your own apple tree and a cone of apple ice cream. Then go west on Ranch Road 337, with its dramatic dales and rolling hills, the latter crowned with the occasional manse, its walls made of glass the better to survey the tableau. Next stop is Vanderpool, so named for its first postmaster, who must have been mighty special to have his name supplant the town’s previous appellation: Bugscuffle. Together with nearby Lost Maples State Natural Area, the site is a veritable siren song for birders, hunters, and all manner of wildlife—bats, javelinas, wild turkeys, and the ever-present Harlius motorcyclus .
Roll on to Leakey, bearer of yet another lofty moniker, the Swiss Alps of Texas. The majestic 2,400-foot rock faces seem beyond compare to me, but you can debate that over a cold one at the Bent Rim Grill, an icehouse that caters to—you guessed it—bikers but welcomes the four-wheeled traveler as well.
Take a bit more time for a vueltecita down to Concan. In his elegy for the Brazos, John Graves writes of the way in which “pieces of rivers can have meaning,” and this little stretch of the Rio Frio is my piece, conjuring memories of my grandparents, Styrofoam koozies in hand, sitting in teetering aluminum lawn chairs on the limestone banks and watching me relieve the crystal-clear water of a large number of its mossy rocks. Detour to the squiggly roads that jut off to the east of U.S. 83 (1120, 2748, 350, 348), whose elegant pas de deux with the cypress-lined Frio allow for a few thrilling opportunities to drive through the water at the river crossings.
Head north again, to Ranch Road 1050, a curvy road you’re likely to have all to yourself as you cruise over to Utopia, whose motto is “A Paradise: Let’s Keep It Nice” (at three square miles, that seems doable). If you’ve worked up an appetite crossing the river wild, options abound. Cherry pie at Lost Maples Cafe? Roasted carrot soup with ginger from a Cordon Bleu–trained chef at the nearby Laurel Tree? Or how about going east on FM 470 to Tarpley, where you’ll find Mac and Ernie’s, a little cottage legendary in these parts for dishes like quail basted in ancho chile honey. There’s the Williams Creek Depot too, whose corrugated tin walls house an amiable woman behind a sliding-glass window, looking as if she’s been waiting all day for you to order a mushroom-Swiss burger.
“The hard thing is to get slowed down,” writes Graves at the outset of his Brazos journey. The truth is, the country here practically demands it, its landscape shaped over eons, traversed by golden-cheeked warblers and nine-banded armadillos, and populated by residents for whom the hi sign is a bare-minimum courtesy. Resist the urge to stomp on the pedal as you head home. Whatever you have to get back to will keep just a little longer.
The
BBQ Market
Drive
No drive across Texas would be complete without smoked meats. Thankfully, Central Texas provides a venerable group of joints that serve some of the best food on earth: City Market (Luling), Gonzales Food Market (Gonzales), City Market (Schulenburg), Prause Meat Market (La Grange), and City Meat Market (Giddings).
START: Luling
END: Giddings
DIRECTIONS: From Luling, head southeast on U.S. 183 to Gonzales. Then take Texas Highway 304 north to Texas Highway 97. Follow 97 northeast to Interstate 10, then drive east to Schulenburg. Take U.S. 77 north through La Grange to Giddings.
DISTANCE: 96 miles
The Backwoods Drive
By Michael Hall
ROUTE: Uncertain to Jasper
DISTANCE: 140 miles
NUMBER OF COUNTIES: 6
WHAT TO LISTEN TO: Jim Reeves’s
“Welcome to My World”
If you want to see, smell, and taste the Deep South, look no further than East Texas. Start your drive in Uncertain, but before you even get behind the wheel, take a short walk onto a narrow pier near Shady Glade Cafe over Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in the state. Out of the still and quiet waters, the tall cypress trees grow, their limbs weighted with long strings of gray moss. Ducks glide in twos and threes past old boathouses faded in the morning sun. Below the murky water swim bass, catfish, and, without a doubt, alligators.
Climb behind the wheel and leave Uncertain behind, driving past B&Bs and signs for steamboat rides and boat tours. After making a right onto FM 2198 and another onto 2412, you’ll hit the Big Pines Lodge Restaurant and Waterin’ Hole. The restaurant, one of the more famous in the area, burned to the ground in 2009 but was rebuilt last year. It serves catfish and long, thin hush puppies that look like funnel cakes. At night, locals and tourists fill the picnic tables on the porch, drinking beer and staring out over the Big Cypress Bayou.
From here, get back on FM 2198 and make a left on Old Texas Highway 134, which soon becomes the new Highway 134 through Karnack, the tiny hometown of Lady Bird Johnson. Cruise down the two-lane blacktop through forests that open up into pristine fields and meadows dotted with herds of horses, cattle, and donkeys. South of Jonesville, the road winds through a gorgeous stretch where the trees fold overhead, creating an umbrella of shade.
Cross Interstate 20 and head south on Texas Highway 9, then make a right onto U.S. 79 and go over the wide Sabine River. Just north of Carthage, stop at the memorial to Jim Reeves, the country star who was born in nearby Galloway and died in a plane crash in 1964. The monument feels like something you’d see in Hollywood, with perfectly sculpted hedges, a giant guitar engraved in the sidewalk, and a statue of Gentleman Jim on a six-foot pedestal. Soon you will be deep in the Pine Curtain, with a thick canopy of trees and miles of lush forests bracketing the road. Turn south on U.S. 59, which merges with U.S. 96, and after