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Wilson • San Patricio • Zapata • Webb • McMullen • Maverick • |
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South Texas is not really a county highpointer's heaven. The land is flat, very brushy, heavily fenced and mostly private. I came here over Veteran's Day 2001 to try for a bunch, but was successful just over a third of the time. On the map they look so easy, until you get there in person and see the substantial fencing, remoteness and dense scrub. In 2004, Bob Martin and I decided to go back and do as many as we could together. We had more success, and on the ones we missed, we learned why we missed them, mainly for the usual reasons. So far, we're the only two people to have come down this far for Texas county highpoints. The rest of you: you ain't missing much. Overall it's been two fun trips, but I doubt I'll be going back any time soon.
A year ago I made a three-day Veteran's Day weekend trip to Amarillo and knocked out 15 county highpoints. Emboldened, I decided to do come back to Texas again during this year's Veteran's Day weekend, this time concentrating on the area around San Antonio. My flight arrived late the evening before from Phoenix and in the dark I made my way to a Motel 6 just outside of town. The following morning (today) I gave my first county a try: Guadalupe County. Alas, its highpoints sit far back behind some private homes with gates and fencing. With no one to contact for permission and no real way to get to these from any other direction, I gave up and started my way south and east, working toward Corpus Christi. Next up on the agenda was Wilson County's easy highpoint.
This highpoint is located not far from San Antonio (maybe 20 minutes) and there are many ways to get to it. I took US-87 to the town of La Vernia, then FM-775 south about four miles, then west on FM-3432 another three miles to "Kicaster Korner", a somewhat decrepit store located on the corner of the road leading to the little community of Kicaster. A historical marker is at this corner. I went south on this road about a mile and parked at a bend in the road, across from some trees. The highpoint is a tiny rise of land set back in about 100 feet. I made the easy walk to the "top", which was indistinct at best. A private residence was nearby, and their yard fence seemed to be at or near the top, too. In any case, I was satisfied, and I got moving.
The rest of the day I tried a number of counties with no success: Refugio (fenced), Goliad (brush, dog), Karnes (fenced) and Aransas (brush, visited but got wrong point) all defeated me. Read all about it here. As the day came to a close, I finally had success in San Patricio County...
From the Aransas area I worked my way through Corpus Christi, then northbound along Interstate-37. The highpoint for San Patricio County is on its north county boundary, along the frontage road along the interstate, about a half-hour north of Corpus Christi. After starting the day in San Antonio, driving down to the coast, and so far being one for five on counties, I was hoping for a success with which to end the day. I wasn't so confident, though.
I exited just north of the county line onto FM-888, then turned back southerly on the east-side frontage, and drove to a highspot on the road, aligning myself with the county line sign visible on the highway. Where I was seemed high, but a large oak off in the field looked like a good thing to tag, so I made a quick out-and-back hike to it.
I tried yet one more county for today (Nueces) but fencing and gates barred me from that one. I finally drove south to Falfurrias and stayed in a hotel there. There's a good authentic Mexican food restaurant there. Deelish.
Yesterday had not gone well: two out of six successful attempts, and today started about the same, with two more unsuccessful tries. My first look-see was Brooks County, which I passed on due to fencing (in 2004, Bob Martin and I did it properly. Scroll down for the report). I also looked at Kenedy County, but that one is nearly impossible unless you're willing to walk about a dozen miles on trackless cactus scrub on private property, or spend a few million to buy the county to do it legally. So I worked my way into the interior and found myself in Hebbronville, the Jim Hogg county seat, where I got gas. Jim Hogg County's highpoint wasn't on my list, though. Zapata County's highpoint was. Would I be successful?
From Hebbronville I worked my way along routes TX-16, FM-3073 and FM-649 to get to the Jim Hogg-Webb County line, which is also the northeast county corner for Zapata County. I parked at the sign and hopped the fence, then walked amid open, scrubby brush to a broad rise covered in oil wells and buildings and general oil paraphernalia. This is the Zapata County highpoint. I paced the region a little to my satisfaction, then returned to my car. Not too exciting, but at least I got one. After the lack of success so far, anything was better than nothing.
Webb County is the next county up from Zapata and Jim Hogg counties, and its highpoints are congregated along a dirt-road "thoroughfare" called Welhousen Road, leading north out of the little town of Oilton to who-knows-where. From the Zapata highpoint, it was just a short 20 minutes of driving to locate myself in Oilton. I went north along Welhousen a few miles and put myself within the middle of the seven distinct highpoint areas. Then it was just a matter to visit them, or a decent subset of them. One such region has a survey benchmark "Border" on it, and I hiked to it along an old road cut, but I couldn't find the actual disk. Two other areas nearby the road were quickly visited but probably were not contenders (nor was the Border benchmark, in my opinion).
