A Little Bit of Heaven

Once overlooked, the Hill Country art town of Wimberley, Texas, makes a colorful getaway

- KAITLYN YARBOROUGH SADIK

AS THE SUN SETS violet over the rolling hills that blanket the earth below where we're nestled on a plateau, it really does seem like it might go on forever—not an unusual sentiment for Texas horizons, which lack no vastness. At The Shady Llama, a beer garden where we actually are sitting outdoors in the presence of those long-necked, spit-prone animals, the view is quietly sublime. And this hunk of the state, the Hill Country, does feel far-reaching, with brushy ridges and knolls as far as I can squint.

As though confirming its surroundings’ soul-stirring effect, a sign at the entrance to Wimberley, Texas, says simply “a little bit of heaven.” Established as a trading post by settlers in 1848, the area was previously home to Native Americans and later frequented by Spanish conquistadors who had taken up in nearby San Antonio. Eventually, it turned into the tranquil small town it remains today.

For decades, road-trippers zoomed right past this sleepy spot, with its scenic vistas, untamed terrain, lazy tubing rivers, blooming wildflower fields, and tiny but tight-knit community. Yet for the select few who saw this secret, it became an unexpected, albeit minuscule, hub for artistic types who wanted somewhere to hunker down and create in peace, as well as those hard-nosed Texans who didn’t care to be bothered but didn't want to fully disappear. Now, Wimberley is no longer quite so aloof, but it still grants the same respite from the loudness of other places—which, to many, is heaven indeed.

STAYING AWHILE

If you were to probe the numerous transplants who have made Wimberley their home about what beckoned them to pick up and move, you would find the reasons vary greatly but the stories often begin the same way, with a certain kind of serendipity that plopped them there as if by fate.