Texas Ranch Gates

On all of our drives into the country in Texas I have been fascinated with the entrance gates to the ranches and fields. To me they are so uniquely Southwest. They always remind me of the wild west and you can picture cowboys riding along with their cattle, bringing them home, and riding right up to the entrance to the ranch. Some gates are so very simple, like a metal arch, and then some are very elaborate. In Texas you don't even have to have a ranch or farm to have a great entrance gate.

What I did learn on our trips is that it is not easy to get pictures of gates that you come upon driving, in some cases, 75mph in a convertible. I did learn, as I went along, that if I brace my phone in place, push the button and hold it, I can take rapid pictures as we fly past. Then I can go back and keep the one picture of the gate that is the best.

So here are some examples of Texas Ranch Gates!

This is your classic entrance gate with the Texas Star.

This one is a little larger, but still pretty basic.

Another basic entrance gate, but opens to a beautiful tree lined drive.

This is the iconic ranch gate, with a special brick fence with inset wagon wheels. Nice! Just a side note, It must always be trash day on the ranch, because most of my pictures include trash dumpsters.

Simple gate and fence with a cute horse embellishment.

This gate has a name on it with what looks like quotation marks on each side. Not sure what that is about.  For some reason there is an old dirty paint bucket on a post in front. Really not sure what that is about. Then if you look at the end of the tall grass on the left you can see an oil rig. This is a very common sight.  Looks like to me"Casey" has some sprucing up to do.

Classic gate with all things Texas, owners name, the star, a horse and a cow!  

Someone likes where they live! Or maybe their name is Sweet.

This is pretty fancy. The tree behind the gate looks like it is in the middle of the driveway, but it is not.

A nice fence and gate. I am not sure what the blue bag or towel is for? Is it something like a tie or scarf on your dorm room door to let your roommate know that there is some funny business going on in the room?

I am not sure this is a front gate. I think it may be one of many side gates on the ranch. Is that an OK, or a CK?  

I have not idea why this gate has a dinosaur on top of it? Interesting! 

This is not a very good picture, we must have been going too fast, lol.  But, I love the scene on the top. Not sure what the 4D and 5H mean, but they get extra points for the star.

This is one of my favorites. I think those are lanterns on each side of the words. Love the wagon wheels on the sign and insets in the stone fence. Not sure why the N is backwards. I put a flower sticker to cover an old car, lol.

This is a pretty cool gate with the stars and the pecan tree. I am not sure if the animals are donkeys or some other animal with big ears. Could be a mule deer.

Another nice gate with a cool scene, but they need to get rid of the Christmas lights. I understood people not taking them down in the Midwest because of the cold and snow. There is not excuse here. Also, why S-B? Shouldn't it be B-S? 

I don't think I will ever stop looking for the ranch gates on our drives. They are all so unique and give the ranch entrances such personality. You can have the smallest rundown house on the land, but they then have the coolest gate to the property. I think some of the owners are more interested in the gate then the home they live in. Then there are the huge mansions with a simple gate like the fourth picture down in this blog. I always wonder if I had a ranch what kind of gate would I want? Maybe it would be the Busy Geemaw Ranch!