A Peek at the Peak

A Hike at Sentinel Peak Preserve

Deborah Estes

There are places called Sentinel Peak from Arizona to South Africa, but the woodsy slope in far western Hays County, Texas, would be hard to beat. And a river runs through it. From a high knoll overlooking a mile of pristine Blanco riverfront, Kiowa and Comanche hunters monitored the first European settlers surging in to farm and ranch and fence these Texas Hills. Today a single tall oak stands where those sentinels stood dreading the loss of the old ways.

But there are some encouraging new ways opening for today’s Central Texans. In a state where 96 percent of the land—including river access—is privately owned, creation of parks with public access to the water takes equal parts opportunity, vision—and cooperation, which is where the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™ comes in.

Opportunity

Sentinel Peak Preserve has an interesting history. For sixty years the area was known as El Rancho Cima Camp, a property of the Sam Houston Council of Boy Scouts of America. It lies off FM 32 on a high ridge known as the Devil’s Backbone in far western Hays County. The 2015 Memorial Day flood that devastated Wimberley also caused considerable damage to this aging camp. Tom Varnell, CEO of the Sam Houston Area Council, said in the Austin American-Statesman, September 25, 2018, “It was determined that the cost to rebuild that area of El Rancho Cima was prohibitive.” The Boy Scouts sold the 2,382-acre property to private investors in April 2019 for commercial and residential development.

Vision

Hays County already had 1,225 acres of publicly owned parks and 3,083 acres of publicly owned open space. That’s far more than Austin’s Zilker Park’s 350 acres and Gay Ruby Dahlstrom Ranch and Nature Preserve’s 384 acres. The County’s saving some of the Sentinel Peak land from urbanization would take passionate fundraising. In November 2019 the Hays County Commissioners, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, acquired 530 acres of the former Boy Scout property to safeguard it from development. Read geologist, hydrologist, and former co-editor of The Hays Humm, MN Tom Jones’ 2022 Humm article written as the purchase was being finalized. The aerial photos of the site are helpful.

Now in 2024 Hays County is turning the vision into firm plans to repair and open this new park to the public. With a reservation, visitors will enjoy low-impact trail walks, swimming, kayaking, and camping. Turning vision into plan will then take monitoring and maintenance.

Cooperation

So Sentinel Peak Preserve will also be a new Hays County Master Naturalist (HCMN) volunteer project. Parks Education Coordinator Katherine Sturdivant, with the Hays County Parks Department, recently held two guided hikes to introduce HCMN volunteers to the project. Participants learned ways they will be cooperating in developing and maintaining the Preserve. The Chapter’s many birders and photographers look forward to helping protect this prime habitat of the Golden-cheeked Warbler, a Federally-listed endangered species endemic to this part of Texas.

Road work has begun but has recently been paused during the mating season of the Golden-cheeked Warbler. The goal is to limit disruption to this important habitat from March to July.

The Golden-cheeked Warbler winters in Mexico and Central America but nests exclusively in dense Ashe juniper and oak woodlands in the ravines and canyons of Central Texas. During their hike, volunteers had the privilege of hearing and seeing the male warbler call as he perched on a treetop near the parking lot. For many of these HCMNs, this was their first-time sighting.

Golden-cheeked Warbler
Photo: courtesy Betsy Cross

Many of the remaining Boy Scout camp structures will be removed, modified, or repaired. The old tent platforms will be replaced by modern tent camping. There are plans to allow limited water activities on the Blanco River to avoid aquifer contamination and to minimize damage to riparian ecology.

Katherine Sturdivant will be working with Project Coordinators Katie Peltier and Deborah Estes to organize Master Naturalist volunteers for the Sentinel Peak Preserve Project. Their first workday in May will be to build benches and to start pulling invasive bastard-cabbage (Rapistrum rugosum). Master Naturalists will also be working to build trails and to improve and maintain the riparian area.

Sentinel Peak Preserve is currently closed to the public, but the County anticipates it will open by reservation for the summer of 2025. Hays County folks will finally have some river access and a healthy dose of the natural world. So far, we’ve had just a peek at what could be a Peak experience.

Slideshow: courtesy Deborah Estes

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