The Twisted Sisters are three Texas ranch roads — RM 335, RM 336 and RM 337 — that link up into a loop of roughly 100 miles through the western Hill Country, and they are the only riding in Texas that gets talked about the way mountain roads get talked about. RM 337 is the long one at 56 miles from Camp Wood to Medina, and it is the one with the switchbacks. RM 336 runs 26 miles north out of Leakey. RM 335 runs 29 miles north out of Barksdale. Together they cover a corner of Real, Edwards and Bandera counties with almost nothing in it except ranches, three small towns and a lot of elevation change nobody expects to find in Texas.
What they are, and what the name covers
All three are Ranch to Market roads, the Texas designation for state-maintained rural two-lanes, and all three were first designated on June 11, 1945. Wikipedia's road articles and TxDOT's own mileage records put them at 56.101 miles for RM 337, 28.962 for RM 335 and 26.385 for RM 336. The nickname is not official — TxDOT does not sign anything "Twisted Sisters" — but it is what every rider in the state calls the loop, and RM 337 is the road that earned it. Texas Monthly put it at number 18 on its April 2006 list of 75 things it loves about Texas, and the road is known for hairpin switchbacks rather than for sustained speed.
The confusion people run into is mileage. Accounts online range from 100 miles to over 200, and both are correct depending on where you start. The tight core — Leakey north on 336, west on SH 41, south on 335 to Barksdale, then 337 back east through Camp Wood to Leakey — is about 100 miles. Start in Medina instead and you add the full eastern half of 337, which is another 40-odd miles of the best pavement on the loop. Start in Bandera and you add SH 16 on top of that. If you want the rest of the state, our Texas roundup covers FM 170 along the Rio Grande and the Davis Mountains loop.
Route at a glance
| RM 337 | 56.1 miles, SH 55 in Camp Wood to SH 16 in Medina, via Leakey and Vanderpool |
| RM 336 | 26.4 miles, US 83 just north of Leakey to SH 41 |
| RM 335 | 29.0 miles, SH 55 just north of Barksdale to SH 41 |
| Core loop | Roughly 100 miles from Leakey; about 130 if you start in Medina |
| Terrain | Edwards Plateau canyon country, roughly 1,000 to 2,400 feet |
| Base towns | Leakey, Camp Wood, Medina, Vanderpool, Bandera |
| Best months | March to May and October to November; summer afternoons run brutally hot |
Open the Medina to Barksdale run in Google Maps — the full length of RM 337 plus the connector, ready to send to your navigation before you leave.
RM 337, the sister that earned the nickname
Fifty-six miles, and the two halves are different roads. From Camp Wood the route leaves town along East 4th Street, goes rural fast, and crosses Camp Wood Creek twice. After the second crossing the hills start, and the next several miles are the sharp stuff — steep climbs, steep descents and curves tight enough that a mid-corner correction costs you real speed. The road flattens near John Buchanan Road and stays reasonable into Leakey, where it runs along 6th Street, crosses US 83 and drops over the Frio River on the way out of town.
East of Leakey the hills come back. RM 337 climbs and falls for several miles before meeting RM 187 near Lost Maples State Natural Area, shares about a mile with that route, and splits off at Vanderpool. Past the Sabinal River crossing it settles into Bandera County ranch land, picks up the West Prong of the Medina River near Wheeler Road and runs beside it for about twelve miles before crossing the North Prong and ending at SH 16 in Medina.
The Leakey-to-Vanderpool section is the one that shows up in every video. Riders describe the westbound approach as a set of pleasant sweepers that hands you a decreasing-radius corner at the gap, and the eastbound version as a tight turn that opens onto an off-camber crest. Neither is a problem at a sane pace. Both punish someone riding to the pace of the person in front of them.
RM 336, the fast sister with the cattle
RM 336 starts on US 83 a short distance north of Leakey, near the Real County rodeo grounds, and runs 26 miles north up the West Frio drainage to SH 41. It picks up the northern end of RM 3235 partway along. This is the fastest of the three — long open sections, big rolling hills, fewer places where the road doubles back on itself — and it has the feature that surprises visitors most. Stretches of it are open range. There are no fences, cattle guards cross the road at intervals, and riders who know the road warn that a good number of those guards sit on a curve. A steel cattle guard mid-corner in the wet is not where you want to discover this for the first time.
