Springtime in Texas--Wildflower Road Trip

slpollett

We took advantage of beautiful springtime weather and a day off from work & school to go on a Wildflower Road trip this past Friday (Good Friday). The wildflowers were the best I've seen them in a long long time and the weather was just perfect. I hope you enjoy the flowers from the day.

I live in Central Texas so we started the day heading south on Hwy 281. In Burnet, we turned westward on Hwy 29. The bluebonnets and other flowers along the road ways were thick & plentiful (& very pretty) but there were not any good places to safely pull over. We turned onto Park Road 4 around Inks Lake State Park. Here's some of what we saw in this location.

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8. One of my favorites from the day


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After winding our way around Park Road 4, we ended up back at Hwy 281 and headed south through Marble Falls and on down to Johnson City. We turned on Hwy 290 and headed west. We stopped at the Lyndon Baines Johnson State Park along the banks of the Pedernales River for a bit, then continued on westward. Between the park and Stonewall (just a mile or two down the road), we found these:

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13. This is another of my favorites from the day. This field was huge & I wished I'd had a lens to really capture it all.


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We got back in the car and headed west toward Fredericksburg. This field of poppies caught our eyes so we HAD to stop!

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This field is part of Wildseed Farms ( http://www.wildseedfarms.com/). WOWZA!!! What a gorgeous place! Just fields and fields of blooming stuff and did I say it was gorgeous??!!?? NONE of my pictures can do the place justice, but I tried anyway. Most of the fields are roped off so visitors cannot go through them, but there is a path that goes around the edges of the fields so it does give some room for nice pics. One field of poppies has a path that zigzags through the field. Lots of people were out taking pics in the flowers. My teen girls didn't want to model (darn it), so all I got was flowers.

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20. My favorite of the day


After we left Wildseed Farms, we were starving so we headed on into Fredericksburg to eat lunch & do a little window shopping. We then decided we were tired and would head back home. My daughter & husband said they had seen enough flowers and didn't think I needed to stop any more, so this was the end of the picture-taking. Still, I took so many pictures that I haven't even started to get them all sorted & loaded into a gallery yet. If you haven't seen enough flower pics yet, my entire Texas Spring gallery is http://psphotos.smugmug.com/Sherry-Shots/Nature/Texas-Spring/4123988_qwLkhg#!i=240574972&k=iAYtj. This year's images begin with #23.

Thanks for looking!! I hope you enjoyed them.

Sherry

David_S85

I like #8 the best of the set above too. They're all good shots. Looks like you had a splendid time shooting that day.

slpollett

Thanks, David. I did have a great time shooting that day. Flowers are my favorite thing to shoot & this has been a good year for wildflowers. I also love #8.

Thanks again.
Sherry

underthesurface

I like #11 because of the dark contrast the background creates against the blue of the flowers.

redleash

Sherry- This is a nice series. i can't pick a favorite, but I do like the poppy field in #15. After such a bad drought last year, it has been a great treat to see all this year's flowers.

Lauren

slpollett

Thanks Lauren & underthesurface. I like the colors in #11 myself. I got that one earlier in the morning on the shaded side of the road. All of the rest of the pictures were taken in full sun which was a little harder to deal with.

Lauren, if you do get out again this weekend, I heard there are some very nice fields of wildflowers around Lake Buchanan on the road that leads toward Tow. I'm not sure the road number but it may be County Road 121 or something like that?? Anyway, flowers both sides of the road very thick & large fields either side. A co-worker told me about this spot, but I won't be able to get there to see for myself.

Thanks again,
Sherry

ian408

Beautiful wildflowers!

jthomas

These are beautiful, Sherry. My wife and I have been wanting to get down that way when the bluebonnets are blooming. Is early April typical? Everything is about a month ahead of normal here this year.

slpollett

Thank you ian and jthomas.

Early April is typical for the bluebonnets, but often they peek out during the last half of March. They were a couple of weeks early this year in many areas, but still plentiful and beautiful through this past week-end (they are fading out now). I guess our mild winter and timely rains sped up the process somewhat. Other wildflowers tend to lag behind the bluebonnets just a little bit. Even when the bluebonnets are early, April is a good month for general wildflower viewing. This year, we still had plenty of bluebonnets Easter weekend. Some areas they were hitting prime and other areas were past prime & seeding already, but the other wildflowers were taking over. I was fortunate that I was able to find a good variety of colors in many areas. Usually, as the bluebonnets are fading, the orange & yellow flowers become plentiful. Right now, the roadways are ribbons of orangy-yellow where just a couple of weeks ago was blue. I love this time of year!

Last year the drought was so bad that we hardly had any wildflowers. This was a good year for them. I am so glad I had a chance to get out and enjoy them and I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures I took of them. I'm not sure I did them justice though, so go ahead and make plans to come see for yourself next year.

Sherry