The Texas Hill Country

I have two tickets I am giving away for a sold out this Friday Live at the oldest operating dancehall in Texas, Gruene Hall ()!

I will be selecting a random winner Wednesday evening.

To Enter, simply:
- Like this post
- Tag a friend in the comments
- Follow me

Each person you tag will be counted as an entry.







This giveaway is not affiliated with Gruene Hall

As many of you have already witnessed, wildflower season is here! There are many different types of wildflowers native to this area, but here are five native wildflowers and when you can expect to see them throughout the year.

1) Texas Bluebonnet - our state flower and by far the most well-known wildflower. You can see them all around the hill country now as we are officially in season!

2) Indian Paintbrush - also officially in season and have a few blooming on our property now!

3) Indian Blanket - We typically have to wait to see these until April. They don’t stick around too long, similar to the two above, so make sure to check them out.

4) Mexican Hat - These guys hang around the longest. Starting in May, you can see these wildflowers blooming thru October!

5) Pink Evening Primrose - you can find these flowers blooming all through spring lasting slight longer then the bluebonnets, paintbrush, and Indian Blankets.

Wow! I started exploring into the AI world of art generation and was blown away! Have you tried any of the new AI tools out there yet?

It is pretty crazy what it can do, however you will see in the images that it is far from perfect. But with simple descriptions it’ll generate images like these in a matter of seconds/minutes.

The descriptions I used to generate each of these were:

Slide 2&5: “Bluebonnets covering a field in the Texas hill country. The lighting is picture perfect for the colors to pop. A ranch fence surrounding the property is in the background l, there are longhorn and bison in the distance grazing”

Slide 3: “A very low a depleted version of Jacob’s Well in Wimberley, Texas”

Slide 4: “The Medina River at sunset, with bouldering lining the riverbed. Hills in the distance covering the sunset”

Which one is your favorite?!

Exploring the depths of the Texas Cave Trail! ⛰️🌳🌞 Swipe to discover the natural wonders waiting for you:

⭐️Longhorn Cavern State Park (Burnet) - A unique 1.5-mile-long limestone cave system, believed to be formed over 400 million years ago. 📸:

⭐️Inner Space Cavern (Georgetown) - A prehistoric cave discovered by chance during highway construction in 1963, featuring huge rooms filled with ancient fossils and crystal formations. 📸: .girls.life

⭐️Cave Without a Name (Boerne) - A hidden gem with stunning formations, including a 14-foot-tall stalagmite and underground pools, discovered in 1939 by a group of boys who stumbled upon the entrance. 📸: .art

⭐️Natural Bridge Caverns (San Antonio) - A stunning underground network of large chambers, including the 180-foot-high "Temple of the Sun" room, discovered in 1960 during a limestone quarry operation. 📸:

⭐️Caverns of Sonora (Sonora) - A breathtaking showcase of colorful formations, including rare helictites and "butterfly" formations, discovered in 1900 by a young girl who followed her dog into a small opening. 📸: .lyn.gorman

Which of these incredible caves would you want to explore first? 🤩👇

This photo represents Texas weather in a nutshell! Hard to predict, extremes, and hard to manage. I have a lot of clean up work to do this weekend as I’m sure a lot of you do. I have learned a lot about managing these types of weather events that I will share with you tomorrow. Until then, Happy Melting!

Check out this week’s Top Photos and let us know which one is your favorite!

Go ahead and check out the photographers and follow below.

1) - Medina Lake
2) - Sunset
3) - Water Moccasin
4) - Westcave Preserve
5) - Guadalupe River

To enter, tag us in your photos and/or use the hashtag

Here are the photos from this weeks Top 5 photos of the week reel. Below are the photographers who captured these amazing shots!

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To enter, tag us in your photos and/or use the hashtag

A hazy night out in granite county near Enchanted Rock with stars filling the sky.

We are heading into some HOT weather in the next 2 weeks with highs around 100 degrees. No rain in the forecast for All parts of the hill country. If you are camping in the coming weeks, a fan might be a good idea. If you are near water, jump in. If you are day drinking, mix in some water. Welcome Summer…you are the guest who arrives while the hosts are still getting ready upstairs…
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^ check out and follow!

With the few out there that are still hanging on, we wanted to say goodbye to the 2022 bluebonnet season! With the lack of typical spring rain I would say we got a below average show this year in regards to our state flower. I’m excited for next year and hopefully we can get some much needed heavy rain before we head into the summer.

Happy Cinco De Mayo!
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Drove out to the Willow City Loop last week with to capture some bluebonnets and highlight the new BMW 2-series along the way. Unfortunately the hill country, especially the Willow City Loop, has had a very mild bluebonnet season due to the super dry spring conditions.

