Texas Hill Country Vacation

Part of my recently completed vacation included a several-day visit to my relatives' ranch near Medina, Texas. This is the same place I visited in 2005 with my wife when my young cousin took down that wild pig. This time, my wife stayed in Taiwan to complete her studies to become a teacher of Chinese. This was compensated by my brother and family making their first visit to the Big Foot Ranch.

The Big Foot is "not really a ranch. It's only 490 acres, John Wesley," as my Uncle Don would tell me again and again. Well, maybe not, but it's plenty big for me. My Aunt and Uncle's place looks out over the hills from about 900 ft. above the valley where my cousin Lance and his family live in their house. The top left picture is from their perch with the hills and clouds behind us. Down the hill to the right lives Kinky Friedman ( "Sometimes I think he just likes to be a nut" - Uncle Don) at his Utopia Animal Rescue Shelter and to the left a couple of miles down the road is Emily Robison ( "Who?" - Uncle Don) of the Dixie Chicks. Down the other side of the hill, hittable with a well thrown rock, is Escondida, the retreat created by Bob Phillips of Texas Country Reporter fame ( "Wasn't much better than a trailer park a year ago." - Uncle Don).


For a "real" ranch, we had to go to my cousin Lance's year-old property, Rattlesnake Springs. Complete with it's own spring which feeds several lakes and ponds on the ranch, it has it's own Hill Country-style mansion with guest houses, servants' quarters, laundry, canteen, supply house - all with living quarters in them. There was even a cement pond, and yes, Jed, Granny, Jethro and Elly May were all represented. Plenty of fish and wildlife. Several herds of black buck, white tail, and Pierre David - that mule-looking thing on the right with a big rack - all roam around freely. A 400 acre section of the ranch has already been sold off. Camel Bluff was once a Confederate Civil War camp ( Actually, most people know the whole ranch area as Prison Canyon, but Lance thought Rattlesnake Springs might draw a few more buyers.) and got its name when at the end of the war the Confederates drove the remaining camels over a high cliff, killing them and leaving their remains. The camels came to Camp Verde, Texas, as part of an army experiment with alternate pack animals.

The majority of the ranch remains intact, awaiting a buyer. While I cannot state the price, I can say that if I were an A-list actor, I would need Spielberg to sign me for a couple.