Hill Country Travel Blog

21September
blog

Biker Rallies of Texas

Supporting and boosting local businesses and events is at the very heart of what we do at Backroads Reservations! The good folks at Biker Rallies of Texas are the devoted organizers of the most popular motorcycle rallies in the Hill Country. With major rallies in the spring and fall, they work nonstop to assure safety, organization, great memories, and a good time is had by all attending! They’ve got their start in 2000, when they arranged rallies in Liberty County and Kerrville, Texas. Two years later, they found their permanent home in Bandera. Let’s take a look at the two major events they currently host.

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17September
blog

Highlights of the Haunted Hill Country

No matter what you may think of the world of the supernatural, there are a lot of places in the Hill Country that have carried a reputation of unusual sights, sounds, and just plain shivery feelings for over 150 years in the region. Let’s take a brief tour of places known for the paranormal here.

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01September
blog

Boerne’s Hill Country Mile

In the hustle of modern American life, it’s easy to lose sight of an important cultural fact: it’s difficult to get everything done on your daily to-do list without a car. Too many towns have been designed with outwardly-expanding sectors of commerce that put one business or attraction miles away from another. The larger the size of the town, the more true this adage seems to be.

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16August
blog

A Genuine Wild West Gunfight: The Bandera Cattle Company Gunfighters

When bad hombres ride into town, who were the good guys who stepped up and protected the innocent town folk? When we turn our imaginations back to the Wild West chapter of American history, one of the first images we often conjure up from that rough-and-tumble and sometimes lawless time is the good guy vs. bad guy gunfight! The brief but intense skirmishes that occasionally resulted are compelling tidbits of history; they present plenty of drama and conflict, and were often influential turning points in the history of the region.

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12July
blog

The Hill Country is Wine Country!

In the past two decades or so, the wine industry in the Hill Country has exploded with growth. That’s easy to see, with new wineries opening at a rapid pace...but we, and some of our readers, have questions. How are productive wine regions discovered? Are there official wine producing areas, and if so, how are they designated as such? This article will dig a little deeper into these questions and more.

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25June
blog

A Handy Hill Country Q & A

At Backroads Reservations, we’re especially aware that the Texas Hill Country is reliant in a big way on tourism. We’re proud to welcome people here, and to introduce them to our own little corner of heaven. With that said, we’re also aware that everyone can’t be from here; we have a tongue-in-cheeksaying that “I’m not from Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.”

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14June
blog

A Park By Any Other Name: Hill Country WMAs

Visitors to the Texas Hill Country are generally aware of the state, county, and city parks available to them for recreation and relaxation. From the sprawling 12,000-plus acres of the Government Canyon State Natural Area to the modest but still impressive 16 acres of Old Tunnel State Park, there’s plenty of space and natural diversity to explore, not to mention parks of wildly varying sizes!

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07June
blog

The Hygieostatic Bat Roost

Texas has played a role in bat conservation and study for years, and for good reason. Among over 30 other species, the Mexican free-tailed bat migrates northward to the Hill Country for its “summer home.” As a result, man-made structures such as the South Congress Bridge in Austin, and Old Tunnel State Park (a retired railroad tunnel) near Fredericksburg, have attracted both bats and the folks who love them.

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