When we left New Braunfels, we decided to detour through
Lost Maples State Natural Area, one of our favorite parks in the
Texas state park system. We've hiked all the trails in this park over the years, and we've camped there in our RV. It's a beautiful park. If you time it just right, you can see some wonderful color, a result of the maple trees for which the park is named. Unfortunately, we've never been able to time it just right, and we missed again this year. The color probably peaked about 2 weeks before our trip.
Still, it was a beautiful drive through some wonderful country.
We left New Braunfels early, probably about 6:00 AM. We stopped for a light breakfast on the western edge of town at McDonald's. We then hopped on Texas 46, which I detailed to some degree in my previous post. For the next 65 miles or so -- through Bulverde and Boerne and finally Bandera -- the traffic was heavy on a 2-lane highway. At Bandera, though, we finally lost most of the traffic as we continued west on Texas 16 to Medina before turning west on FM 337. This stretch was probably the most scenic of the day. There are some beautiful ranches along the West Prong of the Medina River. However, the fog was heavy this day, so views from the higher elevations were severely limited.
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| We stopped at a pull-out near the highest point on Highway 337 for this picture. The fog was pretty heavy, so visibility is very restricted. |
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| The route we took from New Braunfels to San Angelo, with a detour through Lost Maples. |
At Vanderpool, we turned north on Highway 187 for the remaining 5 miles to the park entrance. I inquired about color at the ranger station, and was told that most color was gone. Well, we'll just have to try again next year, I suppose.
We did venture down to the picnic area for the following pictures. There were quite a few people in the park on this cool, damp day. Most were setting off for hikes into the back country. Donna and I have done every inch of the trails, so we decided to just forego another hike unless we had a reward of some good color. We made a quick drive through the camping area. It was probably about 75% or so full, but this was early on a Friday morning. I'm sure it would fill up later in the day for the weekend.
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| Although there is very little color remaining, the parking lot in the day use area was about half full. By noon, it would probably be about maxed out. The fog was still hanging around. |
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| Here's a small tree with some color. Notice the canyon wall in the background. |
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| A little more color set against the backdrop of the limestone canyon wall. |
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| Scattered color, but very little. We'll get the timing down one of these days. |
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| Here are a couple of trees in the campground with a bit of color. |
We then left the park and continued north on Highway 187 for 14 miles to Texas 39, which we followed west for 9 miles to US 83. From there, we headed north 46 miles to I-10, which we stayed on for just a mile or so before exiting for Junction. On the east side of Junction, we stopped at a scenic overlook for the pictures below.
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| Donna overlooking the city of Junction and the Llano River Valley. Junction has long been a favorite place of ours. |
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| Here's a zoomed in shot of Junction. The bridge crosses the South Llano River, which joins -- or junctions (hence the name of the town) -- with the North Llano River just to the right. The tall signs along top of picture are along Interstate 10, which roughly follows the course of the North Llano River west to the area around the small community of Roosevelt and beyond. |
From Junction to San Angelo is a fairly short drive. From the southern Concho County line south of Eden to San Angelo is 4-lane highway, so it was a relaxed way to end our trip.
If you are interested in Lost Maples State Natural Area, below are links to other blog entries I've written over the past few years.
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