After just one day at Lake Colorado City, we were ready to head down the road to our next Texas state park. We have chosen our route south this year so that we could see as many new-to-us state parks as possible So we were a little miffed at ourselves when we pulled into this state park and realized that it looked very familiar. We have taken hikes through these same pecan trees down to the South Llano river before!
It's a good thing that we have five years of blogging our travels, because we could use the simple search tool at the top of our web page to discover that we had camped here in January 2017. That's almost three years of campgrounds ago, so we're not surprised that we had forgotten. As soon as we got set up in a very nice water and electric site, we read our blog to see what we did on that first visit.
Just like last time, we went to the four bird blinds in the park. They feed the birds every morning, so they are well-visited.
Just like last time, Denisa took way too many pictures of the birds.
Just like last time, Denisa still doesn't know all the names of these birds.
She does recognize the male and female cardinals, and they are the showiest of the Texas birds this time of year.
Also enjoying the seeds are the resident squirrels, who were gorging themselves on this easy meal. The squirrels we saw were all the usual brown variety . . .
until we found this black squirrel at the last bird blind.
We continued to watch as he stuffed his jowls full of the bird seed, and then posed for the camera.
Our timing was great for this second visit, because the ranger office was hosting a special party today--"Christmas at the Ranch." They had chairs set outside to listen to the local band that was playing favorite Christmas tunes on the porch.
It is a rule that we can't sit still why a good two-stepping song is being played, so we got up to dance. Thanks to our new friend Jeff, for taking these pictures of our impromptu dance at the state park ranch.
We enjoyed the outdoor booths, where everyone was encouraged to string bird-friendly garland and make peanut-butter-and-bird-seed ornaments for the evergreen tree in front of the park office. The weather was absolutely beautiful, with temperatures in the 70s and not even a breeze to blow the bird seed.
Denisa enjoyed making an ornament, but we both really liked what was going on at the next display table. They were cooking dutch oven treats over a camp fire, and then sharing them with the visitors. We didn't get a picture until after several servings had been dipped out of the cast iron pan. But we can verify that the peach cobbler was delicious!We also enjoyed the camp fire biscuits served with homemade strawberry and cherry jellies.
Denisa also visited the booth to decorate a sugar cookie. Sugar is the key word here, as we left on a sugar-high after also tasting the hot apple cider, and hot chocolate with marshmallows. "Christmas at the Ranch" was a tasty success in our eyes.
We needed to do some more hiking to burn off all those calories. So just like last time, we headed into the "back country" part of the park.
We left a little late in the day on this 9-mile loop hike. As the sun was starting to set, we saw that we needed to shorten the loop. So we did some bush-whacking through the mesquite and junipers to find the other side of the loop. Even shortened to just 7 miles, we were still walking back to the motor home in the dark.
Just like last time, we saw more than a dozen armadillos that make their home here at South Llano River State Park.
God gave these guys a thick armor shield to protect them from predators because they can't see or hear when danger is near. It was easy to get a good picture, because an armadillo would approach because he couldn't see us.
We did catch one in an upright pose, when he suddenly realized he was not alone.
Just like last time, we spent some time looking over the fence at the wild game ranch next door. This is a black buck antelope that we pictured last time too.
When we read the blog from three years ago, it mentioned that the Junction Methodist Church was the friendliest church we had visited in the two years we had been on the road. So of course, we went back to visit again this Sunday. Just like last time, they welcomed us with open arms and invitations to join them for other worship opportunities!
Even though we love exploring new places, some times it is nice to return for a repeat visit--even if we didn't mean to. Just like last time, we enjoyed our two days at South Llano River State Park.
We stayed at our last camping spot an extra day to avoid the wind, and we were rewarded with a really nice travel day to our next destination. Our three-hour drive took us through the town of Turkey, Texas. We love small-town America with the permanent turkey statue on Main Street and "Turkey" proudly emblazoned on the water tower. But this little town has another claim to fame, because this is the home town of Bob Wills. His red traveling bus is still sitting on Main, with "Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys" painted across the top.
Yesterday's winds left behind unusual clouds that were stacked in rows across the sky today. We are driving some less-traveled roads between these state parks. But we are glad to be in Texas, where even the small roads have wide shoulders. Texas gets our award for having the best roads in the country.
