Turn Around

Sometimes a truly worthy and wondrous view isn’t the main attraction. If you take a short drive to a state park to check out the river, don’t be surprised if you find beauty where you least expect it.

Let’s take, for example, Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City, Texas (just north of San Antonio).

At this park, you can go hiking, camping, and swimming. You can also peek through a canopy of trees and view the river flowing to nowhere and everywhere on a cloudy spring day.

Pedernales2015b

Once that’s done, you might think there’s nothing more to see. But you would be wrong. There’s always more to see, if your senses are alive and well and ready for the unexpected.

Turn around. You could be favored with a tableau that isn’t the main attraction but is still quite deserving of your notice.

Pedernales2015a

Behold! An entire story unfolds before you. If you are thinking only of the river you just committed to the depths of your photo gallery or your stomach grumbling for lunch, you might walk back up the steps without noticing the mystery and wonder. You skipped down those steps to see the river, so where’s the mystery?

The mystery is in the curve of the man-made path trickling toward an unseen terminus. The wonder is in the notion that maybe the steps now lead somewhere other than the parking lot and the safety of your car. Maybe, just maybe, this path leads to an alternate destination created just for you.

Turn around and tell me (show me) what you see.

Follow me on social media