Leaving Lost Maples

Fall has finally arrived in Texas.

And as my favorite motto (See Also: excuse, rationalization) goes ... Better Late Than Never.

One of the traditional Fall treks for those living in this neck of the woods, is to Lost Maples State Park where you can take in some of the best Fall foliage. The colors at the park were at their peak about a week ago and people have been flocking to Lost Maples to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

I haven't been to Lost Maples since I was a kid. Every year I want to go, but I just don't seem to make it. So when a friend said he wanted to go this weekend, I was very excited to finally make it up there and get in a good hike amidst all the pretty leaves.

We knew we needed to get an early start, but our ideas on "early" differed somewhat. (Sorry, but I was so tired and had gone to a late showing of Quantum of Solace on Friday night). So we settled on 8am. As I headed out the door to meet him, I picked up my morning paper and right there on the front page was a picture of Lost Maples with the headline: "Storm blows the leaves off of Lost Maples." A wild cold front had blown in Friday and it was monstrously windy and apparently it blew most of the Fall leaves off the trees in the park. Great. Oh well, there would still be some color on the trees and because of the cold front, the weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday. It was the ideal day for a drive in the Hill Country.

I mean ... come on ... how pretty is this?

Apparently, hundreds of other South Texans had the exact same idea. After a missed turn and a 45 minute detour, we arrived at our destination to find this:
There were dozens of cars lined up waiting JUST to get in the park. The wait was estimated to be about an hour or so.

Sadly, we decided not to stay. I had to be back in town for a meeting at church at 5:00, plus the low-fuel indicator light was on in my friend's car and we were about 40 miles from a gas station. (Luckily, he has a diesel VW with insanely good gas mileage).

So another year, and I still haven't made it to Lost Maples -- but all was not lost. We still had a good time. We stopped at this Apple Orchard/Bakery and did some antique shopping in Bandera.

And the scenic drive was absolutely amazing.
(I hope blogspot lets you enlarge these next two pictures because they are so pretty.)
We stopped on several bridges to take pictures. This one is my favorite:

See? Texas can be pretty in the Fall.