Neville

Lost Maples State Natural Area
Thursday

Lost Maples is one of those areas in Texas that can have visitors numbering in the hundreds of thousands each year. The drive behind the high visitation is the presence of bigtooth maple and red oak trees that provide good fall color when the temperatures are right. In addition, the area has mountains that top 2200 feet and enough flowing water to make you wonder if you had stepped into another state. The park is divided into two trail areas, the East and West Trail sections with a another west trail loop attached to the West Trail proper, giving a combined hike of just short of thirteen miles.


I headed out around four o’clock in the morning so as to avoid the Dallas traffic and to give me enough time to cover half of the trail system that day. Despite the desire to go at a more leisurely pace, I had to press for a quick finish by early Friday to avoid the massive crowds that hit the place during the weekend so I figured that a Thursday and Friday run of the place would give me some solitude. I arrived at the park around 1130 and discovered that the park was quite full, with all of the developed camp sites occupied. Luckily I was the only one at that time that requested a backcountry campsite.

I started at the West Trail trailhead, crossed Can Creek and began a gradual ascent that took me through a large number of bigtooth maples bursting with yellow color. While trudging upward, I passed the occasional seep spring pushing water out of the fern-covered limestone canyon walls. The trail leveled out after two hundred or so feet and paralleled another fern drenched creek tributary flowing with crystal clear water. These spring supplied creeks flow year round, which permits the almost rainforest-type foliage to exist around this region. After the last crossing of the tributary the trail ascends again for another two hundred feet until it dumps out into open grassland dotted by waist high cedars with rolling hills and valleys visible from all directions.

After a few moments on these high plains, the trail drops again to a canyon dotted with pools of spring fed water and continues on for about a mile before reaching a ‘sub loop’ that climbs high into a cedar forest and follows the beginnings of Can Creek. The trail goes on for anther mile or so before hitting a major spring that helps feed large ponds that are stable enough to support a population of largemouth bass, panfish and catfish. I continued along the trail and watched as the ponds got bigger before the trail terminated at the East Trail and my camp for the night. The campsite was nestled inside some near vertical canyon walls and ponds big enough for fishing and swimming. Luckily I came to the camp around five-ish so most of the dayhikers had already called it a day. After pitching my tent I meandered around the area and admired the stillness of the pools and the chatter of the frogs. Soon a handful of other hikers came in and each pitched their camp at discrete distances. I fired up some dinner and watched the azure sky turn black and fill with countless stars before calling it a night.

Friday

I arose early and was met with some of the hardest humidity I had seen in awhile. So humid was it that I was pelted with the occasional raindrop from the condensation that covered the inside of my tent. I decided to wait before packing up and proceeded to explore the southern section of the East Trail as I would not be hitting it on my way out. Said exploration consisted of bushwacking a bit to see an impressive waterfall and a canopy of colorful bigtooths as they sheltered the trail from the emerging sun. After an hour or so I returned, broke camp and headed up roughly three hundred feet to the top of the cliff walls along the East Trail. I followed the ridgeline, or ‘cliffline’, and stopped occasionally to admire the open views to the southeast. It was neat to see the juxtaposition of the bright colors near the river with the solid greens that marked the beginnings of the more arid areas of the mountains. The trail carried on for another mile or two before dropping into the Sabinal River valley and again into splashes of fall color. The trail continued on crisscrossing the Sabinal River several times before terminating at the visitors center.

After dodging the growing number of dayhikers and getting off the trail, I headed to the nearby town of Fredericksburg and grabbed a hotel room. I quickly made use of the controlled climate by dumping out my gear to let it dry. I showered and headed into the downtown area and treated myself to a smoked salmon and black bean burrito for dinner and a local porter beer to wash it down. Satisfied with the day’s events, I headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Saturday
Government Canyon State Natural Area

As I had decided to hit the Lost Maples area late in the week instead of the weekend I had some time before returning home so I stopped by the newly formed Government Canyon State Natural Area just outside of San Antonio. The area is a labyrinth of trails that crosses through cedar forests and rolling hills. The backcountry camp area had not yet been funded so only a short dayhike was in order. I made a loop of roughly seven miles before heading back to Dallas. All in all, not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Lost Maples pictures:
Government Canyon pictures:

PaulR

Thanks for the writeup and pictures. Lost Maples definitely holds a special place in my heart and I can't wait until my boys get old enough to make the hike with me.

The primitive campsites are an easy way to get away from the masses that don't want to put forth the effort.