Day 2After breakfast, we departed the hotel in 50 degree temps which quickly rose to 70 degrees by Noon. To get the tires warm, we took FM-2147 around the southern edge of Lake LBJ, going by Horseshoe Bay and the many other resort communities that have been built to cater to the weekend and retired crowd. After a short jaunt on TX-71, we then took FM-962 (and several other county and FM roads) as a back road approach to our first destination, the Willow City Loop.
In the +20 years we've been coming to the Texas Hill Country on the bike, we have driven by the Willow City Loop countless times, never taking the time to see what it had to offer. The loop is essentially a narrow road that meanders through perhaps 100's of ranchettes surrounding Willow City and provides spectacular views of flower-filled meadows and valleys on its 13-mile trek. The place is a "must see" especially in the Springtime.
There are no shoulders and all of the land is privately owned, so travelers are discouraged from pulling over and getting out. But it's impossible to resist the temptation, so we just parked on the road!
The northeast section of the loop has a pronounced elevation change, providing a view of a rustic "mountain" ridge and once at the top, a spectacular view of the valley below. We didn't have a decent place to stop once at the top, but did capture some pics of the ridge.
Once we completed our tour of the Willow City Loop, we headed north on TX-16 to Llano. We were tempted to stop at Coopers BBQ, but the line was too long, so we opted to continue on to Mason. Mason has a smaller Coopers BBQ venue, but also has a well-ranked down-home restaurant on the town square, called the Square Plate, that threw-down some tasty German vittles Texas-style.
Mason is a small ranching community that was originally founded as Fort Mason, a safe place for travelers while travelling through Apache and Comanche territory in the 1800's. The German heritage of the founders is evident in the architecture, churches, culture, and food...even today. It's not a big place, but the people are real friendly.
Of course, no trip to the Texas Hill Country is complete without a stop in Luckenbach. We arrived late afternoon with the hootin' and hollarin' and singin' already underway. There were a half dozen bikes parked in the lot, along with a tour bus and several cars - probably a crowd of 50 or so. Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon in mid-April. The beer was flowing, the crowd was singin', and the roosters crowing. I sometimes wonder if those roosters aren't trained to crow at just the right time when the artist(s) is singing "Let's go to Luckenbach Texas".
After catching and releasing our beer, we headed back to the hotel for our own private Happy Hour. We took the back roads and FM-1320 east of Fredericksburg was wildflower heaven...but we didn't stop for pics!
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Topic: Texas Wildflower Trail - 2018 (Read 4743 times)