Old Baldy

Father Antonio Olivares, the Franciscan who later founded San Antonio, wrote about this cypress in 1716. It was old then. Texas Parks and Wildlife calls it the oldest bald cypress on public land in the state and dates it past five hundred years, with some accounts reaching five hundred and fifty. It stands where Onion Creek runs through the park, thirty one metres tall on a trunk just under five metres round, big enough that it now houses other things: nesting birds, ball moss, vines working up the bark. Bald cypress is a conifer that drops its needles, so the tree is bare through winter and turns rust orange before it goes, which is the week to come if you want the colour. Onion Creek has flooded around the trunk in 1869, in 2013 and again in 2015. Each time the water went down and the tree was where it had been. Take the Rock Shelter Trail northeast from the main parking area; it is signposted, and there is no mistaking it when you arrive.