Wildflower safari in the Texas Hill Country
Does this cow know how beautiful its Hill Country pasture is this spring?
Fields so blue your teeth ache. Tender, new leaves so green they’ll break your heart. A magic carpet of Texas wildflowers. This was our quest yesterday as we drove the famed Willow City Loop in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin.
As you can see, we found the holy grail.
After two years of drought and sparse displays, wildflower watchers this spring have been predicting a bumper crop thanks to generous rain last winter.
They were right. The bluebonnets are thick and tall this year, and they carpet entire fields and edge the highways with wide ribbons of blue.
As the sun burned off the morning haze, the heady scent of bluebonnets filled the air. “Too much!” I kept exclaiming as we drove around each bend and saw a vista even lovelier than the last.
We crawled at bike speed on the Loop, with plenty of paparazzi opportunities for the stars on the blue carpet. I know we were going the same speed as a bike because the Loop was jammed with cyclists out for a 60-mile ride. There were also numerous motorcyclists and other drivers out for a day of flower-peeping.
If you go, start early to beat the crowds, and go soon because the bluebonnets are at their peak right now.
While the Texas bluebonnet is our state flower and beloved by Texans, Indian paintbrush is also popular. I love seeing the two intermingle. Even a sprinkling of Indian paintbrush makes the blues deeper and more lovely.
Yellow wildflowers like coreopsis and Mexican hat generally appear later, but Texas groundsel (I think) is already popping up.
As is delicately colored toadflax.
But the other big player right now is the white prickly poppy.
Snowy swaths of it lay under wispy acacia trees, and individual plants among the shorter bluebonnets added bright spots to blue fields.
Wildflower viewing makes one surprisingly hungry. We detoured to Llano for some BBQ at Cooper’s, Home of the Big Chop.
At 12:30 pm, the line wrapped around the building and doubled back on itself. The Harley bikers in front of us who said they’d been riding out to Cooper’s for 20 years told us they’d never seen the line that long and predicted it would be an hour-long wait. They were close. It took 45 minutes. Did we wait? Yes, we did, and it was worth every minute.
When you finally get through the line, you stand at the serving pit, peer through the haze of smoking meats, and make your choices. Slabs of meat (it’s sold by the pound) are deftly tossed onto a tray, which you carry inside for slicing. They lay it all out on butcher paper rather than plates, and you sit at long, family-style picnic tables to devour your meat like the carnivore you are. Yes, utensils and sides are offered, but this is the real thing, and it’s all about the meat.
Despite the casual ambience, it isn’t cheap. We spent $80 on lunch for a family of four, gorging ourselves on pork ribs, brisket, smoked chicken, and beef sausage. Not something we’d do every day, but it was a real treat and a fun experience.
Wildflower fatigue had set in among the back-seat passengers by this point, but I could have looked all day. Will I ever see as fabulous a wildflower season as this one again?
I hope so, but just in case, I’m drinking in these sights and committing them to memory.
As the gate says, eventually it was time to go back to our sweet Texas home, so we headed back to Austin.
For more images from this day, please see my Texas wildflower Bloom Day post.
All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Holy Schnikies! I love the picture of the bluebonnets and the old house.
WOW! That about sums it up Pam. I am consistently amazed at the photos you display, and now on top of that, I have a huge craving for barbecue! Thanks for taking us with you on your outing!
Scott
Awesome pictures – made me feel like I was there!!!
Hard to pick a favorite photo, but I’ll go with the cow. We’ve got rain predicted for today, very unusual this late in the rainy season. What a godsend it is, and glad to hear the back of your drought is broken too.
what an amazing Nature’s creation – simply breathtaking! Thanks for sharing.
I lived in OK for 9 years, and it wasn’t like this. Who knew! GORGEOUS. Go TX!
Pam, I’m still wiping the drool from my chin. That’s one lucky cow!!! We’re trying to re-establish native wildflowers here, and only in my wildest dreams could they every look so spectacular. Thank you so much for sharing!
Beautiful photos! I wonder if it’s less crowded today with the drizzle…
Wow!!! Anything more is redundant!
