Published: December 01, 2008 10:59 am      

John Watson: Drive around Palo Pinto Lake proves scenic

The price of gasoline is falling, the temperature is dropping, and the fall colors are showing in the leaves. It’s time for a drive through the countryside. I had heard that the colors up toward Mineral Wells would start showing nicely after the first of November, so that’s the direction we headed.

I needed to make a stop in Glen Rose, so after making this stop, we went on over to Stephenville and headed north on Texas 281. The leaves were showing their colors well between Stephenville and Farm-to-Market Road 4. By this time it was getting close to noon and we went on past FM 4 and stopped at the Natty Flat Smokehouse Café and bought a barbecue sandwich.

While at Natty Flat, Larry Dennis told me that the bridge was out on FM 4 near Santos and that we should go on up Texas 281 past Interstate 20 and cut back to FM 4. Larry also suggested we take Lakeshore Drive for a scenic tour of Palo Pinto Lake.

After getting back on FM 4 it didn’t take long to find Lakeshore Drive. In this area are a lot of large rock outcroppings on the sides of the hills, many of them with prickly pear growing on top of them

We soon crossed a dry, rocky creek bed some distance below the dam. Rounding a corner we saw the dam, a long low concrete structure. From here we saw another curve in the road and then the road went up the side of a hill, cut out of the hillside.

Palo Pinto Lake is surrounded by hills, and you are either driving along the side of a hill, driving along the ridge of a hill, or dipping down into a ravine and up the other side. Coming up a steep hill out of one ravine, we had a great view of the lake, but there was no place to stop and take pictures.

On reaching the top of the hill and making a sharp turn to the left, there was a driveway on the right going back into the woods. Stopping in the driveway, we got out and walked back to where the road topped the hill to take some pictures of the lake.

I had our little Pomeranian on a leash, letting her exercise while we were stopped. She found something alongside the road that really caught her attention; she was really doing a lot of sniffing.

On closer examination, I saw fresh deer tracks in the damp earth, something she hadn’t seen before.

After my wife snapped a few pictures, we went back to the car. Just as we got in the car a white SUV pulled up alongside the car and stopped. The emblem on the door read “Palo Pinto County Deputy Sheriff.”

“Are you having trouble?” he asked.

“No,” my wife said. “We are just sightseeing and taking pictures.”

Pointing to the driveway he said, “There’s a nice overlook back in there where you can drive out and get a good view of the lake.”

“I thought that was private property, and I didn’t want to go in there,” I said.

“It is private property,” he said, “but it is not posted so it is all right to go back there.”

I thanked the deputy, and he drove on, and we drove out to lookout point and took some good pictures.

After leaving lookout point, the road follows the lake for another two miles or so and then T’s into 2962. Here we took a left and headed to 919. By this time you are leaving the hills and driving into ranching country. Here you leave the cedar trees and see more mesquite trees.

Two of the named ranches that I noticed were the XO Ranch and the Z Ranch.

Palo Pinto County bills itself as “The cradle of the cattle industry.” They Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight invented the cattle drive here, blazing a trail through West Texas, New Mexico and on to Denver, Colo., which became known as the Goodnight Loving Trail.

919 takes you into Gordon, and once in Gordon you see a large sign taking up the whole side of a building saying: “Welcome to Gordon, Home of the Longhorns” with a Texas longhorn painted in the center. You know by this that you are in ranching country.

At the main intersection in Gordon, you have a decision to make. You can take a right and go to Mingus and then turn south to Thurber and have a meal at the Smokestack Restaurant, or take a left to I-20 and back home. We took the left.



John Watson is a Cleburne resident who can be reached at texastraveler@sbcglobal.net.