Rising up like a bulge in the desert, we began seeing steam rise from a few miles away. Mind you, this is rough country and out in the middle of absolutely no where about fifty miles south of Austin. Had it not been for my jeep, I doubt we would have been able to traverse the roads to this wonder. The Devil’s Punch Bowl, also known as Diana’s Punch Bowl is a geyser, though I do not know and could not find any information on how often it shoots water. The main feature, at the top of the bulge looks as though a stone cylinder some 60 feet in diameter and at least 40 feet tall had been neatly cut out and removed. The inner walls of the cylinder glisten with mist from steam rising from the water’s surface some 30 feet or so below the edge where we stand. The amount of steam rising from the geo-thermally heated pool below is amazing and somewhat obscures our view into the geyser.
As we do occasionally get clear shots into the depth of the cylinder, we are both amazing at what we see. There is abundant plant life that has made its home on the rocky crevasses at the water’s edge, but this is not normal desert plant life. There are ferns and other high humidity plants flourishing in this sauna. Hues of green make way to snowy white, as we scan further around the surface. It’s frigid up here and with the strong wind blowing, I wouldn't be surprised to find out the wind chill was twenty or thirty below zero. It appears that the steam as it blows across the surface meets with some of this blustery cold wind and freezes into unique ice crystals on the leaves of the foliage below. On the top of the bulge, this is even more apparent as tiny surface level rocks and ridges have ice crystals forming horizontally off them in the face of the wind. It almost looks like minuscule snow-covered Christmas trees grown sideways out of the rocks. Truly breathtaking.
We've been exploring and snapping pictures for the better part of an hour up here and we both feel frozen to the bone. It’s time to head back, but even with the cold temperatures and almost unbearable wind chill, I’m very glad we made this journey this time of year, for the contrasting effect of the hot steam and cold air made for an amazing visual.