Wow, who knew Texas was so gorgeous?!! That Texas bluebonnet is truly amazing! Our wildflowers here in Florida absolutely do not compare, though we have our share of prickly pears and blue toadflax. Makes me want to go to Texas. Thanks for giving us a tour! That Texas barbecue must have been really awesome to stand in line so long and spend $80.
Well, we didn’t know how much it would cost when we got in line. But yeah, it was pretty awesome. 😉 —Pam
Oh Pam..finally I know what a bluebonnet and Indian Paintbrush is!! Always read about them in novels and such…thank you so much!!!!!!!! I get it now!!(Ps I live in South America, but am from California!)
OMG! Now that is what heaven would look like to me. What gorgeous fields. Every time I see fields of Texas Bluebonnets I am in awe. To have this grow native everywhere is wonderful.
Beautiful wildflower photos and I love that gate! Now about this meat…not even one veggie on the plate? Gosh!
Do jalapeno peppers count, Loree? —Pam
Gorgeous photos, Pam!
Wowzers! I wish I had time to go visit. Simply stunning views. I love the old homestead and the cow. You really know how to frame a view my friend.~~Dee
Dear Pam,
Thanks for the wildflower tour. The last 3 weeks my own yard has been my favorite photo spot. We live south of San Antonio and it has been beautiful. Appreciate you sharing what your fine eyes saw.
Marsha
I don’t know if there will ever be a more beautiful year for wildflowers–at least not in my lifetime. All of central Texas seems busting out with bloom after the spartan drought years. Your photos make me wish I could go for a Sunday drive.
This was one of the most beautiful posts I have seen in a while. I not sure what I enjoyed seeing more – the bluebonnets, the poppies or the meat. Was the cow in the first shot on the menu?
Thanks, Les. As for the cow, I don’t really care to make those kinds of connections. 🙂 —Pam
Did you know they have a Cooper’s in New Braunfels now, not too far off of I-35? We nearly dropped our teeth when we saw the sign. Hubby had been going to the one in Llano since his college days, since he always passed through there going from Odessa to Austin.
Is it as good, Becky? That’s a lot closer for us than the one in Llano. —Pam
What an incredible sight. I am so glad you shared it with us. That cow looks like it is in heaven. I bet those blossoms taste like honey to it. Fun fun day.
Well, I thought at first that you had taken up raising cows. lol
But as I read further into the post I was thrilled beyond words as each pic. propelled me into a world of Bluebonnets. Gorgeous beyond words.
Thanks so much for letting us go along with you on your drive. That BBQ was delicious.
Love the cow. All the photos are great, of course, but the cow is just too darned cute standing in that billowy field of wildflowers. Looks like a great day. Hope you’ve recovered from the BBQ now!
I’m so glad you posted the Willow City Loop! Have been wondering if it was worth the hike when we have so much around us here. Looks like it is.
Your cow & wildflower picture is the absolute best! Hope you find a photo contest for it.
What a day you had!
Georgetown-to-Dallas by the back roads looks good, too, but can’t hold a candle to Willow City Loop.
Pam, Wowzer! What a wonderful spring you are having~~I agree with an earlier commenter~The cow is wonderful and I would love to get/send that photo as a greeting card…Classic! gail
Thanks, everyone, for your kind comments! I’m so glad you enjoyed seeing the wildflowers in this most beautiful central Texas spring. —Pam
What a magnificient display. Thank you for sharing these pictures with us.
Oh, Pam! What else can one say? Wildflowers by the mile and a cow with a field of dreams. Oh, and meat. Loved the trip and the pictures.
Thank you for such a great tour. Lord, is there anything prettier than that? I don’t think so.
You got some stunning photographs Pam. We drove out from Houston to Brenham last weekend and saw some lovely bluebonnets, but nothing like the vistas you captured on camera. Oh and the barbecue! My husband would *love* some of that!
Geez I really, really, REALLY need to get out for our wildflower show before it’s too late. I imagine the season is peaking right now. That first picture with the cow is my favorite.
Enchanting!
These images and the GBBD photos are just amazing. I can think of few other states that have those beautiful combinations of plants flowering in such sweeps along the roadsides. I looked at every picture and never tired of them!
I love that Indian Paintbrush! What a fabulous colour!
When I die I want my ashes spread among the Bluebonnets. They are the most beautiful flower there is!!!!! Thank you for posting the pictures.