Sunday Morning Hike at Balcones Canyonlands

I went hiking this morning out at Balcones Canyonlands Doeskin Ranch area. It was kind of one more free morning to go hiking before I go back to working tomorrow. There were quite a few people out there hiking and enjoying the morning, including one relentless trail-runner that must have been in amazing shape as we passed each other half a dozen times. The morning was cool, the sky was a perfectly clear blue and I hiked every trail out there as I was in no hurry. The picture below shows the trail winding through the low ash juniper that dominates the landscape out there.

Hiking at Balcones Canyonlands NWR

They once again have done a burn of the grass and brush out there, which was kind of disappointing as I like the tall grasses. I was hoping that the grasses has grown long enough again for some nice photos in which the grasses look like a sea of gold, but in half of the refuge area there was only dirt, stones, and ash.

I did manage to get one photo that I kind of like. It shows some of the long grasses in the foreground bracketed by some leafless bushes forming a triangle that leads to the line of an old stone wall in the distance.

The Long Grasses at Balcones Canyonlands NWR

I artsied up this photo a bit in Lightroom to make the grasses appear a bit more windblown. I did this by laying a graduated mask over the grass and reduced clarity. I also enhanced the landscape tones in the image to make it look more like a painting I guess.

Ah well, back to work for a new year.

14 thoughts on “Sunday Morning Hike at Balcones Canyonlands”

  1. That is a lovely blue sky! We had a dreary, rain, sleet, snow flurry day. Great job on being artsy with the last photo. Love the wind blown look, of the grasses. I don’t love the the “wind blown” look of my hair when out in the wind!

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  2. I like the Lightroom touchup. It does look a little like a painting, to me.

    So, your vacation ends tomorrow, huh? I guess all good things must come to an end. But we need you back at your engineering job, as Carolyn is still waiting for her helmet.

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