One area, just by its size and by the fact I could even make out its rise above the immediate lands, stood out as the likeliest highpoint candidate. I worked my way through a fence and walked into the brush about 500 feet. I gained maybe 15-20 feet. This one felt like the highest region, to me. A tiny region near a gravel pit is probably man-made and so tiny it statistically has probability zero of holding the highpoint, so I ignored it.
The day was highlighted by a nice visit with a lonely Border Patrol checkpoint fellow just east of Oilton. This isn't a heavily traveled highway so he took longer than usual to wave me through. He asked me of my business so I just told him I'm highpointing ... showed him my maps, too. He seemed surprised anyone would be in this region who didn't have actual business to attend to. He went through my backpack, peered in the windows, then let me go. An hour later, I went through same routine again near Freer, though this time it went quicker.
Well, two for four today, batting five-hundred. I headed north, and missed on yet another, Duval County, due to substantial fencing and long distances across private lands. That brought me down to a four-hundred batting average. Ted Williams would be proud of that. For me, it was kind of frustrating.
At last, a fairly easy county highpoint without too much fencing, close to a road, and obvious (relatively) to the eye. McMullen County's highpoint is amid some large oil storage buildings on its southern boundary, a few miles south of the community of Loma Alta along a good dirt road. A total of five miles of driving from Loma Alta put me at a bend in the road near the three storage tanks. The southernmost tank was just across the county line in Duval County.
I worked my way around a gate and hiked up the road to top out on the broad hilltop. Pretty much going by sight I walked south toward the tanks and walked around them a bit. One area near a small building has a 680-foot contour, but it didn't look like much. Some man-made berms designed to catch the oil if the tanks should fail were obviously higher than anything else, but seeking out a natural highspot proved to be challenging. I walked around, then out toward some small piles of rock near a gravel pit. These little bumps had mature brush growing on them, and I decided to call it good after a few minutes, hiking by line-of-sight back to my car.
Ironically this proved to be the most satisfying of the counties I gained on this trip. Certainly the area itself is uglier than sin, but at least I didn't feel like I had to pace everywhere just to get "sort-of" a feeling of success. From here I worked my north and west, meeting with failure two more times at Frio and Zavala Counties.
In 2004, Bob Martin and I came back here so Bob could claim it for himself, and me a second time, for what it's worth. We were in the midst of picking off the scattered highpoints of Live Oak County, and it just made sense road-wise to hit these while working on that larger project. We both agreed that some low rock outcrops near tanks 2 and 3 seemed to be potential candidates for natural highpoint honors, before the heavy machinery tore it all up.
The Maverick county highpoint is located near the Maverick-Kinney county line about 20 miles north of Eagle Pass on the Rio Grande, but the only way I could get to it would be to go through Eagle Pass, so it wasn't very direct. I found Texas-131 highway north of the city near the airport, then followed it as it headed north toward Brackettville. The highway had an interesting shoulder: there was the usual grassy scrubby stuff for about 30 feet in, then on each side of the road was a clearing, graded as though it were a road itself. Then the fences and the countryside began from there. Turns out the Border Patrol uses these dirt frontage roads to scout for illegals along this road (I guess so they don't have to be on the main highway). All fine and dandy, except that I really didn't want to be hassled by the BP as I parked and ran into the scrub to nab Maverick's highpoint. I'd just have to take my chances.
The Maverick highpoint is above an old gravel pit dug into the lone 975-foot contour in the county, about a mile south of the Kinney county line, on the west side of the highway. Some slash piles are visible from the highway about 200 feet back; these are man-made but appear to be the highest points. I think technically all I needed to do was just hike to within the 975-foot contour and ignore the slash piles, but hiking up the piles was easy enough, so I did that. I will say that I spent as little time as possible, pretty much running out to the piles, hiking them, and running back, total round trip of about 10 minutes.
The drive north into Brackettville is pretty nice. The highway goes through Spofford, which is tiny, then Brackettville, tucked into some small hills, the south end of the famed Texas Hill Country. From Brackettville to Rocksprings in Edwards County was about 60 miles but truly beautiful. These may be hills but the highway really meanders and makes tight turns, so it's slow going, but very beautiful. I saw just two cars coming the other way during the 60 miles of driving. I stayed the night in Rocksprings. With daylight waning, I visited a couple of the Edwards County highpoint areas, with plans to visit the rest the next morning. However, the map shows a huge, sinuous region that cumulatively covers probably two square miles. After a few short hikes up what looked like high hills, I left the area, but later decided to not count Edwards as finished since I had no real idea if I visited "all" such possible areas.
