Stonehenge, sorta

I was on a ramble through the Texas Hill Country with my friend Jeff, which was essentially a weekend of absolutely zero responsibility.  I highly recommend those types of weekends by the way.  We drove a lot of small roads here and there, mostly ending up at random State Parks and arcane spots such as this replica of Stonehenge outside of Hunt, TX.  I had read a little about it online and really wanted to go.  It is fairly far afield from Austin, but with nothing to really do except take pictures, it made the vaunted list of “things to do”. 

I am glad we went.  It was interesting to see and sort of weird too.  Though it is well done and really does resemble the real Stonehenge it’s obvious that you are not in England.  You can tell by the proximity of a taco stand and the fact that it wasn’t raining.  Nonetheless, it felt “special”, if that makes sense.  You sort of wander around and experience it, much like I assume you do with the English version.  I felt in awe of the structure.  It was cool and I recommend a visit if you are in the area (which pretty much either means you got lost or you intended to be in the area). 

Here is a little information about it from the web:

Outside of Hunt, TX sits Stonehenge II, a copy of the original Stonehenge located more than 3,500 miles away on the Salisbury Plain in England.

Sixty percent as large as the original, it was built by locals  Al Sheppard and Doug Hill. It all started when Doug Hill had finished pouring a patio in 1989.  Left with a spare slab of limestone, he offered it to his friend and neighbor, Al Sheppard.

Sheppard liked how the stone looked and soon planted it upright on his property, but he wasn’t sure people could see it from the road.  From there, Al and Doug built a 13-foot arch behind the monolith  and that was just the beginning.  Soon, a whole circle of "stones” began to rise from the earth.  The finished product is 90% as wide as the original, and 60% the height.

Doug Hill began to fabricate stone "look-alikes” from steel, metal lathe and plaster.  Painted and anchored with cement, these fabrications look like the real thing.  After about nine months, their masterpiece was complete.

Here are a couple of other shots from this wonderful bit of roadside Texas...

All of these images are 6 exposures HDR shots, taken at f/22.  As you can plainly see, it was mid-day and with the bright sun overhead I had plenty of light.  Unfortunately I just couldn't stick around until sunset, which is my favorite time of day to shoot.  The exposures range from +2 to -3.  They were merged into an HDR in Photomatix, and then I made adjustments in PSE around Color Curves, Contrast, and Unsharp Mask.  I also ran them through Topaz Adjust for a little pop and I was all done!  Hope you enjoy this little bit of the Texas Hill Country!