May 23rd, 2025

San Antonio Photos: Post 1/4.

Scenic routes are worth it.

Blog Post Date Moving.

I decided to move the post to Friday instead.

San Antonio Trip.

Some time ago, I went on a nice, long, approximately four day trip deep into the humidity far from my dry corner of Texas. I took lots of photos (supposedly around a thousand or so). I need to split these into multiple posts, as otherwise it will be a very long, possibly boring post that I’ll get tired writing.

The first thing on the trip was to head down the I-10 (or as I call, it, “the 10”), and drive the whole way there, only making the necessary stops.

Bye-bye Hudspeth County!

We made a stop in Van Horn. Despite it still being a desert, it felt more humid than dry El Paso. Of course, the car got some gas and we were happily on our way.

Random part of the 10 near Van Horn. Most of the freeway shots this trip were taken by turning around in my seat and taking the photo by zooming in a bit via the back window.

Of course we would need to stop again at some point, but we figured we could go a few hours before the next stop.

That was not going to happen.

I had wanted, for some time, to see something other than the 10 for a bit of the trip. But to get to San Antonio, the only reasonable way to get there is the 10.

Until we found the Scenic Route.

Past Fort Stockton, there is a town called Sheffield. There is also a nice big sign telling you there is a scenic route. And of course, I love scenic routes. So we took it. It ended up being well worth it.

Abandoned house in Sheffield.

Sheffield water tower.

Sheffield was somewhat interesting to drive through, with plenty of both inhabited and abandoned houses. Of course, this couldn’t be the scenery the sign promised. Pretty, yes. But not what I was thinking of. Heading down the road a bit, you eventually end up right next to the Pecos River. Or really, right over it. Disappointingly, there is no turn off to look at the river. We stopped in the road (no one was on it, and it was not busy at all), and one of The Siblings got out and took a photo. Of course, I took one through a (somewhat dirty) window of the car:

Pecos River.

More Pecos River.

And, of course, it was misty and drizzly. After the El Paso heat, dust, and Mars Days (where it’s so red it’s out of this planet), the weather was a very welcome change.

Desert, yet not. A whole lot greener than El Paso. No smog either.

Eventually, we came to a turn off for a Fort Lancaster. The sign had mentioned this historic site being along the route, so we made a turn off there. Maybe there would be scenery there.

Last time we stopped at a historic fort, it was as simple as walking straight into the grass with no admission fees whatsoever. This one, though, had a building, and admission fees. Fancy. But reasonably priced. $11 later and we ended up getting a tour of the remains of the fort from the back of a golf cart. Much better than walking around. I left the camera in the car due to not wanting to risk water damage, as it was drizzly outside, and used my phone instead for all of these Fort Lancaster photos.

Tree outside the museum building.

Wide angle photo of some of the grounds.

Pretty hills.

Trees and a path.

Dead tree. There was a vulture in it, but the golf cart scared it.

Historic chimney.

Close up of historic chimney.

Scenery with hills and path.

There were things such as the historic chimney (tallest standing structure from the fort), the remains of the fort, and the hills and view and such. But as we were leaving, the tour guide did mention that up the road there was one the the best views in all Texas. He was not joking. The road heads up a hill, and eventually, there is a turn-off into a parking lot that contained picnic tables, and, of course, the ability to see the view. Grabbing my camera, I got as close as possible to some of the edges to get some photos.

View of the road from the turnoff point.

Cardinal in a tree.

More road. High enough to be in the clouds.

More road in the view. Notice the clouds yet again.

Hill on the other side of the turnoff.

Cardinal off of the trail that I followed to get to more photo spots.

Cloudy road.

The View.

The View was worth it. Some people do not like cloudy days, but I didn’t mind that much. It was much prettier in person, when you can feel the mist on your face and see the view for yourself. I took lots of photos, and it was a pain to sift through them to find the ones that came out alright. We spent about a good 30 minutes or so looking at the view, taking pictures, and getting a break from the car (despite getting a nice one just five minutes or so down the road).

The rest of the trip there was fairly uneventful, with yet another gas station stop, and one overcrowded scenic turnoff we didn’t stop at.

Random I-10 hills.

After more and more I-10 with Texas scenery, we wound up in San Antonio, arrived at the place we were staying, got food, and went to bed. And thus ends Day 1.