The following day, driving back to San Antonio, I missed on yet another, in Atascosa County. In all I had six successes but about 10 failures for various reasons. It was for this reason I kept this region on the back burner, hoping for a revisit in a few years. When Bob Martin expressed an interest in the area as well in January 2004, we decided to go for it together, and hit as many as we could. At the very least we would visit all of the counties and either do its highpoint, or find out exactly why we could not. So, fast forward to 2004...
Live Oak County sits about 90 minutes south of San Antonio along US-281. It was one of the many counties I by-passed during my quick 2001 tour of the area. Very briefly, there are four areas exceeding 530 feet, and at first glance I figured they'd be spread out and impossible to access. On this trip, however, I'd be joined by my good buddy and Texas highpointing king Bob Martin. Seems Bob had never really concentrated on South Texas despite the fact he had a couple counties to his credit already down there. But those were gained years before as part of separate trips in which highpointing was not the focus. We agreed a few months prior to spend a week in the area and give each one a try and see what happens. Being January, this was probably the best time to be in the far south of Texas and not the best time of year to be anywhere else. I flew into San Antonio on the 12th, got my rental car, and drove about 100 miles south to the town of Three Rivers in northern Live Oak County, where I took a hotel. We met the next morning at our preset meeting place, the junction of US-281 and FM-889 just north of George West, about 10 miles south of Three Rivers. Everything went smoothly, and by 7:30 a.m., the 13th, we were on our way for a week of bashing through the South Texas thorny brushland.
We deliberately set to meet not far from the Live Oak highpoints. Turns out the four areas are grouped in two groups of two areas, the first group being northwest about five miles from the second group, and both essentially on the county's western boundary amid a quiltwork of ranchlands and oil-lease lands. We went west along FM-889 until the pavement ended, then followed a good hardpack road to a rise in the road straddling the first two areas. This land sat on the Rhodes Ranch, as best as we could tell by the signs. Of the two areas, one is just a tiny speck about 100 feet north of the road, and the other is a more substantial area about 0.5 miles south. We chose to gain the southern area first. We hopped a gate and walked south along a good dirt road, then entered the thick brush at a convenient point. Using GPS and following the occasional cowpath, we managed to get to the highpoint area without too much trouble (or thorns). This area had some relief to it and could very well be the highpoint of the county. We walked out by attempting to cross-country it through the brush directly back to the road. It was a lot thicker and we went a bit slow but eventually emerged from the thicket. Yuck... and this was basically what we'd have for the next four days! The smaller area we were content to ignore, but I found an easy place to scoot under an old rusted gate and a breach in a fence line, and we made a very quick 5-minute walk into the brush to claim it. An old sawhorse sat nearby. This area has zero chance of being the highpoint. Back at our vehicles, we saw that to get to the southern two areas, we could make a side trip via McMullen county, and along the way, bag its highpoint. I'd done this one already in 2001 but Bob hadn't, so we went ahead to take care of that one (see above), then doubled back into Live Oak county for its remaining two areas.
We came back into Live Oak County via highways FM-624 and US-59, driving to a significant hardpack road along US-59 just north of the junction of FM-1369 and the community of Clegg. A big sign said this road was private, but the gate was open and it also seemed to indicate that travel was not necessarily prohibited: it said to drive carefully and go 25 mph. A worker was in the area and when we entered, he didn't seem to mind us one bit. Anywho, we drove this road about 2 miles to where it dead-ended at a gate for the Dos Sombreros Ranch. Another gate nearby lead to an open swath of land, cleared for the presence of a gas-line. We hopped this gate, walked about 200 feet northerly, then went northeasterly along a fence line, following another cleared path, to gain the first of the two southern areas. The open area seemed to top out right on the "summit". The second area was about a quarter-mile to the north, and we could see it easily enough. We scooted through the fence and entered into the brushy mess. Going was slow and thorny, and we eventually got to this last area using GPS to confirm our position. These last two areas seemed to be about the same size and together have maybe a 25-30% chance to containing the highpoint. We walked out following another cleared path to the gas-line path, then back out to Bob's truck. From here we went back to retrieve my car that I'd parked along the highway, and went south into Jim Wells County to start scouting for its highpoints.
