A Hill Country Primer

This writer is fully aware that most of his readers hail from the Lone Star State; however, as this journal has grown, and as we travel the continent, I have begun receiving emails and comments from people as far away as California, Alaska, and Canada. In addition, there are folks we have met along the way who have expressed interest in keeping up with us through this medium (Hi Bob and Patty; hi Mike and Marlene!). SO: for those interested enough to read it, here is a condensed description of what I mean by the term 'the Texas Hill Country'.

The area in question is a region of Central Texas, that features rolling, (somewhat) rugged, hills that consist primarily of limestone. The Hill Country terrain can be seen in San Antonio's northern suburbs and Austin's western suburbs. It's essentially the eastern portion of the Edwards Plateau, bounded by the Balcones Fault on the east and the Llano Uplift to the west and north. The terrain is punctuated by a large number of limestone rocks and boulders and a thin layer of topsoil which makes the region prone to flash flooding.

Several cities were settled at the base of the Balcones Escarpment, including Austin, San Marcos, and New Braunfels, as a result of springs discharging water stored in the Edwards Aquifer.

Due to its karst topography, the area also features a number of caves, such as Inner Space Caverns and Natural Bridge Caverns. The deeper caverns of the area form several aquifers which serve as a source of drinking water for the residents of the area.

Several tributaries of the Colorado River (the Texas one, as opposed to the one that cuts the Grand Canyon. That one flows on the other side of the Continental Divide and drains into the Gulf of California), including the Llano and Pedernales rivers, which cross the region west to east and join the Colorado as it cuts across the region to the southeast, drain a large portion of the Hill Country. The Guadalupe, San Antonio, Frio, and Nueces rivers originate in the Hill Country.

These rivers are famous regionally, and somewhat less so elsewhere, for their excellent floating. 'Floating', for the uninitiated, consists primarily of dropping any kind of formal or improvised raft in the water, jumping onto it, and then going wherever the river takes you, consuming uncounted gallons of beer while braving melanoma and intermittent rapids. Arranging for someone to pick the up floaters further down the watercourse, while sometimes actually done, is of secondary importance. This results in the unorthodox appearance, on any sunny day, of significant numbers of bathing suit-clad, barefoot, drunk people, many with giant inner tubes in tow, hitching rides on any of a number of secondary highways in the region. This writer has, naturally, NEVER engaged in this undignified, humiliating behavior himself...

The area is also unique for its fusion of Spanish and Central European (German, Swiss, Austrian, Alsatian, and Czech) influences in food, beer, architecture, and music that form a distinctively "Texan" culture separate from the state's Southern and Southwestern influences. For example, the accordion was popularized in Tejano music in the 19th Century due to cultural exposure to German settlers. Any non-Hispanic construction worker anywhere in the U.S., if asked in confidence, will advise you that he wishes this were not so. Mexican polkas can be maddeningly, ahem, homogeneous.

In recent years, the region has emerged as the center of the Texas wine industry. Three American Viticultural Areas are located in the areas: Texas Hill Country AVA, Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country AVA, and Bell Mountain AVA. Texas wines, while still largely unknown internationally, have in recent years garnered an increasing amount of regional and North American acclaim.