Visitors flock to Texas Hill Country for glimpse of solar eclipse

This article will be updated.

With several Texas Hill Country communities in the path of totality for Monday’s solar eclipse, towns like Castroville, Fredericksburg and Wimberley were expecting plenty of visitors — and lots of traffic.

The westbound lanes of the state’s highways leading from San Antonio to the Hill Country on Monday turned into traffic snarls as eclipse-watchers made their way toward the 115-mile-wide path of totality. 

The line of cars along Highway 90 and FM 471 came to a standstill at a traffic light next to Haby’s Bakery in Castroville, its digital sign advertising solar eclipse decorated cookies, as people headed farther west. 

City officials had expected the small town 30 minutes outside of San Antonio would experience pass-through traffic as its hotel accommodations are limited and camping sites booked months ago. 

“There’s a bunch of people that are going to be flying in specifically to the [Castroville Municipal] airport because the traffic is going to be nuts,” said Mayor Darrin Schroeder.

Castroville Regional Park

As the eclipse hour approached, a growing number of people were choosing to stop in Castroville and set up their folding chairs in the relatively quiet Castroville Regional Park, where totality was expected to last 2 minutes and 39 seconds. 

Pablo Rodriguez and Joel Calderon drove from their home in Alamo Heights Monday morning and spread a red-white-and-blue quilt on the grass to watch the eclipse.

“We decided to come here because I had heard a lot of people were going to Kerrville, and I was like, that sounds crazy,” Calderon said.

Louise Van Delft of Kemah, Texas, used an atlas to plan her eclipse-viewing road trip and viewing spot with her husband, Han Van Delft, and their adult son, Aaron, who flew in from Chicago for the event.

“I made my own little triangle and then I kind of researched around here and said, ‘Oh, here’s this gorgeous regional park,’” Louise Van Delft said. “I didn’t want to go to a super busy place.”

By 11:30 a.m., the family could see a bit of blue returning to the partly cloudy skies.

James and Jasmine Lee had driven from Houston on Sunday and spent the night at a San Antonio hotel before driving out to prepare for the eclipse, hoping the clouds would part in time for a good view. 

If not, the experience would be enough, Jasmine said. 

“It’ll still be cool because it will get dark and it’s a community thing, get out and see parts of Texas that we may not have seen before and maybe see what happens,” she said.

Path of totality

As totality reached Fredericksburg, the sky blackened over Cross Mountain Park where over 100 people howled as slivers of sun peeked out and stars briefly appeared. Some eclipse viewers had traveled to Fredericksburg from as far as Toronto.

In Wimberley, north of New Braunfels, the eclipse was first spotted at around 12:15 p.m., but cloud coverage made it tricky to monitor.

Viewers went back and forth between sunglasses and eclipse glasses, with bits of orange seen intermittently between passing clouds while wearing eclipse glasses. The sun would disappear long enough for viewers to start moving around and adjusting chairs to find it in the sky, then reappear briefly.

Eclipse-watchers began to describe the solar phenomenon as “Cookie Monster’s cookie,” “Pac-Man,” and “a toe nail.” As peak darkness came, at 1:35 p.m., birds went quiet while frogs and crickets could be heard chirping as if it was dusk.

But clouds blocked the eclipse. 

In Castroville, the clouds parted for seconds at a time to briefly reveal crescent-shaped sunlight. “I see it! I see it!” shouted 10-year-old Penelope Mitchell, who was attending a neighborhood party with her parents and younger brother. 

As the moon fully eclipsed the sun, and darkness fell, Mitchell noticed how different the total solar eclipse was from the partial event in October. 

“This is way better,” she said.

Andrea Drusch and Scott Ball contributed to this story.