Rocksprings Record and Texas Mohair Weekly

09/08/2025

09/03/2025

DEVIL’S SINKHOLE “BATS AND STARS” ATTRACTS 73 GUESTS
On Saturday, August 30, the volunteers and staff of the Devil’s Sinkhole State Natural Area welcomed 73 guests for the annual combination batwatch and stargazing night.

Guests included a four-year-old named George who had been studying sinkholes. He dropped in with his dad all the way from Colorado. A nice group of staff and volunteers from nearby Garner State Park also joined the throng.

While the population of bats in the Sinkhole is unusually low in number this year, everyone seemed to appreciate the program presented by the Devil’s Sinkhole Society.

The event usually attracts four or five astronomers from the terrific San Antonio Astronomical Association, but the Weather Channel and Accuweather scared away all but one Robert Sepp this year. The sky was half cloudy but half crystal clear. Sepp helped guests examine the two dippers and the moon very closely.

The Devil’s Sinkhole State Natural Area has a Bortle scale rating of 2, as good a dark sky as you can get in Texas without traveling to Big Bend National Park.

Four-year-old George, now a Junior Cave Scientist, reported that he had “seen the moon.”

The Devil’s Sinkhole Society operates the Rocksprings Visitors Center and, for the past 25 years, has provided tours to see the Devil’s Sinkhole National Natural Landmark, Texas’s biggest one-chamber cave, Texas’s fifth-deepest cave, and, normally, the summer home of Texas’s fourth-biggest bat colony.

Tours of the Devil’s Sinkhole are provided Wednesday through Sunday all year long with a few interruptions around Thanksgiving and Christmastime. Daytime tours, including nature walks and birding, are available at 10 A.M. and 1 P.M. The famous evening bat tour runs May through early November, with varying times dependent on changing bat habits.

The Devil’s Sinkhole Society volunteers who hosted the great group of guests were Sandra and Richard West, D.L. Somerville, Patti and Mike Saunders, Dennis and Benita Piper, Mike Cox, and Emma and Andrew Barnebey.

08/24/2025

Devil’s Sinkhole update:

Modified pricing at the Devil’s Sinkhole “Bats and Stars” Event

The annual combination bat emergence show and stargazing event is Saturday, August 30. The Devil’s Sinkhole State Natural Area gate opens at 7:45 P.M. The gate is located about five miles north of Rocksprings on US 377 and a bit south of the intersection with TX Hwy 41.
The volunteers of the Devil’s Sinkhole Society have modified the pricing structure for attendees: It’s $5 for kids 4-12; $10 for teens and adults; but no vehicle will be charged more than $20. Transactions must be by cash or check.
For more information, call 830-683-2287 or email [email protected]. You may also drop by the Visitors Center, Wednesdays through Sundays between 10 AM and 3 PM. There are a variety of displays and programs as well as gift shopping at the Center.
The Devil’s Sinkhole National Natural Landmark, the centerpiece of the state natural area, is the largest one-chamber cave in Texas and also Texas’s fifth-deepest cave. In a normal year, it is home to the fourth-biggest bat colony in the state, though this year has, so far, been very far from normal with little of the famous “bat tornado” yet to see.
The volunteers of the Devil’s Sinkhole Society offer tours five days a week (Wednesday through Sunday): day tours, nature walks, and birding are at 10 AM and 1 PM, with flexibility for other times; and the famous evening bat tour, currently starting at 7:15 PM at the Rocksprings Visitors Center on the town square. No morning bat tour is currently scheduled because of low bat numbers.

08/24/2025

Posted by Monica McIntyre Allison

Fyi

Zoom link for Tuesday’s meeting about the proposed Edwards County transmission line path- Tuesday August 26 @ 6-8 pm at Gilmer library in Rocksprings

This is not the same as the petition. If you signed the petition- that’s a different deal. This is collecting responses per the power companies request by Sept 3. They are likely seeking the path of least resistance and Edwards County needs to be the resistance. There are routes that don’t cross Edwards at all. These questionnaires will be some of what they use to make their decision on the path.

Meeting ID
839 8865 6213
Security
checkedPasscode518435

08/22/2025

738 likes, 61 comments. “Howard Solistic Transmission Line Project via AEP and CPS, being built in Edwards, Real, Uvalde, Bandera Counties”

08/19/2025

Edwards County EMS is grateful to be recognized by the 452nd District Attorney for our commitment to provided the best care possible to residents and visitors of Edwards County. Thank you all for your service!

08/18/2025

Update from Devil’s Sinkhole
Bats and Stars is August 30. Gate opens at 7:45. We have modified our pricing: $5 per child 4-12; $10 per teen and per adult; BUT you can also just pay $20 per vehicle. So, bring cousin Velma and her three kids and you pay only $20.
We shouldn't conflict with the Rocksprings-EC VFD ranch rodeo and fish fry that day, so plan accordingly!
Love the ranch rodeo posters (a rodeo cowboy on a bucking
fish!)
Hope you can join the Devil's Sinkhole volunteers and the volunteers from the San Antonio Astronomical Association!