Sometimes you just have to get outside. The family and I trekked down to Natural Bridge Caverns north of San Antonio today. That’s where I snapped this pic of a patch of the Texas state flower.
Bluebonnets are to Texas what cherry blossoms are to Japan: a short-lived, beautiful sign that spring has sprung and defeated winter. Not that winter amounts to much here.
Natural Bridge itself is a spectacular cavern, the largest in Texas. If you’re in central Texas and haven’t been, it’s worth the trip. Click the photos below to enlarge them.
The “natural bridge” at the cave’s entrance. It’s a limestone formation left after a sink hole collapsed thousands of years ago.
Going down into the cavern.
Looking up toward the alien ceiling.
This colum is over 50 feet tall.
I snapped all of these photos with my iPhone 4S. The flash makes it a very capable little camera even 200 feet below the earth.
When the kids were little we spent our vacation one year going to the caves in Burnet, Georgetown, Sonora, and of course Natural Bridge. Looking back, it was a great vacation. The kids are now grown and on their own but they still remember the caves, especially when the lights were turned off in the cave outside of Georgetown.
Also, for me it is good to go in summer, the caves are much cooler than above ground.
Nice pics. Glad you got to get away with the family.
All blog and no play.
All blog and no play.
All blog and no play.
All blog and no play.
All blog and no play.
Impressive photos for a phone!
Thanks.
The flowering plant in the first photo looks a LOT like lupine! The appearance of the flowers and especially the “palmate” leaves are characteristic of lupine, which is common in the West, e.g., the better-watered parts of California.
Bluebonnets are a species of lupines. One species is endemic to Texas, but there are several, including the one to which you are referring, that are native to the western US.