When you Google the phrase “benefits of outdoors” you get 68 million results, but you don’t need a computer or Google to discover the benefits of spending time outside.  It is well-known that spending time outdoors is therapeutic and one of the best stress-relievers and escapes from the daily grind.  Truthfully, many people spend most of their lives working indoors with the goal of retiring and spending more time outdoors.  In today’s world of technological time machines that allow you to video conference, host web meetings and exchange info around the world with a simple click, more people are learning that you do not have to wait until you retire to escape from the big city and seek out your outdoor paradise.  The rapid technological changes in recent years have given some people the freedom to choose where they live based purely on lifestyle preferences as opposed to proximity to the office or city. There is no place that conjures the images of outdoor recreation quite like the Texas Hill Country, and there is not another community in the Hill Country that captures the wide array of outdoor activities like Cordillera Ranch does.

Cordillera Ranch has a magnetic effect on people interested in enjoying the quiet, peaceful outdoors-focused lifestyle that the Hill Country offers.  Although the content of this issue of Cordillera Ranch Living was not intentionally planned as an “outdoors-focused edition,” love for the outdoors is interwoven into the fabric of people in this community and thus the outdoors regularly surfaces in anything related to Cordillera Ranch.  In our feature story Mark and Pam McCurley embody the deep-seeded affinity for the outdoors and how the natural beauty, climate and wildlife in Cordillera Ranch lured them here.

As you will read in this issue, Boerne Public Library Foundation is bringing the wilderness of Yellowstone National Park to Boerne this summer.  Don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about Yellowstone and its untamed outdoors through a renowned photographer and many other activities, events and presentations this summer.  Also, if you’re interested in getting the kids immersed in the Hill Country outdoor activities, check out the Clubs of Cordillera Ranch Summer Camps on page 54 of this issue.  Lastly, check out the Preferred Builders’ feature on outdoor living spaces on page 60.  These builders are masters at capitalizing on unique outdoor environments in the Hill Country, and these images and descriptions may inspire dreams for your own oasis at Cordillera Ranch.

So take this issue out on the patio for a read and enjoy one of the many benefits or being outdoors.

See you outside around the Ranch,

Charlie Hill
Vice President
Cordillera Ranch