Texas also gets our vote for the best state park system. We are using state parks for our stops going south this winter, as we really enjoy their spacious camping sites and clean parks. Of all the states where we have traveled, Texas has some of the best and most affordable state park camping IF you purchase an annual pass. For $70 we bought the pass that gives us free admission to all 80 of the state parks. New this year, that pass also gives unlimited half-price camping for the second night at the same park. With most parks charging $17-$22 for a full-price stay, it's really a bargain for a two-night stay. We are fans of the state park pass, as we'll cover the price of the annual pass during our journey south this year.
We're taking a new route through Texas this year so we can visit new parks. We enjoyed our second state park stop at Lake Colorado City--even though we didn't get into the water. They rent kayaks during the warmer months, but they don't rent them when "it" is below the 120-rule. We had never heard of this rule. But the park ranger explained that when the sum of the water temperature plus the air temperature is less than 120 degrees, people shouldn't be kayaking. We're pretty sure that we have broken that rule many times before.
The water looked inviting, but today we are opting for our bicycles as the best way to get around this state park. We rode down every road, just to get some exercise and see everything the park has to offer. We found that most of those roads were lined with prickly pear cactus and mesquite trees!
Our best view of the lake from our camp site appropriately has cactus in the foreground.
In west Texas, we are wandering God's wonders as we find symbols of love even among these prickly pear cactus.
A ranger once told us that many animals use the cactus as a source of nutrition and moisture. If they take a nibble out of the top of a cactus pad, it will seal that spot and take on a heart-shape. We were feeling the love!
We are also seeing that some local wildlife are getting their nutrition from the balls that are covering many of the Juniper trees. We won't show a picture of the scat we see covering the trail, but we can tell that the animal's previous meal was juniper berries.
We rented a pull-through camp site, and we didn't even disconnect the car from the motor home today. We just spent one night at Lake Colorado City State Park, but it was a nice stop-over as we continue our path south.
We had only planned to stay at Caprock Canyons State Park for two nights. But when the weather forecast predicted 30 mph winds from the west with gusts up to 50, we decided to stay a third night. Driving a motor home with strong side winds is no fun, and we are driving further than usual each moving day in our journey south. So it is nice to have the flexibility to stay put and "enjoy" the winds here at Caprock Canyons. We took a picture of one of the sturdy caprocks, protecting its mound of red dirt that would melt away quickly without that cap.
We intended to make the short hike to see the natural bridge on the Eagle Point Trail. But we hiked right over that bridge and found ourselves about a mile past it before we decided to turn around and try again. Oops! We found it on the way back. In the picture below, you can barely see Denisa's silhouette in the light under the bridge.
It looks like much of the ceiling of the natural bridge has collapsed, and it was tricky getting through it. That's probably why the signs we were looking for are no longer on the trail.
The 30 mph winds did show up today, and we decided to drive the car to explore our surroundings. The little town just south of the park is Quitaque, Texas. Like you, we had no idea how to pronounce it. This must be a common problem, as the people that live here have placed large signs on all sides of town that explain it is pronounced <Kitty-quay>.
We drove 6 miles south of town to Monks' Crossing, a trail head of the Caprock Canyons Trailway. We're fans of rail-to-trail paths, that are relatively level trails because they used to host railroad tracks. We can tell that this is a trail-less-traveled, as we had to struggle riding over the bumpy mounds of grass growing up through it.
The good news is that much of this section of the trail is down below earthen walls. This protected us from the strong winds on both sides, as shown in the picture above. But when we got to the unprotected bridges, we could feel the full force of today's stiff winds. Just like driving a motor home, riding a bike is tough in winds like this.
So we rode just long enough to get to the bridge over Los Lingos Creek. It's the longest train trestle of this 64-mile trail that makes its way across the plains of the Texas panhandle.
On the way back into the state park, we found more of the bison herd on the road. They were also congregating by the park lake, which had white caps from the waves kicked up by the wind.
We don't know if it was the wind, but something had stirred up the bison herd. We watched as two different groups were dueling it out. We couldn't help but notice that they both are holding their tails in the question mark pose that we talked about yesterday. The park brochure pointed out that was a sure sign of an agitated bison.
