Exploring reimagined Waterloo Park in downtown Austin
August 30, 2021 Shade trees are precious in a hot climate, 200-year-old heritage live oaks even more so. As Waterloo Park in downtown Austin emerges from a massive, 10-year redesign and overhaul, two grand old live oaks on the west side of the park greet visitors as if lovingly presented ...
Cooling off at Wimberley’s Blue Hole
August 27, 2021 Austin is blessed with an abundance of spring-fed swimming holes, including crown jewel Barton Springs Pool. But just an hour away, the small town of Wimberley, Texas, has two spectacular natural swimming holes of its own: Jacob’s Well (which I saw earlier this summer) and Blue Hole, ...
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens grows high in the Rockies
August 05, 2021 At 8,200 feet above sea level, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, Colorado, claims bragging rights as the highest botanical garden in North America. It’s named, of course, in honor of the former first lady, who along with her husband, former President Gerald Ford, was a beloved ...
Maroon Bells hike through Colorado wildflowers
August 03, 2021 Texans flock to Colorado to escape summer’s heat, and we’ve made our share of road trips up through Boulder, Estes Park, Breckenridge, and Durango. But somehow we’d never been to Aspen. We remedied that oversight in mid-July, when the alpine meadows were quilted by colorful wildflowers. A ...
The mysterious allure of Jacob’s Well
July 31, 2021 For years I’ve heard about Jacob’s Well, a cylindrical underwater cavern filled over its brim with chilly (68 F) artesian spring water. Extending beyond the 30-foot-deep well, the cavern’s chambers reach a depth of 137 feet, with narrow passages and silty floors that can cloud the water ...
Swimming at Barton Springs Pool, the ultimate summer cool-down
July 16, 2021 You wouldn’t think I’d have a hard time finding someone to go swimming with me in July in Texas. But when I proposed an excursion to Barton Springs Pool recently, most of my family and friends said no way. Why? After all, Barton Springs Pool is considered ...
Stonehenge II and the serene Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country
June 08, 2021 Cruising through tiny Ingram, Texas, on the way to a river cabin rental over Memorial Day weekend, we spotted something that made us laugh out loud, and then pull over for a closer look. Stonehenge! Or rather, Stonehenge II, the wild-hair creation of two locals with a ...
Colorful fall foliage at the Wildflower Center, part 1
November 17, 2020 Fall pounced on Austin quickly this year, then retreated for nearly a month, and then dashed back in, ushering in a brief flare of color. We’d planned to visit Lost Maples this month in hopes of seeing the bigtooth maples flaming red and orange, but we missed ...
Tropicalesque Tanglewild, where bananas and palms grow big and bold
September 17, 2020 With the arrival of cooler weather it’s garden visiting season, and I’ve started calling on gardening friends who are willing to have me over for a socially distanced, masked, outdoor visit. How I love touring gardens! This week’s tour is at Tanglewild Gardens, a 1.7-acre garden in ...
Earthshaking thrills at Yosemite’s Half Dome
July 17, 2020 Half Dome as seen from Cook’s Meadow On Day 2 of our June Yosemite visit (click here for part 1 and here for how we pulled off the trip), we rose well before dawn, drove the 40 minutes into the park, and dropped David off at the ...
Yosemite National Park, grand temple of nature
July 14, 2020 An epic vista, including El Capitan on the left and Half Dome in the distance, greets you at the Tunnel View pullout. Half Dome. El Capitan. Tuolumne Meadows. Yosemite Falls. The names of Yosemite’s majestic granite walls, grassy leas, and thundering waterfalls are more familiar to many ...
Wildflowers and waterfalls at Kings Canyon National Park
July 12, 2020 Eriodictyon parryi, or poodle dog bush When you visit Sequoia National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, you get two parks for the price of one. Kings Canyon National Park abuts Sequoia’s northern edge, and the parks are managed together; one admission gets you into both. It’s ...
White rock, green river at Pedernales Falls
February 09, 2020 Winter days in Texas make good hiking days: cool (or at least not hot) temps, sunny blue skies, and no bugs. We drove west to Pedernales Falls State Park last weekend to explore and scramble over the exposed rocky riverbed and admire placid green water. Starved for ...
Autumn hike at Hamilton Pool grotto
December 14, 2019 Hamilton Pool called my name last month, and I answered by scheduling a visit through the state’s reservation page. Yes, Hamilton Pool Preserve is so heavily visited nowadays that the county park system requires a reservation to visit on weekends, and every day in warmer months. Is ...
Colorful fall at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
November 13, 2019 Before the big freeze I squeezed in a short visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, unintentionally joining throngs of families streaming in to explore Fortlandia on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I’d intended to photograph both the flowering gardens and Fortlandia but decided to save the ...
Water-saving Greenway Street Garden: Austin Open Day Tour
November 11, 2019 As Austin gardeners scramble today to get tender plants under cover ahead of an expected hard freeze (seems too early!), let’s continue with coverage of the recent Open Day tour sponsored by The Garden Conservancy. Green House on Greenway, the 2nd garden I visited, reminded me of ...
