Real County Map is especially useful when you want to understand why Leakey and Camp Wood feel close on a county outline but belong to noticeably different landscapes. Real County lies on the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau, where steep ridges separate the Frio River canyons from the Nueces River side of the county. The maps on this page show roads, settlements, waterways, and elevation, and the same material is available below as a downloadable ZIP of high-resolution A3 JPG files.
The road-and-place map immediately shows that most travel is shaped by valleys rather than by a simple rectangular street grid. Leakey sits in the southern part of the county along U.S. 83, with routes 336 and 337 nearby. Camp Wood is farther west and meets the corridor marked 55, while Barksdale and Vance continue northward on the western side. Route 41 crosses the upper part of the county, and route 39 appears along the eastern edge.
The water and elevation maps explain that arrangement even better. West Frio River, Frio River, East Frio River, and Dry Frio River occupy the central and eastern canyon system, while East Prong Nueces River follows the western side. The elevation map gives an actual mapped range of about 417 to 736 meters, with a mean of 623 meters, so the difference between low river corridors and higher ridges is large enough to be visible across the county.
Table of Contents
Roads bend through the county instead of crossing a flat grid
Leakey is the easiest reference point on the main county map. It lies in the lower half of Real County, slightly east of center, where U.S. 83 runs north and south and routes 336 and 337 meet the surrounding hill country. Rio Frio is shown farther south on U.S. 83. The map therefore gives Leakey a strong role as a road junction within the Frio side of the county rather than placing the town at the geometric center of the county outline.
Camp Wood occupies a different setting in the southwest. Route 55 reaches the community from the west and continues through the Nueces-side valley, while Barksdale and Vance appear farther north. Vance is close to the route marked 335. Between the Camp Wood side and Leakey, route 337 crosses rugged terrain rather than following a broad open plain, which is one reason the road stands out when the base map is compared with the shaded terrain maps.
The county boundary is also worth noticing. The city-distribution map labels Edwards County to the west and northwest, Kerr County to the northeast, Bandera County to the east, and Uvalde County to the southwest. Parts of the western edge are irregular rather than ruler-straight, which fits the way the Nueces-side drainage and rugged terrain define that side of Real County.
This map is best used for county-scale orientation. It can help you see whether a place lies toward Leakey, Camp Wood, the upper western valley, or the Rio Frio direction, but it is not a substitute for turn-by-turn navigation or parcel-level mapping. Its value is in showing the large relationships among places, roads, county edges, and the many small streams crossing the terrain.
Leakey and Camp Wood anchor two different valley systems
The city-index map strips away much of the road detail and emphasizes just two major places: Camp Wood and Leakey. The index panel prints values of 939 for Camp Wood and 721 for Leakey. Those are values shown on the supplied map, so they are best treated as part of this map edition rather than as a claim about the latest official population count.
The more important information is where the two places sit. Camp Wood is near the southwestern side of the county in the Nueces valley, while Leakey lies east of it in the Frio system. A broad band of ridges and branching drainages separates them. Even without road labels, the city map makes clear that the county’s two best-known settlement centers are not clustered in one shared basin.
Leakey is the county seat. The official Real County website lists the courthouse on Highway 83 South in Leakey, which matches the town’s administrative role on the map. Camp Wood, meanwhile, provides the clearest settlement reference for the western Nueces Canyon. Looking at both towns together is more informative than treating Real County as if it had one continuous urban corridor.
The base map adds smaller names that the city-index map intentionally leaves out. Rio Frio appears south of Leakey, while Barksdale and Vance mark the western side north of Camp Wood. Use the base map when you need those additional place names; use the city map when you want the cleanest possible comparison between the county’s two main settlement centers.
Frio and Nueces waterways reveal the canyon pattern
The terrain-and-water map is the clearest way to understand Real County’s physical geography. East Prong Nueces River is labeled on the western side, following a low corridor near the irregular county edge. In the central part of the county, West Frio River comes south through the hills, and the Frio River continues through the lower portion. East Frio River forms another strong branch on the eastern side, while Dry Frio River appears farther southwest.
Several named creeks add detail between the major river branches. Paint Creek is labeled in the north, Bullhead Creek appears in the western interior, Camp Wood Creek is near the southwest, Patterson Creek crosses part of the central-southern terrain, and Little Dry Frio Creek lies east of the main Frio corridor. Pletcher Lake is also labeled on the western side. Many additional thin blue tributaries have no printed name but show how thoroughly the county is cut by small valleys.
The shaded relief behind the streams is important. West Frio River occupies a long low valley between higher slopes, and East Frio River winds through another deeply cut corridor. The western Nueces side has its own lower passage between ridges. These valleys help explain why communities and roads are concentrated in narrow strips even though the county outline covers a much larger area.
This is a reference map of mapped water features and terrain, not a flood-risk, navigation, legal-water-boundary, or property map. A blue line shows where a river or creek is mapped; it does not tell you whether a crossing is currently passable, whether water is flowing at a particular time, or whether nearby land is safe from flooding. For those questions, current official and local information is necessary.
