A Long and Winding Road
Traveling from east Texas, about 30 minutes from the Louisiana border, I set out on I-10 east toward San Antonio at about 8 am in mid February. After a half-hour delay in San Antonio, I made it to Kerrville at about 2:30 pm. After checking into a hotel there, I headed right to Ingram.
It was getting late in the afternoon, but I didn’t pay much attention to the time since I had no real timetable. I took Kerrville’s Main Street (or Texas 27) to Texas 39 just like the directions said to do, but it seemed to take longer than it should have. Enjoying the scenery along the Guadalupe River, I continued to look for FM 1340, confident that I would be able to find my way back to the hotel without getting completely lost but not so confident that I was still pointed in the right direction.
After a while, I found the turnoff for FM 1340, but I still seemed to be in a kind of no man’s land. It was beautiful out there, but it was eerily quiet even with a few cars passing now and then. Finally, about 45 minutes after I’d left Kerrville, I rounded a bend in the road and literally muttered, “Whoa!” Right there on the left side of the road was Stonehenge, or at least the closest thing to Stonehenge I’d ever seen. I guess I hadn’t expected it to be so near the road and as stunning as it was.
I drove slowly, which was no problem since there was practically no traffic, to try to see where to park. There is no parking lot, but there is a little notch in the grass on the shoulder where I was able to pull my car off of the road. The fact that it was the middle of February might explain the lack of other tourists, or it may be that “S-II” is so far off the beaten path. Either way, I was alone out there. I felt like I’d landed my alien spacecraft in a cornfield on the moon.
He-Man Megaliths
A fence surrounds the attraction which sits on private property, and a sign says that the gate gets locked at sunset. I’d beaten that time by a good hour or more, so I entered the gate. I learned, through examining the attraction’s sign, that Stonehenge II is the result of a couple of bored guys with too much limestone on their hands. God love ‘em, I added my two-dollar donation to the pot and went to look around.
I have to say that this place is pretty cool. It’s set off in a field, and there’s a big limestone hill for a backdrop. I managed to get some nice photos, and for me, the huge stones had a weird effect. It was like being in another world, if only for the little while that I was there.
The attraction is roughly 70 percent as large as the original, but for specifics you can check out the Texas travel guide under Ingram, though Stonehenge in the Hills is actually closer to Hunt. I would advise taking the Ingram/Texas 39 exit instead of going all the way through Kerrville, though Kerrville is a nice place to visit also. In addition to the Stonehenge replica, there are a couple of huge tikis on the property. I had a look at them, and they were pretty impressive as well. How can you beat two strange attractions in one, right out in the middle of a field in Texas?
Caution: Pagan Crossing
While I did enjoy the beautiful scenery and the solitude that the trip offered, I would offer one caution. Don’t go there after sunset. When I was poking around inside the large stone circle, I found a dead iguana sitting atop one of the stones. It’s only my guess, but I’d say that some folks take the place a little too seriously.
