Lot 24

The drive in does most of the selling. Pavement quits, caliche takes over, and the road lifts and rolls between oak mottes with white rock showing through the grass on either hand. Then it swings in a long, patient bend, and that bend is the lower corner of Tract 24, 32.9 acres of ranch land for sale on Alamo Ranch in Edwards County, Texas. You'll know your turn before anyone points it out.

The western third of this tract holds the trees. Oak and cedar stand there in tight mottes, thick enough to keep shade at midday and to give game somewhere to bed out of the July sun, while the openings between them show pale limestone and thin turf that greens up fast after a rain. East of the tree line it lays more open. Rock, grass, and single trees standing off by themselves the way they do on top of this plateau. That mix is worth something on a tract this size: shade and shelter on one end, room to see and to drive on the other.

There is real relief here too. From the low corner to the high one you pick up roughly 109 ft, somewhere from 2,065 up to 2,174, and you feel that in your legs well before you'd read it off a plat. The high end is where most buyers stop and start pacing off a cabin site. Sit up there late in the day, with the breeze coming over the rim and the caliche giving back the heat, and you understand why folks build on the top of a rise out here instead of the bottom. Water, septic and power are all questions to settle before you pour anything, and we'll tell you straight who to ask.

This is one tract carved out of 4,683 acres, and the game pays no attention to lines. Elk, turkey and dove use this run of the plateau, hogs work it too, and the free-ranging exotics this part of Texas is known for drift through the rolling rises, wide valleys and dry creek bottoms that make up the larger ranch. A cedar motte and a rock flat next to each other is exactly the kind of edge worth sitting on at first grey light.

On the ownership side of things, the tract is surveyed, and the recorded survey and plat govern both the boundary and how you get in. We'll go over both with you before you sign anything. Power lines follow the caliche road and reach various points on the ranch, so we'll show you where the nearest one sits in relation to this corner and you can confirm what a hookup takes with the provider. The rulebook here is thin, and paid outfitting isn't allowed on the ranch, which keeps the neighbors quiet and the game settled. Owner financing is available with as little as 5% down.

• Caliche road frontage at the southwest bend, where the drive would naturally come in
• Oak and cedar mottes through the western third for shade and shelter
• Roughly 109 ft of rise, with the high corner up near 2,174 ft
• Owner financing with as little as 5% down

Wear a boot with a stiff sole, because this limestone eats soft ones, and pick a cool morning in spring or late fall if you can. We'll take you over the caliche to the tree line, then up to the high corner so you can stand on it and turn a full circle before you decide. Bring somebody whose opinion you trust. Call us and we'll set a time to show you Tract 24.