South Llano River State Park, Junction, Texas…

We moved west from Fredericksburg over to South Llano River State Park in Junction, Tx on Wednesday and I was really looking forward to the peace and quiet this state park had to offer. After all the socializing with the family it was time for some quiet and solitude… Boy did I get what I wished for!

South Llano River State Park is a beautiful state park along the South Llano River.  It is located about 5 miles south of town and Interstate 10 so we figured this would be the quiet place I was looking for …  We discovered it was going to be quieter than we thought as we found we could get absolutely no Verizon internet service here and a total of zero (yes that is ZERO) over the air TV channels. Toss in an intermittent 1X Verizon cell phone service and we are for the most part cut off of the electronic world that we have been accustomed to.  Looks like we will make a few visits to the McDonalds on Interstate 10 for some internet café time…especially since I need to finalize a plan for our stay during the Memorial Day weekend looming ahead.

Another challenge we found upon setting off to pick out a site in the camping loop was that a quarter of the loop was taken over with a large group tent campers predominantly kids aged 10 to 12. So much for quiet solitude..  Nevertheless we committed to spending four days here along the South Llano River to explore the western reaches of the Texas Hill Country. Despite the rowdy children we could see from the park map that there are several hike and bike trails with several bird blinds marked upon the trails.  The birding is excellent here as we saw immediately after setting up and relaxing at our shaded picnic table.

A vermillion flycatcher family was nesting in the tree on our site and in our “backyard” a water trough for the birds had been provided by the park.  I spent a couple hours entertained by the different species visiting the water trough. Later we took a short hike on a trail adjacent to the campground where we saw deer, armadillos and our first glimpse of the Llano River.  We quickly decided that despite the challenges we could enjoy experiencing the wildlife, birding and the trails by day and the movies and books we have collected as our nightly entertainment.

    

The next day I decided to take Sharon into a part of the Texas Hill Country she had never been. It would take most of the day since my plan was about a 150 loop taking in the towns of Leakey and Vanderpool along with a short hike in Lost Maples State Park. It is always surprising to visit this part of the Hill Country because of the elevational changes as the road between Leakey and Vanderpool more resembles mountainous roads found in New Mexico or parts of Colorado. Thus it is very popular with motorcycle enthusiasts on the weekends but as one sign attested it is not a completely safe road to travel via bike….

 

Also in this part of Texas there are numerous wild game ranches that are have spent a lot of money on fencing to keep all the exotic wildlife contained. These ranches are set up to offer wild game hunts for those with lots of extra money. Sad as it is this is big business in this neck of the hill country. The benefit to us the casual traveler through these hills is the occasional spotting of wildlife not often seen in Texas without paying a visit to a zoo.

    

We spotted lots of different wildlife, enjoyed the back roads of the Texas Hill Country and thoroughly enjoyed our day driving  this 150 loop. Throw in a short hike along the enchanting trails in Lost Maples State Park and it capped off a perfect day. Two more days of this peace and quiet are ahead especially since I discovered the kids were all leaving today…

Willow City Loop and Pedernales Brewing Company…

 

Our last few days in Fredericksburg, Texas were unseasonably chilly as a cold front blasted through this area. With the front came lots of thunder and lightning which always provide a beautiful backdrop to any nighttime sky. Since there were no severe weather warnings issued the storms and their much needed rain in drought stricken Texas could be fully enjoyed.

As the storms passed intermittent rain continued to fall but it did leave open, non-rainy times that we took full advantage of. One such time we decided to drive the Willow City Loop that our friend Carol back in College Station told us about. It seemed like a nice thing to do in case the skies opened up again as at least we would be in the CRV.

The drive was through some of the beautiful granite country of Texas. The winding road meandered through a lot of private land and it provided one scenic vista after another of rolling granite hills, idyllic streams cut through granite and limestone as well as occasional bluffs that looked as if they were a part of New Mexico rather than Texas. We saw a few wild Turkey, lots of deer and a lone Grey Fox darting across the road in front of us. A really, really nice looping drive….

After the drive we decided to check out the other microbrewery in town. It is located just a few miles south of Fredericksburg and is called the Pedernales Brewing Company. It is normally open only limited hours but since it was craft beer week they were open this day. Marking the entrance is a large replica of one of their bottled beers laying on its side and a short drive down a dirt road ends at their brewery.

We parked out front and when we entered into the tasting room we found it was typical of most other breweries we have visited with a few tables and chairs, a bar, large open windows to the brewing vats and an area to purchase T-shirts and the other brewery paraphernalia. They offer a what appeared to be an 8.5 ounce taster glass allowing for large tastes of each beer for $10.00  (and keep the glass) or their special in honor of craft beer week was $3.00 pints which appealed to us even more.

The star beers we sampled were the Lobo Negro a dark lager beer and their Seasonal Dunkel beer. As we sat at our table with cowhide covered bar stools we admired how nice their bar was with their labels on display as the backdrop to the bar. The table beside us was full of people carrying on a lively conversation and as we found out a bit later most, if not all, of them were partners of the brewery. They take great pride in letting visitors know they produce classic lagers and not the quickly produced ales many others are serving…

After sharing a few stories about us and them as well as their brewery they discovered Sharon is a handwriting analyst and after she analyzed a few of the writings we were all laughing and carrying on… What a nice bunch of people and what a fun time we had there… they even invited us over to Hilltop Café for some live music by one of their friends but it was getting late and we were heading out in the morning. Maybe another time…

As morning came we packed up and headed a short distance of less than 65 miles westerly to South Llano River State Park. As we left we wondered if the beautiful Fredericksburg area might just be a place we could settle down after we finish our full time lifestyle… Something to think about, for sure…