Two areas comprise the Jim Wells County highpoint, both located in the northwestern part of the county. No towns are nearby; we saw numerous scattered homes and such. The map shows a community in the area called Mendiates. Nothing to us looked like a community- no centralized location or places of business. Not a high-rent district, definitely. In any case, we came into the area from our recent success in Live Oak County. The drive was fairly short - we took FM-624 east to FM-3469, which led southwest into Jim Wells County, then petered out into hardpack dirt. Following the map carefully, we followed the "main" roads generally southwest until we entered Duval County to the west. At this time I parked my car and rode with Bob in his truck.
The first area was no more than a few miles along the road, but set pretty far back. We checked out one ranch residence for permission but they did not own the land. A gas pipeline clearing went near the area but Bob and I both concluded the area, about one-tenth the size of the larger southern area, was probably not worth the effort. Besides, if we couldn't get the larger southern area, we'd be wasting our time with this dinky northern area. So we decided to skip it for now and check out the larger region. We stayed on the main road, heading south, until we intersected Jim Wells County Road 172. The larger region is a distinct hill about one mile south of CR-172 and a mile east of the other main north-south road. We first tried a gated approach from the west but quickly dead ended at a fence line. We backtracked and drove to a gate at an old road from the north. This road agreed with what was shown on the map. The gate and road were very old. We squeezed through and walked up the road, passing some vacant homes to the east, until we started to gain the main body of the hill. We simply followed the old road clearing to the top. Apparently a residence sat here years ago, evidenced by charred remains, scattered junk and a standing stone chimney. The highest point seemed to be south a bit further in thick brush. We walked into it and gained maybe 2 or 3 feet, then called it good. We returned the same way, an overall 2-mile round trip walk with a whopping 90 feet of gain.
After getting back to Bob's truck, we both felt that this area rated at least a 95-99% chance of being the highpoint, and didn't bother with the littler northern area. From here we backtracked to my car, then convoyed into Orange Grove where we made quick work of the Nueces County highpoint.
Today was winding down to a close and Bob Martin and I had already successfully visited three county highpoints today (including a repeat visit for me in McMullen county). Jim Wells County had been our latest success, and from that area we made our way to the small city of Orange Grove, not far from the Nueces high areas. Bob parked his truck at a gas station in town and rode with me as I drove us down into Nueces County to claim its highpoint.
In 2001 I drove by the area but found both gates close to the dirt loop road that goes by both 150-foot areas. Today, the gate was open. Previous reports suggested that the eastern of the two areas was clearly higher than the western one, and that the people who lived there weren't too fond of visitors. So we kept our visit short. I drove us in through the gate and parked near an abandoned shack about 0.3 miles in. The higher area was just opposite the shack and we walked into the recently mowed field, and commented on the total flatness. Map-wise, we were definitely there. We sighted to the western area and saw that it was lower. No need to bother the locals, so we simply walked back to the car and exited. Total round trip time from Orange Grove was about 20 minutes. Bob summed this one perfectly: "This one is for the birds." It was.
From here we made our way a little more south and set up camp that night near the Kleberg County highpoint areas.
Bob and I arrived in the small town of Ben Bolt at the junctions of FM-2508 and US-281 in Jim Wells county late in the day on the 13th. It was too late to start a hike but we still had time to explore some farm field roads that might allow us to cut our overall hiking time down considerably. We had in hand Bill Jacobs' report in which he came in from the east via the Santa Maria Ranch, and incurred almost 8 miles of round trip hiking. From Ben Bolt, we followed FM-2508 east. To the south is mostly farmland and a few residences. The Kleberg county line is parallel to FM-2508 about 0.7 miles south, and is seen as a band of brush and trees off on the horizon. Bob found two scant farm field roads at 1.3 and 2.7 miles in from US-281. We tried the one at 2.7 miles first, and interrupted a guy "hunting" (i.e. sitting on a perch near his truck, rifle on his lap). I talked to him and he strongly hinted that tomorrow morning would be better for us to be there. We also checked out the road at 1.3 miles before settling in for the night bush-camping along FM-1352 a few miles away. We got a quick visit from Deputies Saenz and De La Garza of the Jim Wells Sheriff's Office, wondering what we were up to. But we convinced them we were okay folks and they said it was okay to car-camp where we were. The coyotes really howled up a storm all night!
