Leakey to Vanderpool

I'm a bit more familiar with this part of the country, having explored a little when we descended on Utopia for biennial family reunions at the Crooked Hole Ranch between 2000 and 2006. I thought of it as "pretty country" since my first visit, but I was blown away by surprise when our entourage stopped at an overlook on the way to lunch in Leakey.

I'd not strayed west of Leakey (pronounced Lakey) until Saturday. This view looking east is from an overlook, still on Ranch Road 337 W, as I approached Leakey from the west. I'm not sure why I was so surprised that the terrain here was so much like that east of Lakey. But I thought - and still do - that I need to explore this area more closely. Topographical maps help a lot.

Having passed the town, this view is looking west, back towards Leakey. In about the middle of the shot you can see RR 337 E passing through the gap. Leakey is hidden behind the ridge on the right. And, on the near slope of the farthest prominence, you can see RR 337W descending into Leaky, almost from the crest.

These last three shots are each from the overlook that started it all, on RR 337 E, the road of choice if you're in Utopia and want to have lunch in Leakey. For a landscape, you'd think I'd use a landscape format for the picture. But, while I wanted detail in Jernigan Hollow, I couldn't very well crop out that wonderful sky.

Here's a detail of Jernigan Hollow; you can see where it opens up into the valley of the Sabinal River. The Sabinal flows south through Bandera County, and Uvalde County (at Utopia), until it feeds into the Frio River just north of the Zavala Couty line.

"The View" from this overlook really is tied to this single direction, which is about 104° True. A nearby ridge to the right at about the same height as the overlook effectively funnels one's attention that-a-way. All the other shots I took here were details close-in, some cactus at the side of the road, the roadway cut through the limestone, a biker zooming past, and a hawk riding by on an updraft.