Where to point the truck

Gillespie County

German roots, a Main Street of biergartens and shops, and the gateway to Texas wine country. The unofficial capital of the Hill Country.

• Wine
• History
• Shopping

Llano & Gillespie

A massive pink granite batholith that hums and ticks as it cools at night. Climb it by day, then stay for some of the darkest skies in Texas.

• Hiking
• Dark Skies

Hays County

An arts town built around water — Jacob’s Well, Blue Hole, and the Cypress Creek. Market days, galleries, and the bluest swimming in Texas.

• Swimming
• Arts

Comal County

A 19th-century river town wrapped around the oldest dance hall in Texas, with the Guadalupe and the spring-fed Comal running right past the door.

• Music
• Rivers

Bandera County

The self-proclaimed Cowboy Capital of the World — dude ranches, honky-tonks, and trail rides along the Medina River.

• Ranches
• Western

Burnet County

A chain of dammed Colorado-River lakes ringed by granite hills — boating, lakeside dining, and the spring carpet of bluebonnets at Muleshoe Bend.

• Lakes
• Boating

Blanco County

Boyhood home of a president and the Texas White House. In December the whole town lights up; in spring the roadsides run blue with wildflowers.

• History
• Wildflowers

Travis County

A collapsed grotto where a 50-foot waterfall spills into a jade-green pool. Reserve ahead — this is the most-photographed swimming hole in Texas.

• Swimming
• Nature

Kendall County

A German-founded town on Cibolo Creek with a Hill Country Mile of shops, a 100-acre nature center, and a cathedral-sized cave ten minutes out of town.

• History
• Nature
• Shopping

Kerr County

The river town at the top of the Guadalupe — a mile-long riverside park, a Western art museum, and a community rebuilding after two hard summers.

• Rivers
• Arts
• History

Bandera & Real Counties

A relict stand of bigtooth maples in a steep canyon on the Sabinal River — and the best fall color in Texas, for about three weeks a year.

• Hiking
• Fall Color

Hays County

The Gateway to the Hill Country — the first Dark Sky Community in Texas, a distillery-and-brewery corridor on US-290, and the road to Hamilton Pool.

• Dark Skies
• Eat & Drink

Llano County

A courthouse-square town on a clear river, surrounded by the oldest exposed rock in Texas — and a barbecue reputation that pulls people across the state.

• Barbecue
• Rivers
• History