Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Visited Texas Hill country for the first time last week and I gotta say; coming from California, the hills surrounding Austin and San Antonio weren’t that awe-ing or and lacked wow factor. For a Texan who stayed around flat Houston and Dallas I can see why i’d be scenic and possibly even the most amazing nature they’ve seen in their early lifes’.
Most of the time the hills are so small that the dense tall trees hide the distant views of giving the illusion of being in the middle of a valley. You wouldn’t even know the elevation changed until you feel your automobile needing more acceleration in certain roads.
Yes its all relative.... I have a friend from Oregon who said that West Virginia, the Mountain State, only has hills and no mountains. Compared to the West where they have peaks tens of thousands of feet high I can understand. I think even the mountain where the hollywood sign is is at a higher elevation than the highest point in the Appalachians. And Appalachia is much higher than Texas hill country.
The tallest point in Louisiana, Driskill MOUNTAIN, is only 550 feet above sea level.
Relief is more telling of mountain status to me than pure elevation.
I climbed Mt. Kahtadin (sp?) in Maine, and we gained more elevation from the base of the mountain to the summit than when I climbed Mt. Elbert in Colorado. The actual feature was the same height above it's surrounding area, it's just that Mt. Elbert starts around 11,000 feet above sea level and Kahtadin starts a little over 1,000 ft above sea level.
Many of the peaks in the Appalachians have similar relief to the Rockies. They just start at a much lower elevation. Thus, more trees and less "rockiness". If you could see what the Appalachians looked like without tree cover, I doubt they'd be view as rounded off, smaller, lesser peaks.
Austin's hilly "beauty" is overhyped by the Chamber of Commerce. To parochial Texans (especially that town), they are a natural wonder. To the well-traveled, there are more beautiful places in the world. For example, the snow-capped San Gabriels in winter are breathtakingly scenic, more so from the temperate basin floor.
Austin's hilly "beauty" is overhyped by the Chamber of Commerce. To parochial Texans (especially that town), they are a natural wonder. To the well-traveled, there are more beautiful places in the world. For example, the snow-capped San Gabriels in winter are breathtakingly scenic, more so from the temperate basin floor.
Yes, but Austin does great with integrating that feature into its city fabric. It maximizes the health-consciousness of that city.
Yes, but Austin does great with integrating that feature into its city fabric. It maximizes the health-consciousness of that city.
Health-conscious? Are you kidding? 6th street is the main attraction, front and center. Safety-wise, a Saturday night makes the Vegas Strip Disneyland by comparison. (Not much safe drinking practiced there!)
Health-conscious? Are you kidding? 6th street is the main attraction, front and center. Safety-wise, a Saturday night makes the Vegas Strip Disneyland by comparison. (Not much safe drinking practiced there!)
The Hill country is a joke as far as mountainous as is all "mountains" in the eastern USA. The Hill country is at least more interesting landscape than the rest of Texas so it stands out given its location.
Mt. Rainier, now that's a mountain.
Is it? I find Big Bend and maybe Palo Duro Canyon a bit more interesting. Oh and I like the East Texas forests better as well.
Austin's hilly "beauty" is overhyped by the Chamber of Commerce. To parochial Texans (especially that town), they are a natural wonder. To the well-traveled, there are more beautiful places in the world. For example, the snow-capped San Gabriels in winter are breathtakingly scenic, more so from the temperate basin floor.
Oh, come on.
I am very well traveled, and am not a native Texan either, but I think the Texas Hill Country is beautiful in it's own unique way. It doesn't seem "over hyped" to me at all. It feels very uniquely Texan out there, which is cool to me.
Of course there are all sorts of beautiful places in the world. And that's great. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For instance, some posters think Denver is gorgeous and they love the Rockies. That's great - but personally I don't much care for the Rockies, or Colorado. I've been there multiple, multiple times by the way, at different times of the year - just don't care much for it, though I can see that there's a unique beauty there.
I recently visited the Carlsbad, NM area and while I didn't care for that either, in terms of living there, I found it to be unique and it had it's own strange sort of beauty. It wasn't a wasted trip - it just wasn't for me.
My oldest son lives in Guam - He loves it, and loves the island life, the sunsets, etc and is always sending me pretty photos. Personally, I can see the beauty there as well, but overall, I wouldn't want to live there either, because I would feel constrained by the smallness of it. And I love the ocean.
My oldest daughter lives in Stuttgart, Germany - now Germany is a beautiful, beautiful country and I'm looking forward to visiting here there in a few months. But even though there is so much to do and see in that culture, I always love coming back to Texas.
For the record, I don't want to live in the Texas Hill Country either. We could literally live anywhere we like, but my preference is to just visit all these interesting places, each with their own unique beauty, and then come home to the place I think is also beautiful.
But I do enjoy the Texas Hill Country - just got back from a very nice little mini vacation in the Fredericksburg area, and will be going back down that way in a few weeks for another mini vacation. I'm looking forward to it!
I will never forget the first time I drove through that region - I was hit with an odd feeling of exhaltation, and I remember rolling my window down so I could smell the air, and I absolutely loved it! It always still hits me the same way.
I found Austin to be boring with too much traffic. I liked Dallas-Ft Worth and San Antonio, better, as Texas cities go. Have a sister who lives near Corpus Christie. That would be my next Texas road trip if I go back. I always wanted to drive around taking photos in West Texas but that would be too long of a drive for me, these days.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
