Lost Maples State Natural Area

We watched the hourly weather forecast for Wednesday, and saw that even though it would be raining in the morning and the evening, there should be a break in the afternoon long enough for a hike.  So we took off for another Texas State Park in Hill Country.  We traveled one of the "twisted sister highways" that motorcycle riders love.  We saw a lot of these signs:

Our destination was Lost Maples State Natural Area, another park that we get free entrance to because we purchased an annual Texas State Park pass.  That $70 investment has paid for itself over and over already.

This Natural Area got its name from the group of Big Tooth Maple trees that line the small river that runs through this area.  Maples have a hard time surviving in west Texas.  But the combination of water and the high limestone walls that give protection from the wind helped this small grove to thrive over the years. No one knows where they came from since they are so removed (lost) from other maple trees.  People flock to this area in the fall to see their red leaves, because good fall foliage is few and far between in this part of Texas.

We were welcomed to the park by a group of deer.  The rest of them were too quick for the camera, but this dear deer actually paused for a picture.

There are two 5-mile hikes in the park, and we chose the East Trail today.  Some of the maple trees were covered with velvet green moss, and others are still holding on to their leaves.  We couldn't help but imagine how stunning this hike must be in the fall.

There is also some lime green moss growing in the pools, that make for some colorful pictures.



We loved the limestone canyon walls!  It is great to be back enjoying our wander through God's wonders!

One of the side trails took us to monkey rock.  Mark asked Denisa to stand beside it for a picture, just so we could see the scale of the size of the giant rock.

Denisa asked Mark to stand beside the rock just so we could see if there was any resemblance.  There obviously was not.

Since this park is located in hill country, there are plenty of ups and downs at this trail.  I don't know what Denisa is smiling about, but this sign is obviously not good news.

And it wasn't kidding!


We spent several hours on the trail, and we never saw another person.  If you like nature and solitude, there are some great advantages to hiking in the middle of the week in between rain showers.


Our plan for the evening was to drive into the town of Bandera for dinner.   We had gotten mixed reviews from fellow RVers about this self-proclaimed "Cowboy Capitol of the World."  But Denisa had read about "Steak Night" at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar.  On Wednesday nights you bring your own meat.  They provide the grill and the equipment and the live music, and you can buy the side dishes to go with your steak for $6 per person.  We brought our rib eye steaks in our ice chest, and the hourly weatherman said we should have good weather for the 6:00 grilling.  But the cold front and the rain blew in about 5:30 instead.  When the temperatures dropped 30 degrees, we decided that sitting outside in the rain grilling steaks didn't sound like that much fun.

So we opted for the OST (Old Spanish Trail) Restaurant instead.  Their claim to fame are the saddle bar stools and covered wagon salad bar.

We were pleased with the chicken dinner we ordered, and it was big enough to split.  That also left us plenty of room to split a piece of  buttermilk pie.  Yummy!  That north wind blew us back to our motorhome at the Lone Star Corral Escapee park where we faced our first night of sub-freezing temperatures.  Our plan to stay south out of the cold weather has been foiled some by our driving test and some unusually cold March weather. By running our heaters to keep the inside of the motorhome warm, the holding tanks and basement storage areas are also heated.  So we made it through a very cold night without any problems.