Llano County Texas map
30.71° N · 98.69° W · County seat: Llano · 966 sq mi · 32 sq mi water
Llano County sits on top of the Llano Uplift, a dome where the limestone cap of the Edwards Plateau has been eroded away to expose granite more than a billion years old. The rounded pink outcrops, the sandy soil and the boulder-strewn pastures all come from that one geological fact.
The town of Llano sits on the Llano River at the crossing of SH-16, SH-29 and SH-71. The Colorado River and its chain of lakes form the eastern boundary.
Where Llano County is
The county is in the northern Hill Country, roughly midway between Austin and the Concho country. Austin is about 64 miles southeast, Fredericksburg 32 miles southwest, Georgetown 60 miles east and Kerrville 53 miles southwest. Five counties border it: San Saba north, Burnet east, Blanco southeast, Gillespie south and Mason west.
Llano County was created in 1856 from Bexar and Gillespie counties and takes its name from the Llano River, which crosses the middle of the county from west to east and joins the Colorado at Kingsland. Llano is Spanish for plain — an odd name for country this broken, but the river was named on the open ground upstream.
Granite and the Llano Uplift
Precambrian granite, gneiss and schist reach the surface across most of the county, and the granite is the pink coarse-grained variety quarried for building stone. Enchanted Rock, the great exfoliating granite dome on the Gillespie County line in the far south of the county, is the best-known outcrop; it is a state natural area reached from RM 965 out of Fredericksburg and admission is by day-use permit, with the parking lot regularly full by mid-morning on cool weekends.
Elsewhere the granite shows as bare knobs and streambeds. The Llano River runs directly over rock ledges at several points, including the wide slab crossing just upstream of the town of Llano, and the river's boulder pools give it a character quite different from the clear limestone streams of Kerr or Kendall counties. Rock collecting is a local pastime: llanite, a rare porphyry with blue quartz crystals, is found in a dike north of town along SH-16.
Lakes on the Colorado
The Colorado River forms the eastern edge of the county, and the Lower Colorado River Authority's dams have turned that stretch into a chain of reservoirs. Lake Buchanan is the largest, at the northeast corner, and its dam is downstream in Burnet County. Inks Lake sits just below it, and Lake LBJ backs up behind Wirtz Dam, with arms reaching up the Llano River past Kingsland. Those lakes are the reason the county has 32 square miles of water in its Census area.
The lakeshore accounts for most of the county's recent building: Horseshoe Bay, a resort city on Lake LBJ that straddles the Burnet County line, and Sunrise Beach Village, a small lakefront city on the same reservoir, exist because of the water. The county's population is heavily weighted toward retirees, and the 2024 Census estimate of 23,163 is up from 21,243 in 2020.
Cities and towns
| Place | Type | Population (2020) |
|---|---|---|
| Horseshoe Bay (part) | City | 3,427 |
| Llano (county seat) | City | 3,366 |
| Sunrise Beach Village | City | 740 |
Horseshoe Bay extends into Burnet County; the figure above is the Llano County part. Kingsland, Buchanan Dam, Tow, Castell and Valley Spring are unincorporated communities.
Roads and deer season
- SH-16 – the main north–south route, from Fredericksburg up through Llano to San Saba.
- SH-29 – east–west, from Mason through Llano to Burnet and Georgetown.
- SH-71 – enters the southeast and runs northwest through Llano toward Brady, joining SH-16 through town.
- SH-261 – a short route to Lake Buchanan's western shore.
There is no interstate; I-10 is 60-odd miles south through Fredericksburg and Comfort. What the roads mostly carry in November is hunters. Llano County calls itself the deer capital of Texas, and the white-tailed deer density on the Uplift's brushy granite country is among the highest anywhere in the state. Hunting leases are a real part of ranch income here, the county runs a deer cook-off, and the population of the small towns swells for the general season each autumn. Wineries and lake tourism now fill much of the rest of the calendar.