Favorite Texas photos by Tom Dempsey include the following: San Antonio (The Alamo and River Walk/Paseo del Río), Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, Caverns of Sonora, and turbulent mammatus under a cumulonimbus cloud.

Hike some of the most scenic trails in Texas in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, in the Chihuahuan Desert, near El Paso, USA. The park contains Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas (8749 feet/2667 m). The Guadalupe Mountains are the uplifted part of the ancient Capitan Reef which thrived along the edge of an inland sea more than 250 million years ago during Permian time. Capitan Reef is one of the best-preserved exposed Permian-age fossil reefs in the world. The park also features the landmark peak of El Capitan, along the historic Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line (1857-1861), which carried passengers and US Mail in just 22 days to San Francisco starting from Memphis, Tennessee or St. Louis, Missouri, twice a week. Hiking the ecologically-diverse McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains NP is best when fall foliage turns color.

The world-class Caverns of Sonora have a stunning and sparkling array of speleothems (helictites, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, coral trees, and other calcite crystal formations). National Speleological Society co-founder, Bill Stephenson said, after seeing it for the first time, "The beauty of Caverns of Sonora cannot be exaggerated...not even by a Texan!" Geologically, the cave formed between 1.5 to 5 million years ago within 100-million-year-old (Cretaceous) Segovia limestone, of the Edward limestone group. A fault allowed gases to rise up to mix with aquifer water, making acid which dissolved the limestone, leaving the cave. Between 1 and 3 million years ago, the water drained from the cave, after which speleothems begain forming. It is one of the most active caves in the world, with over 95% of its formations still growing. Sonora Caves are in Sutton County on Interstate 10, about half-way between Big Bend National Park and San Antonio, in Texas, USA.

Explore a large pink granite dome at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, between Fredericksburg and Llano, Texas, USA. Enchanted Rock is a fascinating exfoliation dome (with layers like an onion), rising 425 feet (130 m) above its surroundings to elevation of 1825 feet (556 m) above sea level, in the Llano Uplift. Geologically, the exposed rock (monadnock or inselberg, "island mountain") is part of a pluton (bubble of rock slowly crystallized from magma) within the billion-year-old igneous batholith, Town Mountain Granite (covering 62 square miles mostly underground), which intruded from a deep pool of hot magma 7 miles upwards into the older metamorphic Packsaddle Schist. The overlying sedimentary rock (Cretaceous Edwards limestone) eroded away to expose the prominent domes seen today: Enchanted Rock, Little Rock, Turkey Peak, Freshman Mountain, and Buzzard's Roost.

Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site is popular for birding and bouldering (rock climbing) in El Paso County, Texas, USA. In early April, I photographed beautiful blooms of claret-cup cacti (Echinocereus triglochidiatus), which is native to southwest USA and northern Mexico.

The Alamo Mission in San Antonio (or "The Alamo") was originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, a former Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, and the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. It is now a museum in the Alamo Plaza District of Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. Also nearby: Saint Joseph's Church was dedicated in 1871 on East Commerce Street in San Antonio. The San Antonio River Walk (Paseo del Río) is a network of pedestrian walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the streets of Downtown. The River Walk connects from the Alamo to Rivercenter Mall.

In spring 2014, while driving our Volkswagon Eurovan Camper near Austin, Texas, we photographed bulbous mammatus clouds forming under a cumulonimbus cloud. Mammatus (from the Latin root mamma, meaning breast) is a cellular pattern of bubble-like pouches hanging beneath the base of a cloud. We loved the Tex-Mex food at Polvo's Restaurant (Interior Mexican Cuisine) in Austin.