being shaped by conditions on the ground.
Kwiatkowski credits the volunteer corps assembled by founding superintendent James Rice, a former biologist, calling the relationships "integral to our success as a site." The conversation is a return visit for the show, which previously hosted Rice while the land was still in survey and planning. Kwiatkowski's own path to the role ran from a childhood of camping in a pop-up trailer, through an environmental science degree with a minor in environmental sociology, GIS and consulting work, a formative seasonal job with the City of New Braunfels parks, a park operations trainee role at the Lost Pines Complex (Bastrop and Buescher State Parks), and an assistant superintendent stint at Pedernales Falls State Park before her June promotion.
For residents and visitors in the fast-growing Hill Country corridor between Boerne and Bandera, the announcement signals a new outdoor recreation destination on the horizon and a conservation commitment intended to outlast development pressure around it. The episode is available on The Building Texas Show, which publishes new episodes weekly.