Early the next morning we drove to the field road at the 2.7 mile mark and parked along the highway (the road was now closed with a chain gate). The Kleberg County highpoints are four areas enclosed by 165-foot contours; two are along the northern Kleberg boundary, one (with a 168-foot spot elevation) is at the northwest corner, and a fourth area is south of the corner along the western county boundary. Still in the dark, we hiked south 0.7 miles to the Kleberg county fence, and scooted under at a convenient point. The change in scenery was dramatic - we were now on the northern fringe of the vast King Ranch on the Santa Gertrudis tract and amid mostly natural, native brush. A very bad, torn-up dirt road runs along the county line and offered us a messy but brush-free path in which to pick off the highpoint areas. The first two areas were gained by hiking east from our entrance point about 0.2 and 0.4 miles, with the furthest highpoint area requiring a bit of tromping south into the bush to claim it. We then walked west about 1.5 mile to the corner area (with the 168-foot spot elevation), and finally, walked south about 0.4 miles to the fourth area. A road not shown on the map, and various cowpaths, helped for the final area. All positions were verified using GPS; only the southern (fourth) area had any noticeable rise to it.
We then exited the ranch and Kleberg county by scooting under the fence near the 168-foot mark back into Jim Wells county, walked west about 0.3 mile, then crossed another fence that put us into the farm field we'd scouted the night before (the one at 1.3 miles). We walked out this road and back onto the paved road, and east to Bob's truck. Total hiking was close to 6 miles, which we did in three hours. We went back to get my vehicle then drove south about 20 miles to the city of Falfurrias, where we convened to start our attempt at the Brooks County highpoint later this morning.
For more information on the King Ranch, this link will get you started. A wonderful book I highly recommend is Dan Graham's Kings of Texas which details the life of Richard King and the rise and development of his mini-empire in the South Texas brush country. Kleberg County is named after Bob Kleberg, King's son-in-law and the man largely responsible for maintaining the ranch after King's death in 1885. It was under Kleberg that the ranch was fenced, wells were dug and essentially the whole operation brought into the 20th century. The county seat is Kingsville (Yes, named for Mr. King). City streets are named after major figures of the ranch's history. Kenedy County to the south is named after Mifflin Kenedy, King's friend and fellow ranch magnate, who went in with King on these lands back before the Civil War and helped build the empire. Jim Wells County is named after James Wells, a lawyer hired by Richard King and later, a major political figure in these parts; its county seat is Alice, named after King's daughter and wife of Bob Kleberg. Got that? It's a great book, and details a fascinating piece of history of this part of Texas.
Bob and I came to the Brooks highpoint area after an energetic hike of the Kleberg County highpoints earlier this morning. It was a short drive to Falfurrias, the Brooks county seat. We rested a bit, then I rode with Bob out to the Brooks highpoint area, a lone hill about 15 miles southwest of Falfurrias in the middle of scrubby nowhere. In November 2001 I had come this way to scout this highpoint but did not attempt it at that time due to the high mesh fencing and the seeming inaccessability of the hill from the road. I wasn't too optimistic this time around, but Bob is often a good-luck charm and as things worked out, we did get lucky!
From the city of Falfurrias on US-281, we proceeded south very briefly to the south end of town and turned west (our right) onto FM-3066. State maintenance ends after 2 miles, but the road continues on as Brooks County Road-110. albeit in very poor condition. After roughly 15 miles, the road turns sharply south near the Los Compadres Ranch entrance (a backwards 7 marks the entrance). We proceeded south another 2 miles to CR-111 on our right and proceeded west a little over a mile to a rise in the road. The highpoint hill (or dune, more properly) was visible about a mile back to the north (our right). Much of the land herein appears to be owned by the Isabela Land and Cattle Company. We drove to the end of CR-111, came to a gate for the Isabela people, then backtracked to the ranch complex near the highspot in the road, and went in to meet and greet the various people we could see in the area. I talked to a couple ranch hands and they were non-committal about letting us on, but then another guy showed up (not the boss but clearly a superior) and he said it was okay to poke around.
Bob and I actually started our hike from the west end of CR-111, near the gate and some land also owned by the Isabela Ranch. We hopped the gate, walked north about a half mile along a good hardpack road, then northeast along another good hardpack road past some homes and bunkhouses, before crossing a rickety barbed-wire fence and into the thick brush. The highpoint hill was somewhat easily reached, but the last half mile was through sandy paths and brushy, thorny dense Texas flora. A GPS and compass were very useful in helping locate the highpoint. Unfortunately the top was covered in a nearly impenetrable mesh of thorns, vines and cactus. However, we were able to wriggle our way onto the broad summit, verifying our poitions using the GPS. On the hike out we followed a decent sandy two-track, which led out to the ranch complex rather quickly. Had we known of this route we might have shaved about 30 minutes off our time. The workers, nice as they were, had no idea where the highpoint was or even that they had it on their land.
