Gillespie County Search

I was hoping for a smooth transition from yesterday's post, but I think smooth transitions can be overrated, don't you?

I think this image is a holdover from yesterday's Mason County batch. I never recognized the ranches along  US-87 that I was looking for that proved so scenic on drives past. I'm guessing I ought to make a concerted effort to find them one last time - and copy down the GPS coordinates!

This shot is of Polander Creek taken from Gypsum Mine Road. That's the secret road I use to bypass Fredericksburg and join County Rd 965 south of Enchanted Rock. I take it past The Rock and turn south on TX-16 about 4 mi to the north end of the Willow City Loop.

The Willow City Loop has some nice visual surprises but the road itself tends to narrow whenever you encounter one - and the "gawkers" are out (as opposed to us serious photographers) so there are few places to pull off and safely take a picture or two. My best guess for this one is the South Branch of Coal Creek.

Sometimes, crossing a creek in Texas - especially one with water in it - makes it difficult to remember you're on a Bluebonnet reconnaissance. In this case, I remembered on my way back to the car. I didn't see vast fields of blue through the rest of the loop or on FM1323 as I cut over to US-281, just occasional patches. But I was about spent and ready to head home. It's been a pleasant drive.

I'm hoping to get another in to see how long these wildflowers tend to stick around. It's been 18 days since I took this drive, but I think they should still be brightening up the highways and by-ways for awhile. If not, dogwoods and azaleas from The Masters will help me get on with life.

Llano and Mason Counties Love Their Bluebonnets

I passed this area heading to White Sands and again driving home from the Big Bend the week before this Bluebonnet Reconnaissance - on consecutive days I might remind you - and the difference in the two drive-bys made all the difference in the world wildflower-wise. I got home from the sand and rocks jazzed about 2017's crop of Bluebonnets. I toiled on the sand and rocks posts made much harder by the promise of the wildflowers I barely saw in the dim dusk the week before.

I saw a lot to shoot along the fairly rugged but thoroughly enjoyable Park Road 4, but I was heartened by the enthusiasm of the Bluebonnets and Paintbrush in Llano and Mason Counties. The week before I hewed to TX-29 on the way home but on this run I turned northwest after Llano towards Brady. About half-way, at Fredonia, I cut southwest and breezed into Mason from the north.

Not too far southeast of Mason on US-87, the Fredericksburg Highway,  I found some nice stretches of flowers on the right-of-way. I kept my eyes peeled for a couple of ranches that showed very well in earlier years, but I didn't find them on this trip.

I should mention too that I remember the route I took on this drive, but I've given up trying to identify exactly where each image was shot. It's not really important in the grand scheme of things and just reminds me that my memory doesn't perform at, shall we say, historic levels.

Whichever highway this pull-off happens to call home, that's my new Santa Fe being introduced to the local flora. So far as I can tell, they get along fine.

All this picture needs is a wagon wheel, an old cowboy boot, and maybe a saddle to go with the Bluebonnets, cactus, and bob-wahr fence. That fence seems to boast a surfeit of strands. . . and what ever happened to "i before e, except after c" in that "surfeit" of strands, one might ask.

xxx     <<<<   I think I had intended to write something there. If that was the case, I'm sorry but that ship has sailed. It probably wasn't important anyway.

Texas Park Road 4, Burnet County

Sand, rocks, and cactus are okay (and a Texan can't hardly escape them), but I prefer them to be softened visually with at least an occasional tree or two (and hopefully lots more). Thankfully, we can generally count on the annual arrival of Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush, and a host of other wildflower cousins in varying numbers throughout the warmer months. My first encounter with huge blue and red (as well as yellow) pastures as far as the eye could see was in the Spring of 1968 when I was hitchhiking from NAS Kingsville in south Texas to Austin in the Hill Country where my family was living. I was 19 and very impressionable. I still look for them every Spring. Some years I'm disappointed and others I'm blown away. But just looking, and appreciating, is generally enough.

