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Cutting plumb through the heart of Texas, U.S. 281 runs from the arid plains of Wichita Falls at the Oklahoma border to the humid confines of Brownsville at the mouth of the Rio Grande. For most of its winding journey, it proves little more than that the state remains one very flat, dusty, empty place.
But for a 300-mile stretch through its Texas midsection – from, say Glen Rose (about 60 miles southwest of Dallas) in the north to San Antonio in the south – U.S. 281 makes for a beautiful and intriguing road trip, especially in spring, when its scrubby flora turns a spectrum of bright greens, and red, blue and yellow wildflowers speckle its medians and shoulders.
I have been driving this Hill Country since I was a teenager, and it remains remarkably easy on the eye and psyche. It invariably delivers those three staples of great road tripping: revisiting a favorite old haunt, seeing something you’ve been meaning to see for years and discovering something new.
In Glen Rose my wife and I enjoyed a visit to its nicely restored downtown, with its stately buff stone, Romanesque revival courthouse. The real treat, however, is a few miles outside town: the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.
Private zoos like this have a reputation for being either corny or cruel. But this one, in business since 1985, is a legitimate destination for animal lovers that has established a considerable reputation as a conserver and breeder of endangered species, especially cheetahs. No Texas brag, just fact.
We always stay the night at the Lodge at Fossil Rim, on the property, rise at dawn and take a safari through the preserve’s 1,800 acres of chalky, cliffy property that actually looks like some parts of South Africa.
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