Hill Country Travel Blog
Hill Country Winter Weather: No Joke!
Snowbirds come here to enjoy the mild winters, and they start showing up the minute flakes start to fly where they live. They open up Facebook and laugh at their friends in Chicago or Minneapolis who are shoveling piles of the white stuff. “Thank goodness we don’t have that,” they assure themselves, wearing shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops in November. However….
Read More
Meet the Twisted Sisters!
The term “Twisted Sisters” refers to the three state highways that make up the majority of a big, sweeping loop that’s nearly 200 miles: TX 335, TX 336, and TX 337. We’re going to trace out the route of the Twisted Sisters by starting at Bandera, which is a traditional starting point for many riders. We’ll trace it out in a clockwise direction. This is for ease of description on our part; you can start anywhere on the route and take in as much or as little as you’d like!
Read More
CAMP WOOD, TEXAS: A LONG HISTORY, A LATE START
Located in western Real County, and on the western edge of the Texas Hill Country, is the small town of Camp Wood, Texas. One of the most fascinating aspects of this town’s history is that it can be traced back over a period of hundreds of years, but as an official town it’s not even a full century old! Let’s take a look at the people and events that made Camp Wood what it is today.
Read More
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Medina?
Author John Steinbeck grew up near the Salinas River in California. He called the Salinas a “sometimes river,” because its levels varied so much from year to year. It would be little more than mud flats one season, and the next it would flood so violently that cattle and farms were washed away. Even as it frustrated the locals, Steinbeck said, it was their river, and they loved it as a part of them.
Read More
Hill Country Colors: Leafer’s Paradise!
Chances are the average American thinks of New England when it comes to fall color, when the leaves turn from summery green to a rainbow of yellows, oranges, and reds. But our own beautiful Texas Hill Country puts on quite a show of its own! From roughly mid-October to mid-November, nature takes out her paintbrushes and carpets our hills and river valleys with brilliant colors that equal those of our neighbors to the northeast.
Read More
The Texas Rangers in Hill Country History
From the Lone Ranger to “True Grit” to Chuck Norris, the Texas Rangers have become such an integral part of American lore that their history borders on mythology. The image of the horse-mounted, brave Texas law man dispensing justice in the turbulent Wild Wild West is a staple of the childhoods of generations of kids who holstered up their cap guns and played the virtuous cowboy against legions of outlaws. We’d like to take a moment to tip our Stetsons in tribute to the role the Hill Country played in the pantheon of the fabled Texas Rangers.
Read More
Henri Castro: Hill Country Architect
Even though the Texas Hill Country is full of historic examples of literal architecture, in our title we’re applying a more general definition to the term. Though his may not be an instantly-recognized name (beyond having Castroville named after him), Henri Castro was a Hill Country architect; he was instrumental in introducing European immigrants to the region, indirectly establishing much of its heritage.
Read More
Luckenbach, Texas
Those reading this who are “of a certain age” will hear echoes of a famous song when we hear the name of Luckenbach, Texas: “Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas, with Waylon and Willie and the boys…” That song by Waylon Jennings was released in 1977. It brought international attention to this tiny Hill Country village ten miles southeast of Fredericksburg, and raised it to almost mythical status.
Read More