Park Road 4, the access to Inks Lake State Park and Longhorn Cavern, is always the first place I check on my annual Bluebonnet Reconnaissance Missions. In heavy years it can leave you open mouthed and in lighter years you'll always find some - and with enough other visual treats to make the drive enjoyable.

I like to leave Austin early to get to Burnet about sunrise. It makes for a long day, but the morning sun and shaded flowers covering much of the area are a great combination. This section of road is north of the State Park entrance, immediately after turning off TX-29.

 This shot was taken in the same general area, north of the entrance.

Passing the park entrance and around a few hilly curves, you'll come to a section of Inks Lake near the dam at the southwest end. I often encounter ducks of various types here but I believe this was the first time I met any Canada geese here.

The photographer can appreciate both sides of the road here. On the hill across the road from the lake view you can usually find some shade and, if I ever took the time to sit and observe the area for awhile, who knows what other denizens might share the hillside.

A bit farther down the road, past the turnoff to Kingsland where the road turns east towards Longhorn Cavern, about halfway up the hill there's a beautiful overlook and picnic area with this grand view of the area encompassed by Llano, Mason, Fredericksburg, and Johnson City. Your sight line should be Kingsland (7 mi), about the middle of the picture where the Llano R joins the Colorado R. and beyond that past the hills/mountains (10-20 mi), unnamed as far as I can tell but surely referenced by the locals as something Google Maps has yet to discover. Now, if you follow that line another 10 mi, you can barely make out on the very hazy horizon. . . Enchanted Rock, [Last picture and last paragraph of the post.] which is much more impressive the closer you get. Another post or two should do us both for 2017 Bluebonnets. Have a wonderful Spring.

In the Big Bend. . . Briefly

Once through the Maverick entrance the traffic did lighten up a bit. I was able to pull off the road pretty much where I wanted and shoot what I wanted. That's always important to a photographer who finds it terribly difficult to play the scofflaw. Other Parks often have more constraints - like cliffs, blind curves, few safe places to get out of the car and shoot. It's often very frustrating. Not at Big Bend. I was loving this place.

All over the west you find these natural monuments and I regularly marvel at the idea they're created by erosion. And the top of each the "statue", if you will, is the remains of the caprock, the softer material below spreading out to create the monument's pedestal. Admittedly, some of the statues would be labeled "impressionist" because an impression of something is all you can take away. But I really loved this one of the leprechaun leaning against a shoe. Okay, maybe a little imagination helps.

This image is just a pleasant composition, shot from my window of the terrain north of Panther Jct Rd as I moved east across the Park. A brief hesitation because of my time crunch; I was anxious to get to the Chisos Basin Rd.

Closer to a portion of the natural fortress of the Chisos Mountains, the hair on my neck is standing up. How many Lipan Apaches can hide in the Chisos Basin? I stopped long enough to get another "exterior" shot. When I get to the turnoff, it'll be like entering a forest and I can't wait!

Rats! I hadn't been looking for Bluebonnets. Okay, Bluebonnets: click. Let's move on. The turnoff's just up there aways. Yeah, it was there, I turned south on the Basin Rd and immediately found myself at the end of a very long line. I left myself some room and thought about my dilemma. The line's not moving - at all. If it starts moving, how long can I spend taking pictures till I have to bail anyway? If I leave right now, I can get home by 10 PM. . . and I can always come back. . . I have to come back. What little I've seen of the place is pulling. . . but I need to come back and do it right when I have time on my side. I'm glad I left myself room. The line hasn't moved at all and no one squawked about my u-turn. I'm outta here.

Jeez! Even leavin's great. Clouds rolling in in the mid afternoon.

Well, that's it. I spent hours getting there, stayed very briefly, and spent hours (it seemed like forever) driving home - and it was still a great experience!

The Big Bend: Actually Made It This Time. . .

I should have entitled yesterday's post "Towards the Big Bend" or something since we didn't quite make it. The first thing to fill out was the post title and I didn't realize the shots I'd chosen wouldn't get us there. My bad. To make up for it, I'll include a couple panoramas today, gratis.

