Overlanding in the Texas Hill Country (no, not THAT route)
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- In which I took a 1 day trip north of Uvalde looking for some dirt, and tried really hard not to trespass.
Someone published a "hill country overland" route a few years back that makes a loop around Fredericksburg, and just about every hill country overland video on youtube is about that exact route. I wanted to go on some roads less traveled. There are plenty of other places to get a little dirt and gravel under your tires in the Texas hill country, and this is one of them.
#nuecesriver #overlanding #toyota #hillcountry #dirtroads #texas
When I was a teenager in the 80's we called that cruising the back roads, now it's called overlanding. I use to live down in those parts, now I reside in N. TX.
I probably wouldn't call this overlanding looking back on it. If I'd camped somewhere and spent a couple of days out there, for sure. But I definitely didn't know where I was going and was just out exploring, so call it a partial overland. 😁
Here in Texas, we do most of our offroading at Walmart parking lots. SMH. 😂
You're not kidding! I wish there was more public land in Texas.
Love this. I miss doing this kind of exploring during college at West Virginia University. There’s just nothing like this around Houston. Looking forward to our trip to the Austin-Fredericksburg area in a couple of weeks.
There is a very well documented "Hill Country Overland Route" in the Fredericksburg area. It's gorgeous, but literally everyone in Texas has done it, myself included. The eastern part of it, between SH 16 and SH 71 is amazing.
Nice video. Just an FYI onXoffroad offers private land data with their elite subscription. You can also download maps for offline use. In the future this may make your journeys off the pavement a lot easier.
Yeah, I didn't plan ahead very well on this trip and didn't download any maps before I left. I use both Gaia gps and onX. All of my subsequent trips, I've pulled down the maps I think I'll need before I leave. Rookie mistake on this one. Thanks for watching!
Nice video. Had relatives who rancher in that country & worked on couple ranches in region; many year ago. Still love driving thru, & definitely understand the getting off blacktop, which doesn't mean; how many big rocks can I drive over.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
You are correct, many of the bump gates in that area are legal to pass though. Not sure why they don't do cattle guards like the rest of the state.
Because they don't want people to know that they are allowed to pass through, that's why they put the "no trespassing" sign right next to the gate. They want to deter anyone using "their road" as much as possible
Great video
Thank you! It was my first one. They've gotten so much better over the last couple of years.
Please put a wind guard in your mic.
Most of Texas is Great Plains, that's why all the private property no tresspassing issues!
Awesome I do this to its fun
Thanks for posting this. I am familiar with the other hill country route. This one looks interesting. In your vid, you say that you could have legally gone through the bump gate. Why? Did you find out afterwards that the road is not private? Any way for me to figure out which roads are private and which gates I’m allowed to go through?
After I got back, I looked at the private land layer on Gaia GPS and the road is outlined, meaning that even though it runs through someone's property, the road itself is public. I didn't have a cell signal out there and hadn't planned ahead by downloading the maps before I left. If I'd had that resource at my fingertips, I would have known while I was out there.
There's also a comment a bit further down from @prandomable that lists a TxDOT resource that shows public roads. This particular road is listed on that map and is therefore public all the way through.
@@lalelandadventures thanks! Good to know. Thinking of heading out that way tomorrow and didn’t want to end up on private land. I have the Gaia app and will be downloading layers tonight.
Good video. FYI, don't drive "IN" the river doesn't mean don't cross, it means don't drive up/down the river bed.
Thanks...I kinda figured that once I was actually going across, but my first impression was, why don't they want people driving in the river? There's literally a road on the other side. Once I saw how shallow it was, I could totally see people ripping up and down the actual river and why that might be frowned upon.
Other than that, great video.
Only Texans would consider this "overlanding" lol.
Newbie question here: is this route ok for 2wd?
I think so, as long as it hasn't rained recently. The road goes through some creek beds, so I could see it getting sloppy after a hard rain, but it's all maintained roads. There are houses scattered throughout. For what it's worth, I'm still a newbie, too.
I live in Dallas -- there is not a single road in all of Texas that I have found yet that actually needs 4wd. I'm hoping one exists somewhere. If anyone sees this comment, PLEASE correct me. I'm desperate. All the onX maps in Texas are gravel. Driving on gravel is not off-roading.
Some of the back country roads in Big Bend definitely require 4 wheel drive. I've only been on Old Ore Road, and my friend that was with me didn't use 4 wheel drive until we got to the southern half. The videos I've seen of Black Gap look like there are some pretty rough parts, too.
@@Toby_Flenderson_1982 Their there; you just haven't run across them yet.
@@Toby_Flenderson_1982 Correct. I laugh when I see these modded off road vehicles around Central Texas. Where ya going bud? A Honda Civic can go on every OnX trail within 300 miles.
Sign says Don't Drive in the River. But I'm going to drive in the river.
Really?
Me. "Not watching this any further".
This is how trails get closed. 😔
The sign means not to tear up and down the riverbed. The road clearly continues across the river, and there were recent tracks over there, so I drove across, which is allowed.
Sign meant Not drive up or down the river stream, just cross.
Use this to see if it's public county road or not and have confident in passing thru it. A lot of those bump gates are perfectly legal to open, and by law those gates cannot have locks on it if it's public county roadways.
www.dot.state.tx.us/apps-cg/grid_search/county_grid_search.htm
Thanks!
That's a great resource. I've been using it to plan a trip in the Big Bend area!
@@lalelandadventures I think Big Bend is completely public as long as within the National Park.
@@prandomable it is, but I'm going outside the park...there is a dirt road that runs between Candelaria and US 90 south of Van Horn that I'm looking at