Del Rio.

Texas Hill Country down to the Rio Grande.

____ Day 22. From San Antonio we had taken the Interstate 10 West; spending the night at a Rest Area near Kerrville. After using the area’s sani-dump and re-filling with fresh water, we headed off into Texas Hill Country on the Hill Country Trail. Following the Guadalupe River as it wound its way through an arid limestone landscape. Finishing the day at the Lost Maples State Park, where we booked in for two nights at their 30 site Camping area.

____ Day 23. Just one night at a campsite seldom gives you chance to get a feel for an area and very little value for money if you arrive late and leave early. Two nights gave us a full day to explore the gorge of the Sabinal River on the hiking and biking trails. The weather wasn’t too good with hardly any sunshine but plenty of colour in the leaves of the trees, including the Lost Maples. The Maples are an oasis of their species; left in the heart of Texas after the retreat of the last Ice Age with no others within a thousand miles. A neat and tidy campsite, even if the showers were a little low pressure [like the weather]. We signed up for the Texas State Park Membership Card; free entry and discount camping at sixty sites throughout Texas. Looks like we are heading for a giant game of join-up-the-dots.

____ Day 24. Up early and up into the clouds, climbing the high winding road from Vanderpool to Leakey and onto Camp Wood. Heading for Del Rio. But detoured to Uvalde with the FM334 closed before Brackettville; forty miles extra, not funny when you are struggling to get 9 mpg across hilly terrain. Restocked at Del Rio’s busy Walmart before taking US Highway 90 westwards with the Rio Grande on our left. West Texas desert of cactus and sage to the Seminole Canyon and another two-nighter at the State Park.

____ Day 25. Looking out from the Mack, we can see clear across to Mexico from our elevated campsite but the vista gives no clue to the Rio Grande that is running below at the bottom of a steep-sided canyon. Quite a boring landscape until you descend into the riverbed of the Seminole Canyon and find the cave paintings from the area’s inhabitants of 4000 years ago. We take the $8.00 guided tour that starts at 10.00; before it gets too hot for the strenuous climb down and return. The afternoon is spent riding the stony trail to the confluence of the Seminole and the Rio Grande; warm weather in November but it would be scorching hot in Summer. Another  nice campsite with friendly staff and neighbours; this time with much better showers.

Camped in the Sabinal Gorge at Lost Maples State Park in Texas Hill Country.

Sabinal River at Lost Maples has good Bass fishing.

High exposed campsite at Seminole Canyon overlooking Mexico.

Indian rock paintings at the Fate Bell Shelter in the Seminole Canyon. Much faded from when first painted.

The 400 foot long, 60 foot deep Fate Bell Shelter as seen from the riverbed at the floor of the Seminole Canyon.

The boat-in only Panther Shelter near the confluence of the Seminole and Rio Grande, now part of the Amistad Reservoir.