With that said, it is always great to get out on some hill country roads during the week and have some fun with the camera. I will be putting together some videos of our day but for now enjoy this shot by of the boot fence at the start of the loop!
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Please follow for more beautiful posts and stories of the Texas Hill Country
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It is bluebonnet season and here are some amazing shots from local photographers capturing the magic. I know we have had a mild bluebonnet season, however we can all appreciate the captures of what we did see this year!

Please follow for more great content of the Texas Hill Country!
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We have rebranded our page and wanted to introduce you to our new look! With the help from we have come up with new logos and material that we felt better represented the hill country and what we are trying to build with our page!

Let us know what you think and which logos you really enjoy!

Each logo incorporates a general sense of the hill country by adding the rolling hills faintly in the background with the star representing the location of the hill country in the great state of Texas.

Thanks for being a part of our community and we look forward to bringing you more content and rich information to you about the hill country!

Story Time📜 - Edge Falls

Edge Falls at first glimpse is a wondrous oasis that resides in Kendalia, Texas…
The falls are located on Curry Creek, in 1975 the location was sold to Dr. Joe Yelderman, and evidently the heirs of his estate won’t allow visitors to Edge Falls. This is nothing new for Texans, almost the entire state is private property. Some of the most beautiful lands in Texas are owned by someone.

There is a rumor I read while researching Edge Falls that in 1975 some bikers rode their Harley’s off the thirty-five foot walls of the falls into the water, as a result the insurance company pulled their coverage. Funny enough, GSL Ranch is nearby and the ranch is known for having more than a mile of makeshift dirt tracks for dirt bikers and four wheelers.

Edge Falls is named after William B. Edge, a man born in Alabama in 1825 and in 1862 moved his family to Curry Creek when Kendall County was formed.
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Story Time 📜 - Guadalupe River State Park

Artifacts from the Archaic period (8000-500 BC) have been found in the Guadalupe river valley…

Most of the tribes that historically operated along the Guadalupe river, were the Tonkawa, Waco, Lipan Apache, and Karankawa tribes. They would eventually be, well you know, “displaced” by Mexican, European, and US settlers.

Because of the steady flow of water from springs into the Guadalupe river, it’s been a tool for developing energy from it. The Guadalupe Waterpower Company was created in 1912, they built dams all along the river to harness its power.

The park itself is located on the border of Comal and Kendall counties, the state acquired it from private owners in 1974 and opened as a park in 1983.

What time of year do you like visiting GRSP?
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Tag in your photos for a chance to be featured!

Story Time 📜 - Frio River

Have you ever contemplated life while enjoying the cool, crystal-clear waters of the Frio River?

Besides being a river that got it’s name for being cool waters 12 months out of the year, it’s also a river with a long history, early Spanish explorer Alonso De Leon came across it in 1689. When they came across the river, they named it Rio Sarco.

Legend of The White Lady: If you walk along the banks of the river near Rio Frio, Texas, you can sometimes see a white fog that dances along the top of the river moving like a woman in a white dress. The eerie mist is said to be the ghost of Maria Juarez who was murdered by her older sister’s husband Gregorio.

Gregorio had fallen in love with Maria and made his advance, however she refused his advances and explained that she loved a young vaquero named Anselmo. Gregorio went into a rage and Maria ran off to her home. She thought she was safe from Gregorio’s anger, she heard a noise outside her home, thinking it was Anselmo, but when she walked outside she found it was Gregorio, still white hot mad with his pistol raised. He fired and killed Maria.

Gregorio was eventually arrested and found guilty of murdering Maria, and Maria rests to this day in the Rio Frio cemetery under an unmarked grave. Her soul is still not at peace.
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Story Time: Gruene, Texas

The entire town of Gruene is on the National Registry of Historic Places, and it makes total sense…

In the 1970’s the town had a revival where they rebuilt and restored the settlement that was founded by German immigrants in the 1850’s. The legendary Gruene Hall is there, it was built in 1878 by Heinrich D. Gruene. Some of the most iconic country artists have performed at the hall, which has helped keep prevalent the long held renaissance of the tiny town. W***y Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Strait, and so many other great songwriters have graced the stage.

The town never had many people as residents and following World War 2 the country built the highway system and they bypassed the town of Gruene, which completed the decline in population that had started during a boll weevil infestation in the 1920’s. The town's long history of being a central shipping and banking location for cotton farmers, meant a boll weevil issue could cause a major problem.

