Visiting Surreal Dripping Springs

Before we retired, a friend sent me a list of "16 Surreal Places to Visit in the United States." After four years, we have visited ten of those places. Some are little-known wonders like Thor's Well in Oregon. Others we have heard about all our lives, like California's Sequoia National Park. Only one of the locations was in Texas, and it was time to check it off our list. So we headed toward Dripping Springs today. If you look very carefully, you can see Denisa sitting on a rock under the waterfall. She's that tiny green dot close to the right edge of the photo. That dot helps to understand the size of this surreal place.

Our search for "dripping springs" was a little more complicated than our list led us to believe. After doing a little research, we discovered the actual location was Hamilton's Pool, a few miles outside the town of Dripping Springs, Texas.

Administered by Travis County Parks Department, we also found that reservations are required most of the year to control the size of the crowds that show up. But in the middle of the week during the winter months, the $11 reservation fee is not required. But the $15 parking fee is required all year round. A quarter-mile walk led us beside Hamilton Creek.

An unusual turquoise color, the creek is lined with large old bald cypress trees.

But the star of the show is the waterfall at the end of the trail that is encircled by a collapsed grotto. A circular path rings the inside of the grotto, allowing us to take pictures from all angles.

We could even walk behind the falls.

That inviting pool is off-limits because of high bacterial count. That wasn't a problem for hikers in January, but we're guessing that would be very disappointing for hot hikers in July. It was truly a surreal place for a great hike. We can check off another location from our surreal list!

We found out that our Travis county parking pass allowed us entry into other county parks that usually charge admission. So we made the short drive to do some more hiking at Reimers Ranch. This is a family ranch that was sold to the county several years ago so the general public could enjoy the area's rock climbing and hiking.

The Pedernales River flows through the ranch, and the steep rock cliffs that surround parts of it would make a very scenic float on a warmer day.

We weren't the only ones on the trail this afternoon. We looked down to see a curious floating green line that was marching up the trail with us.

These industrious ants have cut grass blades and leaves into carry-able sizes, and were toting them back to their home in long lines.

We hiked from one end of the park to the other, and then back. We took the low trail next to the river, and then we climbed the steep terrain to return via the cliff trail. That would give us over six miles of steps today.

It feels so good to be back on the trail, wandering with some of God's tiny wonders (like ants) and discovering another of God's surreal wonders like Dripping Springs!