Lot 21

The land here won't hold still. It lifts 126 ft from a low corner at roughly 2,076 ft to a crown at 2,202 ft, and that is genuine relief to find inside 40.67 acres. Tract 21 on Alamo Ranch is ranch land for sale in Edwards County, Texas, out in the limestone breaks off Highway 55 and County Road 310, and the pitch of it is the first thing your legs tell you. You climb, then you stop and turn around. Up top the July wind actually reaches you and the last hour of sun stretches long over the cedar, while the low end stays a few degrees cooler and holds shadow well after the rest has gone gold.

A dry creek cuts the property, entering on the north and bending its way to the southwest corner, better than 1,080 ft of channel from one end to the other. Most of the calendar it's a rock floor with oak and cedar crowding in over it. Then a storm stacks up and it carries water fast. That draw is the natural travel lane through this tract, the shadiest footing on it, and the line game will use at dusk without being asked, and we'll follow the whole thing with you so you can read the cut banks and see what it does after a wet spell.

Roughly three quarters of the acreage wears timber. Dark cedar where the slopes fold in on themselves, live oak scattered through the more open stretches where pale limestone breaks the surface, and rock underfoot most of the way. It's the kind of vegetation that pays you in shade and in screening from anybody else. Thin a handful of cedar on the upper bench and you'd open a shady, breezy spot with the tops of the lower timber laid out below you.

This is the western Edwards Plateau, and the wildlife on the 4,683-acre ranch reflects it: elk, turkey, dove and hogs all pass through this rough, rolling terrain, and the exotics that have spread through this part of Texas have done the same. The caliche ranch roads in this stretch are new and pale as bone, curving with the terrain instead of fighting it. Power lines follow portions of the ranch road system, and we'll show you where they stand relative to Tract 21 and what it would take to get from there to a building site. The county seat is a short drive north on Highway 55 when you need fuel, feed or a plate of something hot.

Ownership is kept plain. The tract is surveyed, there's fencing on the northern boundary (the recorded survey and title work govern where the line actually falls, and we'll go over the plat with you), deed rules are few, and nobody's running paid outfitting on the ranch. Owner financing is offered with as little as 5% down, and we'll sit with you and go through the terms in writing rather than over a handshake.

• 126 ft of rise, roughly 2,076 to 2,202 ft
• Seasonal draw entering on the north, bending to the southwest corner
• Three quarters of the acreage in cedar and live oak
• Fencing on the northern boundary
• Owner financing with as little as 5% down

Wear a boot with a stiff sole. The loose limestone and caliche will chew through anything soft, and you'll want to top out on the high end at least once. Call and we'll meet you at the entrance off County Road 310, drive the upper end first while the sun's still high, then drop into the draw and follow it to the southwest corner. October or a cool morning in March is when this tract shows best.