dolari: (Default)
[personal profile] dolari
"Hey, Jenn. You keep posting all these pics of the Hill Country, but from all your pics, it's flat as a pancake out there! WHAT GIVES?"

I'm glad you asked, many people not from the area. Actually, the Texas Hill Country is a bit of a misnomer...it's more "The Texas Valley Country." Between Austin and San Antonio runs the Balcones Fault. East of the Fault is flat land. West is the Hill Country. But instead of hills, think of it as an uplifted plateau.

Over thousands of years, the torrential rains from the area have carved pretty large valleys out of that plateau. To the point that it seems more hills than valleys (stop snickering you 8th graders in the back).

When I take pics, I tend to take them from really high vantage points. When you're that high up, you see the tops of those hills - the top of that ancient plateau - so it looks flat. When I'm taking pics in the valleys, though, it looks pretty awesome.

Here's a great shot of what I mean: http://www.dolari.net/pics/index.php/dolarigrandtour2012/texas/thetexashillcountry/IMG_0435 . Taken out in the Bandera area of the Hill Country, you can see the flat plateau tops, AND the actual hills/valleys themselves.

Apparently flat pic: http://www.dolari.net/pics/index.php/dolarigrandtour2012/texas/thetexashillcountry/IMG_1167 (Mason)

Apparently hilly pic: http://www.dolari.net/pics/index.php/dolarigrandtour2012/texas/thetexashillcountry/IMG_0419P (Utopia)

WHAT the Hill Country is also a little wierd, since it's not just a geological area, but a cultural one. The area is dotted with German and Czech Settlements (New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Schulenburg, Castroville), not all of them on the hilly side of the fault. So a lot of people (like me) pull them into The Hill Country label even though that land is as flat as an Ohio cornfield.

What's Jenn's version of the Hill Country, then?

It's bounded by these cities: http://goo.gl/maps/XKeFM (although anything east of I-35 isn't the Hill Country geologically, it's very German/Czech influenced, so I consider them a part of it).

AND NOW YOU KNOW!
(And knowing makes YOU a SUPERSTAR!)
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