A UT Austin architecture student by the name of Chip Kaufman sparked the initiative to revive the town in the 70’s, by rehabilitating the beauty of the past.
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Formerly known as the Canyon Reservoir, Canyon Lake is on the Guadalupe River…

The lake is a project owned and operated by the US federal government and developed the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The group with the rights to the conservation of the lake is a cooperative agency called, Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority. They also have control over the use and release of conservation water.

The lake was formed by what is called a “rolled earthfill dam” which stretches 6,830 feet. The dam was constructed on July 27, 1958, and in 1964 they began the impoundment of water. For Comal County, the damming of Canyon Lake and the subsequent growth of the surrounding area was the most significant development in the Twentieth Century for the county. North Central Comal County is now one of the most populated areas in Central Texas.

In the 1960’s the area saw a tremendous number of subdivisions developed along the shores In 1967, forty-six subdivisions existed along the lake and fourteen more in the hills that surround Canyon Lake. By the mid 1980’s there were more than 80 neighborhoods in the area.
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The night sky of the Texas Hill Country is a special sight from atop Enchanted Rock…

Oh, what a magical place Enchanted Rock, full of myths and wonder. For thousands of years people have worshiped it, feared it’s spiritual power, and dreamt of it from half a world away. The Spaniards tried to conquer the rock and the surrounding lands from the Lipan Apache during their foray into Central Texas in the 1700s. They also attempted to open a Silver mine in Honey Creek.

Many Spanish explorers thought Enchanted Rock was a giant mound of silver or iron. Some Texans that used to live by the rock, thought that the legendary “Bowie Mines” (not David Bowie the the legendary rocker lol) reside just west of Enchanted Rock.

There has been some gold successfully mined from the area, but not enough for anyone to make any real money from it, so don’t go digging around if you go to Enchanted Rock. There was an account from 1834 that the whole thing was full of platinum.

The local Comanche and Tonkawa had several legends about Enchanted Rock that made them fear it; one was about a band of warriors who were the last of their tribe and defended themselves from other bands of warriors atop the rock until finally being killed, their ghosts are said to haunt the area as a result.

Some of the German aristocrats that were the original plotters of German migration to Texas, were fascinated by books and stories of the great state. They loved the idea of liberty and the freedoms explorers would write about adventuring in the wild west.

The German royals were also obsessed with Enchanted Rock and the paintings they saw were part of the inspiration of moving to Texas.
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Mother earth keeps Jacob’s Well at crisp 68 degrees all year round, so if you are hoping that it warms up in the spring, too bad, just dive in!

The great Texan Bartlett Sims did the surveying of the land in 1847, Sims was a surveyor, Indian fighter, and a member of Stephen Austin’s Old Three Hundred, which was a group of colonists who were granted land by Austin in his first colony. Stephen Austin’s father Moses had gotten permission from the Spanish to settle 300 families in Texas, however Moses died in Missouri before he could make the trip.

Stephen took his fathers place and headed down to San Antonio where he met with the governor Antonio Maria Martinez. By 1824, Austin had managed to move most of the 300 down to Texas. Austin was a bit of a classist and looked to take folks from more propertied families, only four of the Old Three Hundred were illiterate…in 1824, that’s insane.

Another indication of how wealthy the group was, is the fact that 69 of the families brought slaves with them on the journey. The combined total of slaves brought by the 69 families was 443, one of the men, Jared Groce, brought 90 slaves with him.

Bartlett Sims, not only received land from Stephen Austin because he was a member of the Old Three Hundred, but people would often give him land as payment for services, which I assume was surveying, but who can be sure. From 1836 to 1840 he served as treasurer, surveyor, and tax collector of Bastrop County.

In 1840 Sims moved to Travis County and participated in several battles in the area, Brushy Creek and Plum Creek, to name a few. In 1842 he became a captain of a company under the command of Alexander Somervell.

Some say that Bartlett Sims was one of two men who founded the Texas Rangers.
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The Medina River Natural Area is over 500 acres and hosts 7 miles of trails for you to get lost in…

Of all the bloody experiences in the State of Texas’ past, the Battle of Medina, on August 18, 1813 is the state's bloodiest. The fight was between the rebels, called “Republicans” and the Spanish Empire which was currently under the control of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother. The republicans carried a green flag and were a mix of Mexicans, Tejanos, Indians, Americans, and others. Mexico and the Latin Americas were in rebellion, the Americans were fighting the British in the War of 1812, and the new King of Spain’s brother, Napoleon, was raging through Europe, this was a truly bloody period in time.