We found the people at the ranch to be friendly. If you can secure permission, then follow this route: pass through a cattle grate immediately west of the buildings at the complex (this will be obvious as there is only one such place). Immediately turn north and walk the road as it turns into the sandy path, passing some animal pens. Stay on this path, and using compass and GPS, work your way to the highpoint. It should be no more than a half-mile one
way walk from here.
Our route involved about three miles of hiking and just under two hours of our time. We got back into Falfurrias about 1 p.m. and attempted a go at the Kenedy County highpoint. Similar to my experience in 2001, we came to a huge monster gate at the north end of the Maripose Ranch complex about 10 miles southwest of Falfurrias. Bob went in to ask the guard if we could seek out the highpoint. The guard called the "bossman" and the bossman said no go. We spent the rest of the day driving down to the south of Texas via US-77 and checking out the Willacy highpoint, which also was a no-go due to bad access. We stayed in a hotel near McAllen.
Cameron County is the absolute southernmost county in Texas, location of Brownsville and South Padre Island, and a lot of very flat land. Aside from the Spring Break partiers, the economy seems to be driven largely by farming, judging by pretty much the only thing we saw for miles during our Cameron adventure. I was with Bob Martin, and we arrived late the night before after spending most of the previous day exploring, with no success, ways into the Willacy county highpoint, just to the north. We arrived into the little town of La Feria on US-83 and planned to car-camp at a campground listed in Bob's AAA book, but it turned out to be an RV park. One of the guys there said we could car-camp in the parking lot at the hotel across the street. Well, pshaw, I just spent the money and got a hotel room.
Early the next morning we drove down a few miles to the town of Santa Maria on US-281 and just a couple miles from the Rio Grande. The highpoints of Cameron county are scattered about south of Santa Maria and along the river. The topographical map is a nightmare to read. There are three natural 70-foot contours in the area, one is one mile south of Santa Maria, and the other two are very skinny natural levees about 2.5 miles to the southeast, right along the Rio Grande. There are two apparently man-made 75-foot contours near La Feria Pumping Station, and a handful of spot elevations in the 70-76 foot range along a man-made, elevated levee road. Technically, none of these man-made points needed to be visited, but they were close by, and often along the road, so visiting them was trivially easy.
I parked my car at a Stop-&-Rob in Santa Maria and rode with Bob. We took paved River Road due south of US-281, just east of town and near the High School. Exactly one mile south, we turned right (west) onto a field road to a small hump of land featuring some irrigation pipes and switches, about a quarter-mile from the main road. This area is a natural 70-foot area and features some mature trees. The fields surrounding this small hump were significatly lower; in some cases, as much as 10 feet. After a few minutes we backtracked onto River Road (now dirt) and drove south about 0.5 mile further and gained the levee road. This road generally runs parallel to the Rio Grande and is used by the farmers in the area as well as the Border Patrol, and is raised a good 10 feet above the surrounding fields. We drove west less than a mile to secure two spot elevations at 76 feet and 75 feet, respectively. Both of these are artificial, obviously, due to the man-made levee road. We then traveled east about 3 miles, keeping track of our position by the bends in the road. Along the way we hit the man-made 75-foot contours near the La Feria Pumping Station. It was roughly here that we caught the attention of a Border Patrol agent out on his rounds. He passed us, then turned around to check us out. We chatted with him and he was content to let us be on our way. The final two natural 75-foot contours were gained by heading south along a levee road not shown on the topographical map. The road then runs right along the Rio Grande for awhile, before ending just north of the more southerly region. We made short walks onto these berms whenever convenient. Afterwards, it was a quick drive back for my car, and we were on our way to the Hidalgo County highpoint.
Flush with success after conquering the mighty 70-foot highpoints of Cameron County, Bob and I made our own ways toward the Hidalgo County apex, a single blob of land located in its northwest reaches, near the town of McCook. I went on ahead and stopped at the local market in town - an old place crammed full of goods and sundries, bulletin boards, posters, and old-style coke machines. It's obvious a place the locals go to just to kill time. I went in, bought a coke and a lottery ticket, then went out to wait for Bob. In the meantime, I scratched off my ticket and won $1... so I went in and got another one... and won $1 again! Now on a gambler's hot streak, I did not stop, so I turned that in for yet another ticket, and won $4. I decided to get out while the getting was good. Forget Las Vegas: McCook, Texas, is the place to be. In those few minutes I quadrupled my money! In the meantime Bob rolled up and we got going, fixing to nab the Hidalgo highpoint.
