Shutterstock
It’s wild, it’s free and it’s right outside Austin
About an hour northwest of Austin, 28,000 acres of rugged Texas Hill Country sit quietly off the radar of most road-trippers.
Steep canyons cut through the land, limestone outcroppings edge the trails, and spring-fed streams run through the valleys.
Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge is the only one of its kind in Central Texas, and it costs you nothing to get in. The reason it exists at all comes down to two small birds that nearly disappeared.
Shutterstock
The two songbirds that put this refuge on the map
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created Balcones Canyonlands in 1992 with one goal: save the nesting grounds of two endangered songbirds…