The 417–736 m elevation range makes the ridges easy to see
The elevation map reports an actual range from roughly 417 meters to 736 meters, with a mean elevation of 623 meters. Lower terrain is shown in green and tends to follow the river valleys, especially in the southern and western portions. Higher brown terrain occupies much of the north and the long ridges between drainages. A difference of more than 300 meters across the mapped county is enough to create a very different visual pattern from the flatter parts of Texas.
The Frio system is especially easy to trace because the low valley appears as a green corridor cutting through higher ridges. Another low band follows the western Nueces side. Between them, higher ground forms a broad divide. The result is not one isolated mountain but a repeated sequence of narrow valleys, slopes, and ridge tops, which is why the water map contains so many branching streams.
The Handbook of Texas description of Real County matches what is visible here: the county occupies part of the Balcones Escarpment along the southern edge of the Edwards Plateau and is characterized by sharply dissected canyon country. It also identifies the Frio and Nueces headwaters as defining features. The supplied elevation and water maps turn that broad description into a much more concrete picture of where the low valleys and high divides actually lie.
The elevation surface should still be treated as a regional reference rather than survey-grade information. It is useful for comparing the relative height of the north, the river bottoms, and the ridges between the two canyon systems. Engineering design, construction, property work, or a precise elevation at one point requires original elevation data and professional surveying.
The two-canyon geography also shaped travel and local history
Real County’s modern map makes more sense with a little historical context. The Handbook of Texas explains that Real County was organized in 1913 from parts of neighboring counties partly because residents faced difficult travel over rugged roads to distant county seats. Leakey became the county seat, but people in the Frio and Nueces canyons continued to live in landscapes separated by the high divide between the river systems.
That source also notes that before the road now numbered 337 was completed between Camp Wood and Leakey, travel between the two canyon communities often required a long route to the south. On today’s base map, route 337 is the conspicuous cross-county connection between the Camp Wood side and Leakey. Seeing the road against the elevation map helps explain why this east-west link matters: it crosses terrain that otherwise separates the two settlement areas.
Vance and Barksdale provide additional reference points for the western canyon. Vance appears near route 335 and the upper western drainage, while Barksdale lies south of it toward Camp Wood. The water map places East Prong Nueces River along the same side of the county. Combining place names with the river map therefore gives a clearer picture of the western valley than a list of communities by itself.
Choose the map by the question you are trying to answer
For the widest mix of place names and road numbers, start with the base county map. It is the best choice for locating Leakey, Camp Wood, Barksdale, Vance, Rio Frio, U.S. 83, and the numbered routes in one view. If you only need to compare the positions of the two main settlement centers, the city-index map is cleaner and removes much of the extra detail.
Use the water map when your question involves the Frio River system, East Prong Nueces River, Pletcher Lake, or the network of named creeks. Use the elevation map when you want to show why those streams occupy narrow corridors and why the two main settlement areas are separated by rougher high ground. For a classroom handout or a regional explanation, pairing the water and elevation maps is often more informative than placing every feature on a single crowded graphic.
The downloadable package contains the county map, city map, terrain-and-water map, and elevation map as separate JPG files. Keeping them separate lets you select a simpler map for location work or a more detailed physical map for terrain and river discussion. They are useful as reference and print resources, but current navigation, flood conditions, parcel boundaries, and engineering measurements should always be checked with the appropriate live or professional sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Leakey and Camp Wood in the same river valley?
No. Leakey is on the Frio side of Real County, while Camp Wood is in the western Nueces Canyon. The maps show a broad area of ridges and branching drainages between them, with route 337 providing the most obvious mapped cross-county connection.
Which waterways are most prominent on the Real County water map?
West Frio River, Frio River, East Frio River, and East Prong Nueces River are the strongest named river features. Dry Frio River, Pletcher Lake, and creeks such as Paint Creek, Bullhead Creek, Camp Wood Creek, Patterson Creek, and Little Dry Frio Creek add detail to the canyon network.
Can the elevation map be used for precise surveying?
No. The supplied map is a county-scale reference showing an elevation range of about 417–736 meters and a mean of 623 meters. It is useful for comparing valleys and ridges, but a parcel, building site, or engineering project requires original elevation data and professional survey information.
Map File Information
The Real County map material used on this page is available as high-resolution A3 JPG files.
- Included Files: County map, city map, terrain and water map, elevation map
- File Type: 4 JPG files inside one ZIP archive
Related Maps
Sources and References
For current county government information and the courthouse location, see the official Real County website. Historical and geographic background on the Frio and Nueces canyon systems is available in the Handbook of Texas entry for Real County.
Authoritative reference sources for the mapped data include USGS National Hydrography for water features, the USGS 3D Elevation Program for elevation, and U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles for geographic boundaries.
Green Map creates custom-edited map images using open geographic data sources such as geoBoundaries, Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, and government open data.
These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