Bob had done this one on a previous trip but he was nice enough to re-do it with me. We headed west from McCook along FM-490 about 2.8 miles and parked along the highway near a gated road leading to a gas well surrounded by a plowed field. The GPS had us directly south of the highpoint, but the features on the map did not agree with reality. The map shows some fencelines and a windmill at the highpoint. None of that was actually what we saw. But we did see an obvious swell in the ground, so we knew we were in the right place.
We entered the field by simply walking beside the gate; there was no fence to its east. We followed a natural berm spotted by mature trees to where it topped out. I stepped onto the berm to claim Hidalgo County. In all, the entire adventure took about 15 minutes, the only thing slowing us down was the soft, plowed dirt. Once back at the vehicles, we started making our way into the interior of South Texas and spent the rest of the day making exploratory trips to the Starr, Jim Hogg and Duval county highpoints, all of which proved unsuccessful. We ended the day with a successful start to the La Salle highpoints.
Thursday the 15th had started out promising: Bob and I had successfully visited the highpoints of both Cameron and Hidalgo counties in the morning. We then embarked on a few hours of frustration trying to figure out a way to gain the Starr, Jim Hogg and Duval county highpoints, all of which defeated us. After giving up on Duval county, we made our way toward the community of Encinal, located at the junction of TX-44 and Interstate-35. We pulled into a Love's Truck Stop and took a peek at our maps. Just a few miles north, and seemingly close by some decent roads, was one of the five areas comprising La Salle county's highpoint. I was thinking we could bang that one out, use the darkness to drive a few hours, then go get the rest of La Salle's highpoints (a batch of four areas in its northwest corner) the next day. Problem was that we only had about 45 minutes before sunset and it was raining. We didn't relax much at the truck stop. We pretty much got a move on, me riding with Bob in his truck.
From the truck stop, we followed TX-44 west about a half-mile and made a right onto a major dirt road heading northwest. We followed this road northwest 5 miles, then made a right turn, now heading northeast, and went another 3.1 miles, parking beside a gate and some oil tanks marked "Burkholder". The GPS had us due west of the highpoint area, which sits on the La Salle county line (we were in Webb county). We scooched through the gate and started walking a road heading southeast. This road was not shown on our map. Turned out to be a wonderful bit of luck, as this road pretty much placed us dead-center in the highest contour region. It was about a 0.7 mile walk one way, and the GPS confirmed our location fairly precisely. We turned right around and walked out, getting to Bob's truck pretty much in the dark. The roads were pretty slick, but Bob went slow and used 4-wheel drive, and after a spell we were back in Encinal, where we took a longer rest at the Love's Truck Stop. We spent the remainder of the evening driving an hour or so to Carrizo Springs and then on out to some lonely FM roads, placing us near the Dimmit county highpoint area, which we did early the next morning.
We visited the remaining areas the next day (the 16th) around mid-morning. We drove into Big Wells along TX-85, where I parked at a mini-mart, and once again rode shotgun with Bob. Heading east on TX-85, we went about 11 miles and turned onto "Sandy County Road" (appropriately named), and followed it generally east-northeast about 0.8 mile to a road and a gate on our right, heading south-southeast. We got lucky- just ahead of us was a truck, and these guys were just passing through the gate, so I got their attention and asked about letting us on to go visit the La Salle highpoints, still about 1.5 miles south of us. The guys were pretty amused that we wanted to willingly hike in what appeared to be flat brush land, but I assured them we were for real, and showed them our map, and they said it was okay. Not that they necessarily owned the land. They just let us through the gate, keeping it unlocked so we could make our way out.
Bob and I drove southish about 1.2 mile and parked at another gate along the road. This area has four of La Salle county's highpoint areas, but only two looked like legitimate contenders as two of the areas are simply little tiny blips. The first area was just about 0.2 mile from us, the furthest about 0.7 mile, so we went and got that one first, walking south-southeast along the road to a huge fence, then entering the brush mix, seeking out the high area. Again, luck slapped us behind the head a couple of times, and we followed thinner roads that cut throughout the brush, gaining the southernmost area. This area is a hunting lease, and we saw a number of elevated blinds and feeder stations, but no one was out today, lucky for us. From this high area we sighted north to the other large area, saw that it was probably just as high, and went to it. We also sighted to the northeast to the other two areas and saw nothing as high as us.
