Leaving Texas

Friday was our last day to tour the Hill Country so we put it to good use; we found another winery.  It was a beautiful day, a lovely setting, a nice woman pouring.   And yes, the wine tasted good also, so I think we showed restraint when we bought only two bottles. 

Event space at the winery

In our drives around the Lake Travis area, which is northwest of Austin, we kept encountering "Hamilton Pool Rd.".  Of course the inquisitive navigator had to know what the Hamilton Pool was so after some research and reading, she decided it was a "must see" site.  The location confounded all the GPS systems and the freebie winery map wasn't very helpful, but after a hour or two of roaming around, we found the county park containing Hamilton Pool.  The helpful gate guard told us that swimming was currently prohibited due to debris from the flash flood but took our money and told us we had one hour until the park closed. 

After parking the car, we headed down the trail.  The trail signs read, "steep grade" and "rocky trail" and "hike at your own risk".  What's the opposite of intrepid?  Your trepid travelers stopped about 1/3 of the way down the hill to consider our options.  The going had been slow.  Really uneven ground, loose rocks and bum knees were making this look like a not-so-great idea.  But the internet reviews and photos had been pretty cool.  What to do?  Give up? Turn back?  Ask Mikey, he'll eat anything.  Ask Katie, she'll go anywhere!  Yes, we agreed I'd take the camera ("If you drop it, don't bother coming back!") and continue the adventure.

On the trail

I scrambled my way down, and indeed, it was worth the trip.  A natural grotto carved out of the rock filled with spring water and runoff from nearby streams.  It was beautiful and cool because you could walk all the way around it and view it from all sides.   Hopefully the pictures below and captions give you some idea of this magical place.

The pool and overhang

Looking back towards the trail

 

 

 

 

Note the turtle on the flood debris. A bigger deterrent to swimming was the water moccasin floating near the turtle.

Note the people standing on the beach across the pool.

So after taking the photos, I clambered back up the hill, safely returned the camera and lived another day. 

We pulled out of the Austin area on Saturday morning and landed at a great KOA campground in Rusk, TX, only 150 miles west of Shreveport, LA.  We were both surprised by the beauty of northeast Texas - lots of hardwood trees and hills.  It honestly felt a little like "up north" Wisconsin.  The town of Rusk is famous(?) for the longest wooden footbridge in the world.  All 450' of it were initially constructed in the 1800's to keep ladies skirts out of the muck as they traveled from south Rust to downtown Rusk.  It's been rebuilt and restored and still functions today.

The Rusk footbridge

 

 

Dinner was our last Texas BBQ - ribs and brisket and all the fixins' and then we called it a night.  This morning we left Texas and drove across most of northern Louisiana to an amazing state park called Poverty Point.  More about that and photos next post.  It looks like we may be home by Thursday.  Please melt all the snow by then and have some flowers blooming.

See you soon.