May 24 – 28, 2024
This is the last in a series of posts about our explorations in the Texas Hill Country in late May 2024. If you would like to read our other posts, see:
If you have read many of the articles posted in this blog, you will know that one of our favorite places to visit is the Lindsay Ranch in Mason County, Texas. Deloris Lindsay, one of our favorite people, runs the Lindsay Ranch Guesthouses, which are a pair of rustic cabins located on opposite ends of the property. We visited the ranch in late May 2024 to spend some time with Mrs. Lindsay, relax, explore, and do a little rock hunting. It was a wonderful visit, with many good, memorable moments.
(As of this writing, the Lindsay Ranch Guesthouses website is offline while it is being redesigned and moved to a new host.)
This post is mostly a montage of photos taken while we were at the ranch, and of some of the rocks that we found.
The main entrance to the ranch is on U.S. 87, a few miles north of Mason, Texas. Crews from the electric company were working to install new power lines near the front of the property. (One of the new poles is visible in the background through the gate in the image below.) Mrs. Lindsay’s son, Clay, was busy clearing debris from a small tornado or straight-line wind that had caused some damage. He and his crew were also planting new hay fields near the front.
Cattle and Wildlife
The back part of the property wasn’t nearly as busy as the front. The cows went about their business of converting grass into food and doing all the other things that cows do. They’re used to people, so they don’t run away. I wouldn’t try to pet them, though. (Although I have had groups of them follow me around expecting me to feed them.)
The star of the show is, of course, Oreo the Longhorn. He can be seen in various parts of the property, depending on his whim. It’s sort of a fun game to see who can find him first.
He isn’t much into posing. There is a bit of luck involved with catching him at the right time for a good photo. If he doesn’t have his head in the grass, then he’s often sitting somewhere in the shade where the contrast is poor.
He lifted his head shortly after I took the photo above. But before I could get a good shot of him, he, uh, evacuated his bowels. I got a good shot of THAT by accident but didn’t think it was good to post here.
Kristi got the shot below, but he had strategically placed himself behind a fence. We didn’t think it was wise to get any closer.
The property was abuzz with its usual wildlife activity. We didn’t take a lot of wildlife photos, though. It was too hot to spend much time outdoors, except in the early mornings and late evenings. But we did see many birds, including a beautiful Greater Roadrunner in its blue and orange adult plumage, and a herd of wild hogs.
One morning I sat on the porch at Mason Mountain Manor and watched the hummingbirds at the feeder:
A pair of wrens had built a nest inside of a planter and were flying back and forth feeding some babies. I tried to get a picture of the nest while they were away, but it is well concealed under a plastic plant.
Incidentally, the group of miniature panthers that Mrs. Lindsay keeps at the Manor for rodent control paid absolutely no attention to any of the birds.
We had gone out late one evening, so I left the yard light on. When we got back, we found that an enterprising orb weaver spider had built her web right in front of the light. I checked in on her a few hours later and the web was torn up from all of the insects that she caught. She had a mighty feast that night!
Scenery
The ranch is replete with beautiful scenery. The property is divided into two sections–a 300-acre “front” section along U.S. 87, and a back section of 700 acres. Lindsay Ranch Road, which runs all the way from the front of the ranch to the back, connects both parts via a right of way that passes through another property:
Recent rains had brought out the wildflowers in abundance.
A small livestock tank sits just inside the entrance to the back section. This is the location of the many “aquatic cow” images I’ve posted in the various articles about the Lindsay Ranch. As we came back to the Manor one evening, we stopped to view the trees and hills against the waning light. The sky was clear, and the sun was well below the horizon. A tree in silhouette created an interesting reflection in the (cow-free) water.
Mason Mountain loomed in the distance. The porch light of the Manor was visible at the base of the hill.
Below is a view of Mason Mountain in the daytime. This hill is one of the southernmost ridges of the Mason Mountains, which extends a few miles to the east and west of the Lindsay Ranch. (I talk a little bit about the Mason Mountains in the Old Mason Road post.)
A section of Lindsay Ranch Road is called the “Tombstone Trail” after a series of rock formations that are located on the eastern bank of one of the branches of West Comanche Creek. Over eons, softer rock has eroded away from granite intrusions that sometimes have the appearance of rows of tombstones. A jeep trail, aptly named Rough Road, starts at the Tombstone Trail section and parallels the creek to the northern property line before turning east and heading toward the Lindsay home. Many of these formations are visible from Rough Road.
Sadly, part of Rough Road was washed out very badly from the recent rains. I didn’t feel safe taking my little 4×4 truck through the gulley, so I backed out and turned around. But I did stop to do a little rock hunting and exploring in the area.
Rocks
No trip to the Lindsay Ranch is complete for us without at least a little rock hunting. We have yet to find the elusive Mason County topaz but, frankly, we haven’t looked very hard on the last couple of trips. Still, it’s just fun walking around finding pretty things to marvel at. Some of our finds end up on display in our house, while others get “filed” into storage containers for future display or other uses.
I’m not an expert at identifying rocks, so I may have mislabeled some of the ones listed below. Please let me know if you see something that I have misidentified.
The ranch has a mix of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. There is a great deal of quartz. Most of it is of a milky variety, as opposed to clear, crystalline quartz. Impurities give some pieces smoky and colorful hues.
Here are the three pieces above illuminated with a light from underneath. This helps bring out interesting interior features and, in my opinion, just looks pretty.
These next three pieces are also quartz. The one on the left is an almost pure piece of milky quartz. The one in the middle, which was our favorite find from the trip, looks like several large-ish pieces of quartz stuck together. In reality, it may have been more-or-less a single piece at some point in ages past but has become fractured. The smaller piece looks like several small “bubbles” of quartz stuck together.
The pattern of striations in the larger piece of quartz, below, indicates that it was formed as a single piece that has become fractured. Iron compounds have infiltrated the fractures.
Mica is a silicate mineral that forms in thin, fragile sheets. It can come in different colors and has the appearance of glitter. I have found one spot on the ranch where flakes of mica litter the ground like confetti. Some pieces are as big as a quarter. Many of the rocks in that area, as well as other parts of the ranch, have mica in them.
Chert may be found on and around Mason Mountain. Chert is a variety of silicate rock formed from the petrified skeletal remains of certain microscopic organisms, such as diatoms and phytoplankton. Chert forms within sedimentary rock–in this case, limestone. As the softer limestone erodes away, chert “nodules” are left behind. Below are a few examples that we found on the ranch.
Chert can be made into stone tools, although its harder form, flint, is better suited for that purpose.
And finally, I think that this bit of layered limestone and chert looks like a sandwich:
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this little series on our trip to the Hill Country. We had some fun adventures exploring the countryside. We hope to go back, when it is cooler, and follow-up on exploring a few places we discovered, and to visit the Lindsay Ranch again.
And we’re going to find that topaz!