Last weekend I headed down to Hill Country State Natural area, a region covered in rolling hills, open plains and some heavily wooded areas.
I headed out Friday morning for the six hour drive south and hit the trailhead around three-thirty in the afternoon. As my luck would have it, there was a horse race of some sorts going on and the park was dominated by the prancing equines. I started out on the principal trail to the Wilderness backcountry area which flowed amongst the hills for about two and a half miles. The camp is a small bald spot or 'bowl' within surrounded by the hills and offered plenty of side trips to occupy the rest of the evening. Being it was a holiday weekend with temperatures in the seventies, I shared the campsite with two other hiking parties. Everyone pretty much kept to themselves and silence covered the area around eight o'clock. With a cresent moon a third away from setting I was able to enjoy a starry night before turning in around nine o'clock.
I arose early and while the other hikers proceeded to check out their surroundings I headed out to cover a loop around southwest of the campground and slowly make my way back to the trailhead. The trail climbed up and down the hilly countryside and offered me several nice vistas of the surrounding region. I took my time and covered the four and a half miles in about four hours before returning to the trailhead. I had planned to stick around that night and leave on Sunday, but I figured that the holiday traffic would be horrible at best so I headed back to Dallas around midday. Clouds had formed on Saturday but the temperatures stayed in the low seventies. Not a bad way to spend a holiday weekend.
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