The republican forces came from the “neutral territory” of Louisiana and took control of every place they stopped in Texas, ending at San Antonio. The Spanish sent Joaquin de Arredondo, commandant-general, with his army north to crush the rebellion. In an attempt to save the city of San Antonio from the ravages of war, the republicans planned to ambush the Spanish south of the city. However, they were spotted by Spanish scouts.

Arredondo and his troops flushed out the rebels and ambushed the 1,400 republican soldiers in a dense forest, only 100 of them would survive. Many attempted to flee from the artillery, cavalry, and infantry after four hours of fighting with the Spanish Royalist Army. The Royalists hunted most of the ones who fled down and killed them.

When the Spanish arrived in San Antonio, they treated the surviving rebels and their families terribly, as for the bodies of the fallen republicans, Arredondo ordered that the bodies remain on the battlefield, until 9 years later, the remains of the slain were collected and given a honorable burial under an oak tree that had grown on the battlefield.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was a part of General Joaquin de Arredondo army and was at the Battle of Medina, 23 years later he would return to Texas once more with the intent of crushing a rebellion.
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I know where I’m going this summer…

Ya know, Blue Hole almost didn’t happen as a popular swimming hole like it is today. Back in 2003, Blue Hole was a beloved but run down privately owned swimming hole; and a wealthy developer had drawn up plans for a 350-home subdivision to be built around the watering hole. Then the developer planned to put a private tourist lodge at the site of Blue Hole, it would’ve been a permanent change to Wimberley.

Fortunately that didn’t happen, the Mayor at the time, Steve Klepfer, councilwoman Marilee Wood, and her husband approached local resident Peter Way about saving the Blue Hole from private development.

Way purchased the land and held it at no profit for two years while the Village of Wimberley put forth a major fundraising effort to turn Blue Hole into a park for the public. Wimberley at the time was a newly incorporated town so it had very little room in the budget for the park. This would be a major project for the new town.

When’s the last time you went to Blue Hole Regional Park?
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Despite a long legal battle a few years back, the River Place Nature Trail is still open today…

One of the great joys of living in the Texas Hill Country is all the hiking you can do, there’s something for every level of ability as well. When it comes to River Place, the trails mostly run along stream beds in the canyon. If you love stairs, well, there are plenty of them along the trail.

Part of the trail was funded by a half million dollar grant that the Texas Parks and Wildlife gave the River Place Municipal Utilities District in 2003.

In 2009 the Upper Panther Trail and the Canyon Trail segments with a new trailhead on River Place Boulevard, north of the existing one opened. These trails have been seen as one of the best and highest rated trails in the Austin area. However it was also part of the segments of these trails that crossed into the City of Austin preserve property.

This was an issue because back in 1996 there was the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan that the city of Austin did with the US Fish and Wildlife; it stipulated that if the City of Austin wanted to make it easier for developers to get busy building in the Hill Country, they would have to carve out certain key areas of land to protect certain endangered species. Well, this land isn’t generally supposed to be used as “open to the public” there are exceptions, but regardless, this caused an issue.

The BCCP was put in place to protect habitats and endangered animals, not to also give the public free reign of the area. Due to this fact, a long legal battle ensued that drew in not only the US Fish and Wildlife, but the US Army Corps of Engineers as well.
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Story Time 📜🖋
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The town of Fredericksburg has known many expansions and transformations, but managed to always keep close to its roots…

The town was one destination of many in Texas that a group of German royalty looked to settle and hopefully create what they saw as “New Germany”. The homeland of these immigrants was becoming dreadful due to the industrial revolution happening in Europe. There were too many people and not enough jobs due to the technological advancements of the age. The rich royals began to worry there wouldn’t be enough food for the commoners. They decided Texas was to be the dumping ground of any Germans looking for a new start in a strange land, along with a few wealthy aristocrats to lead them.

A German surveyor by the name of Hermann Wilke was employed by one of the leaders of the new settlers, John O. Meusebach, to lay out the town. Meusebach would later be immortalized for his “treaty” with the Penateka Comanche.

The German settlers mostly opposed the Confederacy during the Civil War, and after the war had ended, they became weary of involving themselves in state or national affairs due to the bitter experience they had. The Confederacy instituted martial law in 1862 which hurt Fredericksburg. The entire experience of the Civil War caused many Germans to refuse to learn English, as a way of distancing themselves from the affairs of Texas and the United States.

It wasn’t until 1900 when the first strictly English speaking school was erected in Fredericksburg. As the town grew in size and importance it had become too difficult for the German farmers and store keepers to keep isolated from the rest of the state.

The people of Fredericksburg had resisted voting to incorporate the town until 1928, ending 82 years of avoidance.
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