The "falls" of Pedernales Falls State Park is not a waterfall so much as a 3,000-foot section of the Pedernales River that flows over descending shelves of limestone. The river limestone may serve as enough of an attraction for geologists—it is 300 million years old!—but, as this 1970s government film explains, most visitors come to hike and camp in "typical Hill Country ranch land." Before the state purchased the property in 1970, the area was occupied by the Circle Bar Ranch.