Dahlstrom Preserve opens a working ranch on Onion Creek to the public

The Dahlstrom family ranches 2,254 acres along Onion Creek, and 384 of those acres are open to the rest of us as the Gay Ruby Dahlstrom Nature Preserve, a limited lease between the family and Hays County that allows public access for up to twenty years. It's eastern Hays County's piece of real ranchland you can actually set foot on, named for a daughter of the family.

The walking is a little over three miles of unimproved hiking trail across open ranch country, plus a three-quarter-mile asphalt ADA-accessible trail for wheelchairs and strollers. The land sits in the Barton Springs recharge zone, where rain dropping into the caves and fractures here can surface at Barton Springs in Austin within a few days — a quiet reminder of how tightly the Hill Country's water is plumbed together.

Access takes a reservation through the Hays County Parks Department, and it isn't open every day. The schedule shifts by season, with no entry after early afternoon. Bring water and a hat; this is open prairie-and-creek country, not shaded forest.