Lost Maples Puts Bandera County Into the Sabinal Canyon

Five miles north of Vanderpool, the road climbs into a different Bandera County. TPWD places Lost Maples State Natural Area north of Vanderpool on the Sabinal River, in Bandera and Real counties.

Fall color brings the crowds in October and November, but the park is not just leaf color. Steep canyon walls, the Sabinal River, Can Creek, birding, camping, backpacking, and about 10 miles of trails all share the same narrow canyon setting.

TPWD bought the private land in 1973 and 1974, and the site opened on September 1, 1979. The state park page still describes the place around its Uvalde bigtooth maples, and the fall show changes with weather, so the same canyon never reads exactly the same twice.

That gives Vanderpool a strong page of its own in the county story. Bandera is the courthouse and river-town center. Lost Maples is the rough back-county chapter, where the line between map, canyon, and clear water gets thin. It also keeps the county from being reduced to one cowboy-town image, which is good for the reader and fair to the land.