Texas Hill Country - The Most Scenic Drives in America: 120 Spectacular Road Trips - page 756

Drive 81
Texas Hill Country
Here in the heart of the Lone Star State, serene backroad byways wander among
the sculpted hills of a land once set atremble by the hooves of longhorns.
Length: About 310 miles, plus side trips
When to go: Popular year-round
Not to be missed: Fiesta San Antonio (10 days in April with nonstop music, food,
and parades), San Antonio; Rodeos (held every Tuesday and Saturday in summer only),
Bandera; Texas State Arts and Crafts Fair (Memorial Day weekend), Kerrville
Nearby attractions: McNay Art Museum and nearby Botanical Gardens, San Antonio;
Brackenridge Park (including the San Antonio Zoo and Japanese Tea Garden), San An-
tonio; The Admiral Nimitz Museum and Park, Fredericksburg; historic town of Com-
fort, near Kerrville; Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, Austin
Further information: Texas Tourism
www.traveltex.com
1. San Antonio
If this is your first visit to San Antonio, begin your stay at Hemis Fair Park's 750-foot-high
Tower of the Americas—a soaring spire set in a landscaped oasis on the edge of the down-
town area. A glass-walled elevator zooms to an observation deck where you can make out
the rolling green Hill Country to the northwest. Nearer at hand, as you look down, you will
see that the city straddles a fault zone: a long slope dividing the Hill Country from the Gulf
Coastal Plain to the southeast.