Great and Terrible Hill Country Drive (long) (archive)

The complete automotive resource for buyers, sellers, and owners like you.

I started out by taking 290 West to Dripping Springs, turning North on 12, and West on County Road 101. This is a nice drive past ranch land that has a killer little drop through a small canyon and water crossing. Detoured right at McGregor Lane, which has lots of twisty little roads that all intersect with each other so whichever way you take you always end up where you started or at a dead end, and theres only the one way in or out.

Back at McGregor again, I went south on 187 back to 290 West, got the car up to 120 or so, then quickly slowed down and went right on 3232, back up to 2766 (which is what 101 turns into at Pedernales Falls), west a few miles, left on 202 south back to 290 west again, west a few miles, then paralleled 290 a bit on 215, west on 290 AGAIN, then where it dead ends on 281, I took county road 203 (where, according to my map, theres a monument inscribed "In memory of man 2,000,000 BC - AD 20?? He who once dominated the Earth destroyed it with his wastes, his poisons, and his own numbers"). 203 comes out at Johnson City, where I turned west on 290, hauled some serious ass west, took 1623 north, west on 2721, north on Klein-Ahrens Road, which comes out on 1631, north to 1623, west on 1323, and right onto the Willow City Loop.

The Willow City Loop has got to be the most amazing scenic drive ive done yet in Texas. I hear area around Bandera is great, but I havent made it that far yet. The road twists around 5 different mountains (at least what passes for a mountain in texas) which the map says are billion year old granite and gneiss.

The Loop comes out on 16, where I went north and made my big mistake. I decided to take County Road 315 which makes a 15 mile trip back to 71 where I could head home.

315 is dirt, which was okay for a while, pretty scenery. At first I was going 30 or so, but twice I almost hit deer which kept running across the road in front of me so I slowed way down. I must have seen 20 on that road alone. Most were smart enough not to cross my path though. I should have known better when I hit a couple patches where the road got awfully rocky and I had to pick my path very carefully to avoid scraping the bottom of the car. Even so I got a few loud bangs for my trouble. I didnt want to turn around, hoping it would get better.

Anyhow, eventually I come around this bend, and the road goes down through this wide gully where water might have been running if it had rained within the last month. I stopped and looked at my two options. The right side of the road was all big rocks, the kind I never could have made it over without tearing off the front spoiler or a muffler or something. The left was pretty deep sand, but there were lots of tracks through it so I figured it was passable.

I took a deep breath and went for the sand, but got right in the middle of it and the car slowed down and slowed down and finally stopped maybe 10 feet from the end. Uh oh.

I tried reverse and only made it about 3 feet back before getting stopped again. Im starting to think im in deep doo doo now. I got out and surveyed the situation. The bottom of the car was flat against the sand, the wheels where several inches down. I tried rocking forward and back but couldnt seem to make much progress. I scooped as much sand out from under the car as I could, and found a bunch of flat rocks and put them in front of both back wheels for traction.

I rocked back and forth a bit more, and thank GOD I finally managed to get moving again and made it past the sand. I credit the traction control for keeping the wheels from digging a hole to china, and the fact that the sand was wet only a couple inches down with keeping me from having to hike to the nearest inhabited house and eating crow for trying to make my hot rod car into a dune buggy.

I was shaking pretty bad and praying so hard that there wouldnt be any more rocky or sandy spots like that before I got back to 71, and almost hit a couple more deer for my trouble.

The story has a happy ending though, I finally made it back to 71 and hightailed it home as fast as I could, praying I hadnt damaged anything too bad during my adventures.. Fortunately, the only damage done is that my car is FILTHY now, I even managed to get muddy wet sand on the INSIDE of my drivers door when I had it open and was trying to rock the car out of the sand. Somehow I even got a few blobs right in the middle of the hood.

Anyhow, I did manage to hit some great roads, the high points for me today were the Willow City Loop, 203 to Johnson City, and 187 south from 101 to 290. You definitely need to watch your speed on most of these roads, they are usually only 1.5 lanes wide with lots of blind turns, cattle guards pretty often, and loose cattle which could be taking a snooze in the middle of the road at any time. I never did see any in the road, but there were quite a few in the shade to either side.

I didnt think to take a picture of my car up to its axles in sand, I was too busy freaking out to think of it :)

I DO highly recommend 315 if you're driving anything with a little more ground clearance or a dual sport bike.

Questions, comments, or problems, please visit the Roadfly help desk.