Yesterday, under drizzly skies, my mother and I hit the road on a wildflower safari through the Hill Country west of Austin. I try to see the wildflowers at peak every year if we have a decent show (winter rains are the key), and this year it’s about two weeks earlier than usual, thanks to an unusually warm winter.

Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) and Indian paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) have stained the roadsides blue and red along U.S. Highways 183 and 29, between Bertram and Llano.

Where I could pull over safely, I stopped to take pictures, crouching low to shoot across the flowers and capture the rugged hills in the distance.

Texas is the land of pickup trucks, and it’s easy to get a shot of one zooming past the flowers.

Cedar-post and barbed-wire fencing makes an iconic backdrop as well.

Live oaks clothed in spring greens and spiny prickly pear add rugged architecture to a wildflower meadow.

The paintbrush is as bright as the construction signs in the distance.

Pretty!

The paintbrush is definitely having a banner year.

But we saw good patches of bluebonnets too.

Along one roadside, I spotted a few white-and-pale-blue bluebonnets.

More Indian paintbrush

A wider view

From Llano we headed south down Highway 16 and detoured a few miles west so Mom could see Enchanted Rock, an exposed pink-granite dome. For scale, note the car near the bottom of the photo.

As Enchanted Rock’s website explains:

One billion years ago, this granite was part of a large pool of magma, or hot liquid rock, perhaps seven miles below the earth’s surface. It pushed up into the rock above in places, then cooled and hardened very slowly, turning into granite. Over time, the surface rock and soil wore away. Those pushed-up areas are the domes you see in the park: Enchanted Rock, Little Dome, Turkey Peak and others.

See the people at the very top? According to the website, “Enchanted Rock rises 425 feet above the base elevation of the park. Its high point is 1,825 feet above sea level, and the entire dome covers 640 acres. Climbing the Rock is like climbing the stairs of a 30- or 40-story building.”

I’ve been to the top a few times over the years, although it’s been a while.

Heading back down Highway 16, we soon turned off again on the Willow City Loop, a public road through ruggedly scenic private land, and a popular bike route and wildflower-peeping drive. Plentiful signs warn visitors not to trespass or even park along the road. But on a drizzly Tuesday, traffic was light, and I was able to park the car a few times and stand in the road to take photos.

The loop is a winding, 2-lane paved road — i.e., bikeable — but dirt roads like this one lead off to ranch homes hidden in the hills.

Newly leafed-out mesquites stand among bluebonnets and white prickly poppies.

Along much of the loop, you’re driving through unfenced private land where cattle graze freely. Cattle guards keep them from escaping, but you do have to watch the road for cows.

This one gave us a long look.

We saw a few fields of yellow daisies and majestic live oaks.

I don’t have an ID for this one. Maybe golden groundsel?

This yellow farmhouse enjoys a front yard of bluebonnets, paintbrush, and prickly pear.

One of the most charming scenes is along a ranch property whose fence posts are topped with upside-down cowboy boots.

Boots of every size and color adorn the posts for a quarter-mile.

KE is, I believe, the name of the ranch.

Looks like a place to kick up your heels, doesn’t it?

If you get close to a large patch of bluebonnets, you discover they have a honey-sweet fragrance. I got as close as I could without stepping in them — a Texas etiquette no-no. Plus you might find fire ants or a rattlesnake in there.

The rugged beauty of a Hill Country view is always a treat, but especially in wildflower season. If you’re thinking of going, I’d say you have another week to catch the bluebonnets.

Update: For more wildflower pics — lots and lots of poppies — from a visit to Wildseed Farms on our way home, click here.

For my past wildflower safaris, click these links:
An Easter wildflower safari, April 2015
Wildflower safari in the Hill Country, April 2010
Texas wildflower Bloom Day, April 2010

I welcome your comments. If you’re reading this in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment link at the end of each post.
_______________________

Digging Deeper: News and Upcoming Events

Come meet me at Zilker Garden Festival, Austin, TX, April 2 & 3
Get your gardening mojo on at Zilker Garden Festival! I’ll be at the brand-new Author Booth both days this weekend between 10 am and 2 pm (near the main building entrance), and I’ll be selling signed copies of The Water-Saving Garden and Lawn Gone! ($20 each). Zilker Garden Festival is the garden’s only fundraiser (and it needs our support) and offers all-day entertainment, vendor shopping, plant sales, demonstrations, live music, a beer garden and food vendors, children’s activities, a garden train, a flower show, and a docent-led tour of lovely Zilker Botanical Garden. Don’t miss it!

Join me for lunch downtown at Holy Grounds coffee shop and cafe on Wednesday, April 6, at noon. As part of their Coffee with the Author series, KUT’s Jennifer Stayton will interview me and host a Q&A with the audience — i.e., y’all — and afterward I’ll sign copies of The Water-Saving Garden and Lawn Gone!. I hope to see you there for this intimate, lunchtime event. Holy Grounds is located in the main building of St. David’s Episcopal Church at 301 East 8th Street in downtown Austin. You can park in the surface lot in front of St. David’s main doors.

Do you review? Have you read my new book, The Water-Saving Garden? If you found it helpful or inspirational, please consider leaving a review — even just a sentence or two — on Amazon, Goodreads, or other sites. Online reviews are crucial in getting a book noticed. I really appreciate your help!

I’m on Instagram as pamdigging. See you there!

All material © 2006-2016 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.