Hill Country Hike & Picnic

We're trying to work some more active hobbies into our repertoire. A while back, we went on a hike and took a picnic with us! PHOTO TIME!

Cacti!

We'd decided to go find adventure in the Hill Country State Natural Area.

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The park is about an hour and a half west of San Antonio.

Parts of the hike were pretty steep.

For a route we decided on the northwest side of the park - trails 3A to 4.

pwd_mp_p4507_115.pdf [tpwd.state.tx.us]

Translation: from Equine camp (!?) up to the scenic overlook. Apparently people bring their horses here, but on a holiday weekend the park was almost deserted.

Steep hikes: make for good photos.

The hills were small, but still very lovely. We had a nice view for most of the hike.

Windy-Manda!

Inspecting the plant life. (seemed like some type of thin Aloe)

Scenic overlook?

 Fresh air on a ridge.

Brandon's note: Before I left Michigan, one of my Ann Arbor co-workers gave me a book he owned: 60 Hikes within 60 Miles - San Antonio and Austin from when he used to live in SA several years ago. Today's hike was actually covered in the book as Hike 18 - Hill Country Creek and Canyon trek.

Christine had to pause to call her family to wish them a Happy Easter (the hike was actually ON Easter Sunday.)

Brandon is a pretty skilled photographer.

Picnic tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

We had worked up a pretty ridiculous appetite. 

Next, we drove out to a small lake to cool off, but we were disappointed by what we found. This was the part where we reminded ourselves that, being from Michigan, New Jersey and Washington, we're probably a bit spoiled when it comes to beaches. Still, this man-made lake was pretty clearly just a quarry they filled with water. Everyone drove their cars directly down to the water (what?!) and there was no sand, just rocks. We didn't stay for long. 

 

Instead we decided to go home, find a Jim's (the Texas equivalent of Denny's) and grab some burgers. ^_^