To gain the last area we actually followed the internal network of roads and found ourselves atop this last area fairly shortly. GPS confirmed our positions each time, but in this case, it was pretty obvious we were up high. This area also had a hunter's blind, which suggests the landowner knows full well these areas are higher than the surrounding lands, and hence a good place to build a blind. We exited the brush and got back onto the main road, and back to Bob's truck. We exited through the first gate, locked it, went back to Big Wells, got my car, and made attempts at the Zavala and Uvalde county highpoints. Neither was successful, but we did get good information, especially up in Uvalde county. This was my last county for this trip. Bob and I parted ways near the Uvalde highpoint area. and I drove back toward San Antonio. The rain fell steadily and I drove through a very intense squall west of Hondo... easily an inch every twenty minutes. Yuck. I ended up staying at a hotel in Hondo, and flying out the next day.
Bob and I arrived in the town of Carrizo Springs, the Dimmit County seat, after dark on the 15th after having come up from the south and ending our day with a mad dash out to one of the La Salle County highpoint areas. We intended to finish off the rest of La Salle County today, but a study of the maps suggested it may be wise to make a side trip to get the Dimmit highpoint first. From Carrizo Springs we headed southwest along FM-186 as it made its way through the various ranchlands. We ended up camping just past the end of the paved portion of FM-186, where we found some dirt pullouts along the road to make camp. It was about 9 p.m. when we rolled up and we both slept okay; it rained in the middle of the night, and occasionally a truck would rumble by, but other than that it was total darkness, total quiet. We awoke and got moving about 6 a.m. We drove up to the junction with FM-3252 and Bob parked his truck and rode with me.
Bob had been here before. The highpoints consist of seven areas clumped close by, so that no one area is more than about 0.7 mile from another. A small area nearest the highway has a benchmark "English" at 871 feet. Bob had visited this and none of the other areas. We rolled up to where FM-3252 ended at the large gates and beautiful "office-complex" building of the La Bandera Ranch. Just past the gates was this beautiful two-story building, built like a classic hunting lodge. And it was, it turned out. There was lots of activity at this building for this early in the morning, and I parked the car and walked up to the fance, where I caught the attention of one of the guys milling about. I told them our plans, and he let me through to talk to Gene, the manager, I'm guessing. So I went into this building, with its hardwood floors, walls, beams, stairs, everything, and talked to Gene. Told Gene what we wanted to do. Gene, poker faced, said no. No "thank you, I'm sorry". Just no. Not too friendly, but at least I had an answer. It was obvious this was an active hunting lodge, and I can imagine they didn't want any screwball highpointers out in the field scaring off the animals. This presented a problem to our Dimmit plans, however. Three areas, including the largest area and one with the most obvious rise, lies north of the ranch in an easily accessible field. The other four areas, of varying size, lie immediately nearby the ranch building.
We placed all our hopes on the one large area being the highpoint. Fortunately for us, the land was mostly open so we hoped we might sight to the other areas. A bit concerned that Gene may alert the landowners of the lands just north of his ranch about us, I opted to drive up north a mile to give them the idea, perhaps, that we were leaving. I parked off on a dirt road, and Bob and I walked back south about 0.3 mile before crossing the fence into an open field of grass and the occasional tree. We walked directly to the highest area, still 0.4 miles to our southwest. This area was clearly pretty high, by these standards. We got to the highest area and conclusively sighted the one area to its southeast (with the benchmark) and a tiny area to its southwest as being lower, by a good 6 feet. We could still see the building where Gene reigned surpreme off in the distance. The topo map puts a spot elevation of 863 feet at this point (how convenient). I sighted us as being almost at the apex of its roof from where we stood. Subtract my 6 feet, and figure a good 20+ feet high for that roof, I put us very close to 877 feet, give or take a foot or two. In any case, pretty good stuff.
For the four areas on the La Bandera property, three are "visible" as they are pretty much on its northern boundary. Telephone and power poles run along this road, and we sighted ourselves each time about 2/3 the way up these poles. Only the southernmost area was not visible but it is small and statistically probably not the highpoint. So what does this all mean? We visited just one of the seven areas, and essentially 100% deleted two areas from contention, deleted another 3 with very strong likelihood, and surmised the smaller southern area just didn't seem likely. It may seem a stretch, but we both left the area feeling pretty confident the big northern area is the highpoint. Even without a sightlevel it clearly has some good rise. Take it for what it's worth. From here we backtracked and finished off the remaining La Salle County areas (see above).
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(c) 2001, 2011 Scott Surgent. For entertainment purposes only. This report is not meant to replace maps, compass, gps and other common sense hiking/navigation items. Neither I nor the webhost can be held responsible for unfortunate situations that may arise based on these trip reports. Conditions (physical and legal) change over time! Some of these hikes are major mountaineering or backpacking endeavors that require skill, proper gear, proper fitness and general experience. |