Tourist boat at night on the San Antonio River along the River Walk.
The Alamo in San Antonio.
15 miles north on Ranch Road 12 leads to refreshing swimming areas in Wimberley, including Blue Hole Regional Park with green-tinted waters of tree-shrouded Cypress Creek, and Jacob’s Hole, a 140-foot-deep aquifer- fed cave system at a constant 68 degrees. When arriving in San Antonio, my first stop is the shaded River Walk lined with restaurants, bars, shops and towering hotels along the banks of the looping San Antonio River. At dinnertime, shrilling trumpets and strumming guitars echo along the riverfront as Mariachi bands serenade outdoor diners. TheAlamo is perhaps the city’smost visiteddestination— hallowed ground with its central stone mission church, where Texas heroes including William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett fought to the death in the War of Texas Independence. A small museum features original artifacts including Travis’ ring, a rifle and brush owned by Crockett, Sam Houston’s shaving mug, an original Bowie knife, and clippings of Crockett’s brown-blonde hair in a locket. Four other stone mission churches similar to the Alamo are spread across the city as part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Two of the city’s most historic hotels, the 1857 Menger Hotel, which once hosted Teddy Roosevelt, and the 1909 Crockett Hotel with its
landmark rooftop green neon sign, are just across the street from the Alamo grounds. They both share a secure parking lot accommodating RVs—convenient for RVers who might want to spend a night or two in a downtown hotel with easy access to the Alamo and River Walk. Other Hill Country daytrips include hiking up the treeless, massive pink granite dome of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area 18 miles north of Fredericksburg. With its Cowboy Store and Frontier Times Museum, Bandera, about an hour’s drive northwest of San Antonio, promotes itself as the “Cowboy Capital of the World.” The giant cross of The Coming King Sculpture Prayer Gardens atop a bluff can be seen from I-10 in Kerrville. And Austin’s Bullock Texas State History Museum houses the recovered 300-year-old partial hull of French explorer La Salle’s ship La Belle that sank in Matagorda Bay. With culture, history and pristine natural wonders, there’s something for everyone in the Texas Hill Country.
FOR MORE INFORMATION https://texashillcountry.com/ https://hill-country-visitor.com/ https://texaswinetrail.com/ https://www.traveltexas.com/places-to-visit/hill-country/
ROAMING THE HILL COUNTRY
COAST TO COAST SUMMER MAGAZINE 2020
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