Trip Report: L B Johnson Ranch

Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch NP

Bray suggested that we take a roundabout way back to Dallas via the LBJ ranch, which turned out to be a great idea since we got 3 stamps and it broke up the long drive nicely. Hill country in TX is really beautiful and with all the wildflowers blooming along the roads, it was easy to see how Lady Bird Johnson was inspired to plant wildflowers around the country's interstates.

One of the coolest parts of the trips was the Sauer-Beckman Farm. It's on the LBJ park land and it's a historic German farm (again with the Germans in TX :D ) and the people there live and work on the farm. They don't sleep there because it might hurt the antique beds, but they do everything else there. They showed us how they made lye and yogurt and we wandered around to see the working farm. The garden was very impressive, they have a lot of farm waste to compost and the TX weather really serves them well. Their canned goods pantry put even Dodie's overstocked kitchen to shame! :-)

After checking out the farm, we headed over to LBJs Ranch house. The original driveway called for people to drive through the creek under a waterfall. Very cool in my opinion, but these days visitors are routed down to a bridge. The ranch was beautiful and his office inside the ranch was open to walk through. The guide pointed out the 3 TVs in the room - one to watch each channel! LOL. The beautiful saddle displayed was a gift from the president of Mexico.

Link to pics here