Day Trips

Sheer beauty (Photo By Gerald E. McLeod)

Westcave Preserve in western Travis County protects a tropical swatch of land in the semiarid landscape of the Texas Hill Country. The terrain of the surrounding region is typical, with ash juniper, live oaks, and prickly pear cactus covering a thin layer of soil, but inside the limestone canyon walls a little slice of paradise thrives to illustrate the diverse ecology of the Edwards Plateau.

"It's the prettiest place you've ever seen," says John Ahrns, the first and only director of the 30-acre nature preserve. Owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and managed by a nonprofit organization, the park's highlight is a 40-foot waterfall that feeds a pool and creek with raindrops from an artesian spring.

Dark green maidenhair ferns and fuzzy moss cover the rock walls of the canyon. Inside a narrow cave next to the waterfall are stalagmites and stalactites that look like freshly molded plastic as they go through the slow process of growing drip by drip from water seeping through the limestone roof.

It wasn't always so. When Ahrns, a former national park service employee, arrived at Westcave in 1974, it was in danger of being loved too much. Swimmers and hikers had trampled and removed many of the plants. The stream that feeds into the Pedernales River was littered with trash and cloudy with silt. The restoration project has been a major success for Mother Nature.

The site was purchased in 1974 by John Covert Watson of Austin with the idea of setting up a nonprofit organization to support the preserve. For nearly eight years, Watson provided the primary financial support for the foundation, Ahrns says. By the mid-1980s, the preserve was struggling under a heavy debt and turned to the LCRA for help.

Fortunately, the preserve's request came at a time when the river authority was beginning an aggressive program of opening more of their land holdings to the public. The LCRA agreed to purchase the property and lease it to the Westcave Preserve organization to manage. The agreement is one of many such agreements that has opened acres of land to educational and recreational users.

Established as a "field lab" for the LCRA, the preserve gives more than 400 tours on the weekends and 250 educational tours. Classes ranging from kindergarten to high school have come from as far as Waco to study geology, environmental sciences, cultural history, conservation, and other aspects of natural world around them. Students from Texas A&M University are currently surveying plants and bugs in the sheltered ecosystem.

The mission of the Westcave Preserve Foundation is not only to protect and preserve the natural beauty of the spring-fed ecosystem, but to educate the next generation of land stewards. For many city kids, a tour of the preserve may be their first chance to experience the wonders of an unspoiled natural setting.

On weekends, the preserve opens to all visitors for guided tours. Each Saturday and Sunday at 10am, noon, 2pm, and 4pm, Ahrns or a staff member leads a group on the hour-and-a-half-long trek to the bottom of the canyon. The hike is relaxing and easygoing with lots of time for questions and looking around -- as long as you stay on the path. A moderate climb over a path that can be rather rough in places, visitors pass from one distinct environment to another in a matter of minutes.

About a third of a mile long, the canyon was once a limestone shelf that stretched all the way to the river, Ahrns explains. Centuries of floods, wind, and rain eroded the sandy layer supporting the limestone and it collapsed into the stream bed.

"Collapsed grottos are common up and down the river," Ahrns says, "what makes this one unique is its sheer beauty." The fact that only about 1,400 acres drains into the canyon also helps protect it from many pollutants, but non-point source pollution is one insidious threat. Because non-point source pollution can originate from many different places, it is difficult to control or stop.

The sheer limestone canyon walls, ranging from 35 to 125 feet, also protect it from outside intruders. The thick canopy formed by the towering trees in the canyon serve to form a natural terrarium that holds in the moisture and shades out the harsh sunlight. One of the giant bald cypress trees growing near the pool is estimated to be around 600 years old.

As one of the best-kept secrets in the Hill Country, Westcave Preserve is a model of nature preservation. Not only has the diverse piece of land been restored and protected, but in doing so, a group of conservationists has created a model for nonprofit corporations. "These kinds of organizations are going to become more and more important," Ahrns says. With limited resources available from government, concerned citizens are going to join together to find ways to save our natural resources, he says.

Weekend tours of the preserve are limited to the first 30 arrivals at the four tour times; reservations are not accepted. This is not a park to bring your pets or swimming suit, but do wear comfortable hiking shoes. The preserve is about 35 miles from downtown Austin off Hamilton Pool Road, which doesn't appear on many highway maps (try The Roads of Texas, from Shearer Publishing, found in many stores in Austin), off TX 71 west. For more information, call John Ahrns at 830/825-3442 or visit their Web site at www.westcave.org.

Coming up this weekend ...

Texas Mesquite Art Festival in downtown Fredericksburg presents an array of products made from the pesky tree, ranging from sculptures to musical instruments, Oct. 13-15. 830/997-8515.

Night in Old Luling provides an afternoon and evening of old-fashioned family fun in Luling, Oct. 14. 830/875-3214.

Scarecrow Festival in Chappell Hill has neighbors competing for the most outlandish stuffed mannequin award along with other fall family fun, Oct. 14-15. 800/225-3695.

Coming up ...

Aunt Flora's Gigantic Fall Plant Sale at the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens is one of the largest tropical and exotic plant sales in the state, Oct. 21. 361/852-2100.

Texas Guitar Show at the Arlington Convention Center boasts a huge collection of musical instruments for show and on sale, Oct. 21-22. 817/459-5000.