Any western type towns to visit near Conroe?

[Reefmonkey]

Originally Posted by Thoreau424

Gotta go much farther west to.... get to the west. Travel on now, get on down the road; head towards the late afternoon sun.

You forgot "go west, young man"

[Reefmonkey]

Maybe not "Shootout at the OK Corral" "western" towns in a day trip from the Houston area, but there are some towns to the west of us that are worth a trip and would give someone a glimpse of real small town Texas, especially the German influence.


Someone suggested La Grange, and I would second that (someone else said if you're going to Lagrange you might as well go to San Antonio, I disagree, you're talking an hour drive vs a 3 hour, one is doable as a daytrip, one is not). The town of La Grange itself is cute, and Prause Meat Marketis an authentic old school Central Texas German meat market and barbecue, but the best thing about La Grange is nearby Monument Hill State Park - truly a little slice of Texas Hill Country close to Houston, not just because of the vista from the top of the bluff, but also because "Numerous plants and animals common to the limestone-based soils of the Hill Country, 70 miles northwest, have been transported and deposited in this locale by the Colorado River, located at the base of the 200-foot bluff. These species flourish in pockets of alkaline soils produced through erosion of the calcareous sandstone cap of the escarpment."

The park also has a lot of history, including the tomb and monument to the ill-fated Dawson Expedition of 1836 and Mier Expedition of 1842, and the Kreische house, barn, smokehouse, and the ruins of the brewery. It's a small, compact park. There are several well-maintained hiking trails, none of them over half a mile loops. But you can enjoy the park, its scenic views, and picnicking without doing very much walking at all, and it's free (small donation suggested).




Other places:


Cuero is a cool town with a Czech background, and it has the Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum, which would please any Old West history buff. The downtown with all its late 1800s storefronts kinda has a "western" feel to it, I guess. A few years ago Budget Traveler magazine rated it one of the "Coolest Small Towns in America."
The San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site in the Sealy area is a great reacreation of the 1820s pioneer village that started Anglo settlement of Texas truly rolling.


Schulenberg Texas is another cool little German-ish town.


Gonzales was a good suggestion, especially combined with Palmetto State Park. Sections of the park look more like South Florida than the Wild West, that would really throw anyone's preconceptions about Texas akilter.



Old Town Spring, if you ignore the dense pine forest, I guess the buildings have an Old West look, but I'm not going back unless the old Spring (Wunsche Bros.) Cafe reopens.


And I guess Magnolia could kind of look western.


Chappell Hill does kind of look like a western town, now that I think about it, and it's a cool enough day trip location.

[Meyerland]

Take them to George Ranch. It’s very authentic for what life was like in Texas in the past.https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...ond_Texas.html

[Reefmonkey]

Originally Posted by Meyerland

Take them to George Ranch. It’s very authentic for what life was like in Texas in the past.https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attracti...ond_Texas.html

Oh, good one, I forgot about that!