It was a misty morning when we started out on our trip to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.
Texas has been blessed with wonderful spring rains so the ponds are full.
The spring rains have made the wildflowers fill the fields.
Driving the back roads you see the best things. This little family was just right by the road.
On the back roads in Texas you are bound to see deer. Just not always deer like we are used to seeing.
One kind on one side of the road and a different kind on the other.
They forgot to take their Christmas tree down. Love what you can find on the side of the road.
About 17 miles from Fredericksburg you reach the entrance to the Park.
There it is. Enchanted Rock! You can tell how huge it is. Those little specks are people.
Enchanted Rock covers approximately 640 acres and rises approximately 425 feet above the surrounding terrain to elevation of 1,825 feet. The pink granite dome is the second largest such formation in North America.
But as huge as it is above ground the under ground rock spans 100 square miles.
The reason it is called Enchanted Rock is the Tonkawa Indians, who inhabited the area in the 16th century, believed that ghost fires flickered at the top of the dome. In particular they heard unexplained creaking and groaning, which geologists attribute to the rock's night-time contraction after being heated by the sun during the day.
Today it is a favorite place to hike, rock climb, camp, and enjoy nature.
We didn't hike to the top but did do part of the loop trail that goes around the dome.
What a great place to spend part of a day.
Out of the Park Walt turned the opposite direction from which we had come.
He really didn't know where he was going and didn't consult the map. But, look at the flowers that were out there.
Then I knew why.
There was the road sign that said Willow City Loop.
This is THE iconic Texas Hill Country scenic drive!
I had read about it but hadn't mapped out exactly where it was because we had our days pretty full.
How lucky that it happened to be on our " we don't know where we are headed" route.
The two-lane Ranch Road winds for 13 miles through some of the most beautiful Texas Hill country ever imagined.
There are numerous cattle guards, farm gates and low water crossings. The Willow City Loop is just wide enough for two cars, provided both hug the side and the cattle get out of the way. This tour bus didn't care. Thank heaven it was going the other way so that when it disgorged all its passengers for photos we were down the road.
The meadows were ablaze with the colors of a multitude of wildflower varieties. The main show while we were there were the white poppies followed by the bluebonnets.
All the property on the Loop is privately owned. What a blessing and a curse. A blessing to live amid all this beauty but what a curse to have all of the traffic including tour buses clogging up the road to your property.
It is open range country and the cows hang around the roadside eating the lush grass and bluebonnets.
The bluebonnet is the harbinger of Texas spring and Texans go see them and then their spring officially starts. One of the singers that was performing at Luckenbach when we were there said that he won't book any performances in April because he wants to stay in Texas for the bluebonnets.
Pink granite rocks, water, bluebonnets, trees and white poppies all in one place. Love, Love, Love.
Overload, overdose! Never! But I am sure someone's calling "C'mon y'all it's time to go... let our road get some quiet tonight".
It was probably this little family. Good night and thanks Walt for turning left instead of right.
"No one knows what causes an outer landscape to become an inner one".
Margaret Atwood