RANCH HERITAGE: A trip to the Hill Country State Natural 
Area this month will put you in touch with your inner 
rancher ... we'll explain on Passport to Texas ... 
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Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Ranching and Texas go together like chips and salsa. It's 
hard to imagine one without the other. On October 29 and 
30, the Hill Country State Natural Area Partners host 
Ranch Heritage weekend at the site, ten miles west of 
Bandera. Bobby Reynolds is president of the friends 
group.

"The Ranch Heritage Weekend is really an offshoot of the TPWD 
Lone Star Legacy Weekend program that they had been 
sponsoring statewide for many years."

The nearly 6-thousand acre site had been a working ranch 
before being deeded to the state. Activities planned 
during Ranch Heritage Weekend will put visitors in touch 
with their inner cowboy and rancher.

"We're going to be having chuck wagon cooking; there'll be 
some trail rides that the partners group will be hosting and 
leading. We'll also have trick ropers, cowboy storytellers, 
cowboy singers and poets. And then at the partners arena - 
which is the full sized arena that the partners group built and 
donated to the park last year - we will be sponsoring a play day 
event with some horseback speed events and equestrian events 
in the arena itself, so it's going to be a lot of fun out there."

It's a free family event that Bobby Reynolds says it will be 
a unique experience.

"There's not that many big ranches left. So to see some of the 
old facilities that are still out there that used to be used in a real 
private ranching enterprise, is something that you just don't see 
very much anymore. "

Visit the events calendar on the Texas Parks and Wildlife 
web site for more information: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us
That's our show ... for Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti.