Lot 40

Late July, three in the afternoon, and the caliche throws heat back at you like a griddle top. Cicadas going hard. Step under one of the live oak mottes and the air drops several degrees in one pace, which tells you most of what you need to know about how the game and the cattle have used this rock for a hundred years. Tract 40 on Alamo Ranch is 76.42 acres of Texas Hill Country ranch land for sale in Edwards County, and it shows best in that last hour before dark, when the pale stone turns gold and the cedar shadows stretch long over the openings.

The rock does most of the talking out here. Bleached limestone shows through in wide openings between the cedar and the scrub, with thin tan grass coming up between the stones. Roughly a quarter of the tract carries true timber, live oaks mostly, standing in dark mottes that read nearly black against all that white rock at midday. Those mottes are shade in August and acorns in the fall. From the low corner at roughly 2,129 ft, the terrain lifts a bit over 100 ft to about 2,234 ft at the upper end, and that rise is enough that where you set a cabin, a tank stand or a set of pens genuinely matters.

Through the western part of the tract, a dry creek channel threads some 1,670 ft before it leaves the property. Most of the year it is a rock bottom with leaf litter caught in the bends. It carries water when a storm rolls over this part of Texas and stays dry between rains, so treat it as drainage and shade rather than a supply, and we will take you to it on foot so you can read what it does with your own eyes. What that seam buys you is the dampest, most sheltered line on the tract, which is where the heaviest oaks stand and where turkey and game file through at first and last shade.

There is fence the full length of the western boundary, roughly a fifth of the perimeter, so a good bit of that work is started and the rest is yours to finish as you see fit. Don't take wire for a corner. The recorded survey and the title work govern where the lines actually fall, and we will hand you the plat and point out the pins when you're out here. Caliche ranch roads bend through the northern reach of this part of the ranch and fork away east, cut wide enough that a truck with a trailer behind it isn't a problem in dry weather, and the deed and plat are what establish how you legally get in and out.

Elk, turkey and dove range this ranch, along with hogs and both the native and the exotic game this county is known for. Rules here are few, though outfitting for pay isn't permitted, so the wildlife on the ranch stays unpressured by paying strangers. Power lines are set beside the county road and at various points on the ranch, and we can show you the closest one to this tract so you can confirm with the co-op exactly what a hookup would take. Same for a well and septic: ask us, ask the county, and get your answers in writing before you build.

The drive out of Rocksprings takes you off pavement onto County Road 310, and by the time you reach the tract the traffic noise is behind you. Quiet out here is a real thing. Owner financing on this ranch starts at 5% down, which is how most folks get their first surveyed tract of Texas bought without waiting on a bank. Wear boots with a stiff sole, because this limestone is unkind to soft ones, and come out in October if you can, when the heat has broken and the oaks are dropping. We will run you over the roads, put you in the dry creek in the west, and stand you on the high end so you can decide for yourself where the house ought to sit.