Lost Maples State Park

We decided to take a trek and go visit the famous Bigtooth Maple Trees at Lost Maples State Park.The bigtooth maple tree ranks as the park's marquee species. In late autumn most years, the stands of old-growth maples set the canyons ablaze in a riot of red, orange and gold foliage, drawing upwards of 50,000 leaf-peepers like us to the state natural area.The Sabinal River and its several tributaries have carved limestone canyons through the 2,200-acre park straddling Bandera and Real counties at the western fringes of the Edwards Plateau. There aren't a bunch of Big Tooth Maples in Texas... the western cousin of the eastern sugar maple retained a foothold in the Hill Country canyons after vast sheets of ice advanced southward across North America almost to present-day Texas, and then retreated. So, these guys got stuck here -- all by themselves.Because of the canyonlands' microclimate effect, the park contains numerous species of plants and animals of both eastern and western affinity, as well as rare species endemic to the Balcones Escarpment. Found here are the unusual Texas madrone tree, three kinds of buckeye, witch hazel (common in Mississippi), six different kinds of oaks, Texas mock orange and sycamore-leaf snowbell whose white clusters of flowers bloom in late September. We happened to come at the best time of year for fall leafing -- it was beautiful. PERFECT weather, perfect day!

Yes, I'm holding up that boulder....

This is MY tree :)

I swear the sky was the bluest I had ever seen - it was such a beautiful day~!

Two trees growing out of limestone....or did the soil erode away leaving the portion that the roots were retaining? There will be a test....