Day 6 - 3/29 - Sonora and Austin, TX

I didn't realize that sheep bleat just about all night. Or that I could sleep so close to such bleats. But so it is, and was. Great camp spot all to ourselves, next to a sheep, alpaca and cattle ranch. Lots of deer in the evening, as well. Hey Cece, check out the mini-Texas Smoker picnic barbecue!! They were all over the campsite!!

















After packing up, Juju and Maya ran up to get our tickets for the cavern tour. Tbe Caverns of Sonora are fabulous. Unlike at Kartchner, we were right next to many of the formations and could see every intricate and beautiful detail. The cavern is privately owned, and the owners intend to protect the formations and the environment around them so that they can keep growing, but they allow more freedom, as long as nobody touches anything. We walked 2 miles of pathway, walking through both narrow parts and cathedral like rooms. Juju and Maya are now quite familiar with the formations. What beauty! (Lots of pictures, keep double clicking on them to make them bigger!)







One of the tunnel like pathways...



Room with a column in the background - get those when a stalactite and a stalagmite meet
closeup of the the column

The drape formation, also known as "bacon". The little tendrils were broken off by a spray of water from a hose used to wash down the pathways. :-(




J and M next to stalactites











Moonmilk! We couldn't touch it, but it is soft and sticky and oozes veeeerrrrrry slowly. It's beautiful.










Sonora Caverns are partly famous for a formation called the butterfly. It actually looked like a butterfly, but some vandal plucked a part of a wing off. The butterfly was created by two connecting fishtail formations - here's a single fishtail (Juju's favorite). They are so lovely. This one is surrounded by a formation that Sonora is also famous for - their numerous helectites, which are formations that follow no rhyme or reason and curl every which way.


Ah - Maya's favorites... the calcite crystals. There were walls of them!






Christmas tree formations







Last one...










We left Sonora and headed to Austin. The hill country is so beautiful, and we went through Fredericksburg, a cool town where the old west architecture has been preserved and the coffees and food are great. We also went through Johnson City, the birthplace of LBJ, and had THEE BEST nopales soft tacos with handmade tortillas. El Palomar could only wish to be so good. We were trying to get going and ate one each in the car but they were so good I ran back in to get more for each of us. YUM! El Rancho, Johnson City, TX.

Got back road directions to Hamilton Pool, a swim spot we love. On the way, we stopped to check out a dead javelina on the side of the road, unfortunately the only ones we have seen so far...

Got to Hamilton Pool and were told "no swimming" because of the cow patties melting into the stream that fills the pool. Bummer. Still got a photo, and then we hiked down to the Pedernales river to go for a swim.










No trip to Austin would be complete without visiting Whole Foods' mothership store, and so we did. We each got HUGE salads since we've been missing those greens.

Found a campsite a bit away from Austin - got there at 10 and were in bed reading at 10:20... the girls are super campers!!