Here at the beginning of April I always feel like wandering along our byways in search of the native wildflowers. The bluebonnets are among the first wildflowers to greet us each spring. They emerge in cheerful carpets of blue followed by more wildflowers in successional waves of pinks, reds and yellows. You will find their colorful displays growing beside the city highways and in forgotten ditches leading along country roads. One scenic drive where our colorful wildflowers are a seasonal event happens just a hop, skip and jump outside Fredericksburg, Texas. Jeff and I haven’t explored this way for years and therefore when the opportunity happened unexpectedly we hurried to see what all the buzz was about this year. Rumors of an outstanding wildflower season proved to be true so we wanted to share our trip with you.
Willow City Loop is a 13 mile loop through some private ranches just a few miles outside of Fredericksburg proper. These ranches graciously allow visitors to see a part of Texas not usually on view from our major highways and it is complex and interesting. You travel along well maintained dirt roads, across cattle guards, and keep an open eye out for livestock who have access to the road. One of the ranches has a barbed wire fence decorated with old cowboy boots topping the posts. There are so many picturesque views that your head becomes dizzy from turning in circles to get a good picture.
Jeff and I definitely found lots of wildflowers. Sometimes we came across a simple but varied smattering of color tracing a dry creek bed and other times it became a breathtaking lake effect of one color (many times a field of bluebonnets). I am relying on a few pictures to describe the beauty we found but how can we convey the fragrance? I did not know bluebonnets had a fragrance at all. At one point we stopped for a bit and the air through our windows was a delightfully light and sweet smell which made you want to linger in the vast blue field where these bluebonnets were growing.
I hope you enjoy these memories of a lovely day and sometime you may plan a spring drive along Willow City Loop, too.
