Garner State Park and Sunday Fun

This was the first Sunday since we left home that we didn't have a relative to give us advice on the best church to attend.  So we asked one of our neighbors here at the RV Park, and ended up at a great little church in Sabinal, Texas.  Our new friends offered us a ride to church, but we took our own car so we could continue down the road to Garner State Park for the afternoon.

While we are now in flat Texas country, just ten miles north the rolling terrain of hill country begins.  We still haven't seen the sun since we arrived, but the temperature on Sunday was good for a hike in the hills at the state park.  Of course, we would pick the most strenuous hike that took us to the top of the tallest peak.  This is the view of Mount Baldy from the parking lot below.

Notice the full-size pickup that looks tiny at the base.This hike was uphill all the way!

We are always amazed at the beautiful landscaping that happens when God does the planting.  

It was cloudy and even misty part of the time.  When we were half-way to the top, we could still see the Frio River through the fog.

But as we went higher, the clouds got thicker.  We will have to return to see the great views from these look out points that were clouded in on this day.

We knew we must be pretty high when we had to share the trail with this mountain goat.

To affirm that we made it to the top, we have the picture of the summit sign with Mark's appropriate pose.

There are many trails at Garner State Park, and we made a loop trail of something over 2 miles.  This included the Old Baldy trail to the Foshee Trail and then back to the car on the Bird Trail.  The steep trail going up was actually easier than our descent on the rain-slickened muddy rocks.  We sometimes had to hug the trees along the trail as our feet slipped on those wet rocks, and our shoes and jeans were a muddy mess by the time we got back to flat ground.

We then took a walk along the Frio River that runs through the park.  It is beautiful clear river, and we are hoping for some warm weather so we can put the kayak on it before we leave this area.

The cypress trees along the water our huge.  We stood beside them to give some sense of scale to their size.


We had the park almost to ourselves this cool and misty Sunday, but we have heard it is packed in the summer.  It's also a beautiful place to visit in the fall when the foliage is changing.

Mark tried to take a picture of a duck standing on the dam at the end of the river.  He was surprised that it stood still while he inched his way closer on the 6-inch wide lip of the dam.  Mark was 30 feet out on that narrow ledge when he started thinking what his options would be if that bird went into attack mode.  It could have involved getting very wet!  The risks we take in getting good blog pictures!

After a good long afternoon of nature, we drove the winding hill roads back to our RV Park.  We spotted this beautiful axis deer with an impressive rack on the drive home.

 Even when retired, there are schedules to keep. We had to be back by 6:00 for the Sunday evening ice cream social.  Afterwards, there was card bingo in the rec hall.  We have played versions of this game at other places, but Denisa really liked this version.  There were 28 people playing, and we played 14 games, and she beat all the odds and won 3 of the games.  I hope her winnings don't bump us into a higher tax bracket!