RM 335, the roller coaster
RM 335 begins on SH 55 just north of Barksdale and runs 29 miles north to SH 41, up the Nueces River country in Edwards and Real counties. Riders consistently describe it as the least technical and the most rhythmic of the three: fewer tight switchbacks, more long rises and drops where the road crests a hill and falls away out of sight. It is also the emptiest. Between Barksdale and SH 41 there is essentially nothing, and SH 41 itself is a fast, empty connector across the top of the loop with about 14 miles between the two junctions.
Fuel, heat and the things that end a day early
Fuel. Services sit in the towns — Leakey, Camp Wood, Medina, Vanderpool, Barksdale — and there is nothing on the northern halves of 335 and 336 or across SH 41. Leakey is the sensible fill point because it sits at the junction of 337 and 336 and has a motorcycle stop as well as fuel. Treat SH 41 as a no-services zone and top off before you commit to the top of the loop.
Heat. This is Texas at low elevation. Leakey sits at 1,604 feet and the plateau tops out around 2,400, so there is no altitude relief in July and August. Afternoon riding in mid-summer means triple digits with no shade on the ridge sections. Spring and late fall are the seasons riders plan around, and Lost Maples draws crowds for a couple of weeks of fall color in late October and early November.
Surface. The pavement is mostly good and inconsistently good. Chip seal patches, gravel washed into the inside of corners after rain, and the occasional sand at the mouth of a ranch gate are all normal. The drop-offs beside some of the 337 corners are not guarded, and the ground beside the road is sharp limestone rather than grass.
Traffic and animals. Deer at dawn and dusk, free-range cattle on 336, and slow local traffic that has every right to be there. Weekends bring group rides and, in spring, cars out for bluebonnets — in that kind of pack it is worth knowing where you disappear from a driver's mirrors. Weekday mornings are the good hours.
Cell coverage. Patchy to nonexistent in the canyons. If something goes wrong between Barksdale and SH 41 you are relying on the next vehicle, not your phone.
Gear notes for the Twisted Sisters
Two specific things about this loop are worth setting up for. The first is that the route is a navigation puzzle rather than a single road — three ranch roads and two state highways, with junctions that are signed for the route number and nothing else, in an area where coverage drops out. Downloading the map area before you leave and running it on a handlebar riding system display keeps your phone out of the heat and your eyes near the road instead of down at a bar mount. The second is heat. Hill Country asphalt in summer runs far hotter than the air temperature, and hot pavement moves tire pressure more than most riders expect over a day that starts at seven in the morning and ends at four in the afternoon. Our tire pressure guide covers how much temperature actually shifts your numbers, and a valve-cap TPMS sensor reports it live rather than leaving you guessing at the next town. The JADO S6 puts both on one screen and keeps the cameras running, which matters on a road where a cow can be standing in your lane past a blind crest.
FAQ
How long does it take to ride the Twisted Sisters?
Plan a full day. The core 100-mile loop takes about three hours of moving time at a sane pace, but nobody rides it without stopping, and most riders add the eastern half of RM 337 to Medina, which pushes the day to 130 miles or more.
Which of the three sisters is the best?
RM 337, and it isn't close for technical riding. The section between Leakey and Vanderpool has the switchbacks and the elevation change. RM 335 is the fun rolling one and RM 336 is the fast one, but 337 is the reason people drive across Texas to get here.
Where should I start the loop?
Leakey if you want the tight core loop and a base with fuel, food and lodging in the middle of everything. Medina or Bandera if you want the longest possible version and don't mind adding highway miles at each end.
Is it suitable for a big touring bike?
Yes. The roads are two full lanes with reasonable sight lines by mountain standards, and plenty of baggers and touring bikes ride the loop every weekend. If a loaded bagger is the plan, the Natchez Trace Parkway is the other southern route built for that kind of bike. The caution is the same as for any of them: blind crests, unguarded drop-offs and gravel in corners reward a rider who leaves margin.
When is the worst time to ride it?
July and August afternoons, and any day after heavy rain, when low-water crossings in the canyons run and gravel washes onto the corners. Winter is generally rideable but cold mornings in the canyons are colder than the forecast for San Antonio suggests.