We really are almost there. This shot is about 9 mi north of the turnoff to Terlingua. I'd heard about Terlingua ever since we moved to Texas and Frank Tolbert began advertising the Terlingua International Chili Championship on TV - or maybe he was advertising his "Bowl of Red". In any case I figured I'd better at least check it out since I was (almost) there anyway. The large roadside rocks on the left are part of the Christmas Mountains, I assume, the primary peak being about 4 mi east.

This one is the farther of the two in the preceding picture, and 3 mi from the turnoff. I assumed it was rock when I saw it from 6 mi back up the road. But, looking at it up close, the first thing that sprang to mind was that it was the largest chunk of petrified wood I'd ever seen. Must have been a hell of a big tree! The longer I stared at it, the stranger it seemed. Red asbestos? Naw. An interesting look anyway. And there were even some (rather scraggly-looking) Bluebonnets alongside the road here. But maybe they'll be healthier in the Park proper.

Here it is - Terlingua. I'm glad it was only 5 mi out of my way. And if I'd been hungry or thirsty or really tired, perhaps I'd have come away with a better opinion. I did see this 4WD - Bronco maybe? It may have broken down and sat there long enough that someone eventually thought it needed to be a mural. Then I thought about Prada Marfa - remember - and, sure enough, through the back window you can see it's in front of Terlingua's Art Gallery. Case solved: west Texas artists will do just about anything to get your attention.

Okay, we've done Terlingua. A little ways south TX-118 hooks a port 90 (that'd be a 90° left turn) around the last of the Christmas Mountains (maybe) and immediately we get a nice view of the Big Bend's Chisos Mountains. They're still a ways off but that's okay, I can do telephoto.

So this is your first of two panoramas of the Chisos Mountains. If I counted right, it's composed of four frames shot at 28mm. I know, 28mm is wide angle not telephoto. But my Canon uses an APS-C sensor so I get to count the crop factor (1.6) for the smaller sensor: that gets me to 44.8mm - still only a "normal" lens. But it looks good, doesn't it? And I just said I can do telephoto.

Alright, I wandered off 20 or 30 ft into the desert and recomposed the shot to include that tall, spindly bush with the red fruit about 1/3 of the way from the left edge - look closer - yes, red. Now this time I only used two frames shot at 47mm. I know, just wait. With the Canon crop factor, the effective focal length is a bit over 75mm. Now medium telephotos run from 67 to 206mm (i.e., 30° to 10° field of view. . . but do you really want to get into that?) I thought not. So this one is a telephoto panorama and I could have just added more frames to cover that entire Chisos Mountains field of view - and it's a freebee - and we still aren't through the Park entrance yet. You're still looking for the red fruit? You did click on the thumbnail for the full size pic, right?

As close as I can figure, this one was shot from my open window .4 mi from the Maverick (west) entrance - almost there! I alluded in the previous post to a minor difficulty which cut my Big Bend trip short. This is as good a place as any to explain, since I'm sitting here playing with my camera while the line's backed up at the Park entrance. With all my planning, I failed to include a review of school calendars. Did you know the whole world was on Spring Break last week? No, I didn't either.

But I didn't let it put me off with respect to the Big Bend. I'm still pleased with the trip and I will go back as soon as I get a chance. But it won't be during Spring Break. We're now 400' from the entrance. There's an RV and two cars ahead of me. I think I'll make it.

Inside - barely! I can't believe all the traffic. National Park stats are online and I've got curiosity to satisfy. March is the busiest month for Big Bend by a long shot (about 45,000 - don't know whether they're counting cars or heads though). July, August, and September have the fewest visitors (each about 1/3 of March's visitors). That suggests to me that maybe it's hot down here in the summer. I'll take it all into account when I go back.

This shot and the previous one were taken on Panther Junction Road headed for the Chisos Basin. It is late. We can pick up here tomorrow. Buenas noches, amigo.