So even on this windy day, we found things to do, and got some good exercise. One other side benefit of the wind is that the dirt suspended in the air on a windy day can make for a beautiful sunset. We took this picture from our campground as the winds continued to blow. It's been a good stay at Caprock Canyons State Park, even if its sometimes windy here!
After sitting in its parking place in the panhandle of Oklahoma for 68 days, we were relieved that the engine of our motor home roared to life when we turned the key in the ignition. We're on the road again and heading south across the Texas state line! We waited for a calm wind day with breezes out of the north to push us south. With the wind at our back, we got great mileage, averaging around 10 miles per gallon of diesel.
Our destination is a new-to-us Texas state park. We arrived at Caprock Canyon in time to enjoy the red rocks on this beautiful 70-degree afternoon.
Mark took advantage of the nice weather to de-winterize the plumbing system of the motor home. We flushed all that pink anti-freeze out of the lines so we could get back to living in our home. We don't see any low temperatures below 32 degrees in our forecast as we head south.
Caprock Canyon State Park is home to the state of Texas's bison herd. We soon got to meet part of the herd, as they wandered close to our campground.
Denisa was taking the trash to the dumpster when she got a close-up view of the largest land mammals in North America.
They were walking through the territory of some of the smaller land mammals. If you look closely, you can see a few prairie dog heads popping out of their mounds as part of the herd walked by.
We have a prairie dog town right beside our campground. If we didn't know how these animals can ruin acres of prime ranch land, we might think these guys were cute.
The long line of bison continued to move through our area all evening. Some stopped by empty camping spots to help with the mowing--and the fertilizing. The camp sites are great here, with electric and water hook-ups, covered picnic tables, and large spaces between RVs.
Denisa was talking to the campground host when a bison started scratching on the wooden post that supports one camp site's water pedestal. He managed to turn on the water, and helped himself to a drink. The host said that this happens all the time, as she walked over to turn off the water.
We were in no hurry to get up the next day, as the temperatures were in the 40s most of the morning. We were on the trail by 11:00, ready to tackle the loop hike that started at the North Prong Spur trail head.
Very soon we were in the red rock canyon that gives the park its name. After two-and-a-half months of being off the trail, it was great to be hiking again!
Our loop took us up out of the canyon, and onto the Haynes Ridge trail. We are really out of shape, as this incline took our breath away.
But it took us up on the ridge, for breath-taking views of the red canyon that now was far below us.
Three miles into the hike, we arrived at the Fern Cave, where we found a few green ferns in this protected environment even in December.
The picture above looks like Mark has made an easy hike to sit on that rock. But when Denisa zooms out, we see that getting into the Fern Cave takes some big boulder scrambling.
Four miles in, we spotted the most famous rock formation in the park. High on the ridge to the left is the set of hoodoos in a dance-like pose named "The Last Dance."
We would have liked to pose in front of these massive stone columns, mimicking the stance of these two dancers. But that would have taken the help of a fellow hiker to take the picture. While we were on the trail for four hours today, we never saw another person. So we had to settle for a close-up of the two hoodoo dancers instead. We also liked the rock formation that looked like a puppy on the far left side of the picture. Do you see it?
The red cliffs are lovely, and if you look closely you can see that many of them have stripes of white gypsum throughout.
After spending the first half of this hike on the ridge looking down into the canyon, the second half of the loop had us walking on the canyon floor and looking up at these tall red walls. It's good to be back wandering in some of God's colorful wonders.
We were just a mile away from our car on this loop hike when we got to the intersection for the lower north prong trail head. We could see that a large bull bison was standing right where we needed to hike.
He was taking his guard duties very seriously, so we scrambled up the red hill to make our own detour around him. We received a brochure about the bison when we entered the park. It emphasized that these are wild animals, and visitors should never get closer than 50 yards or crowd them in any way. An agitated bison can charge at 30 mph, closing that gap in a hurry. A bison that is agitated and may charge will hold its tail up in a question-mark-shaped arch. This guy was arching his tail when we approached, but then he tried to ignore us as we skirted the area around him.
Our detour off the trail took us to a plastic box padlocked to a small tree. We recognized this as a geocache, and opened the box to see the treasures hidden inside. Geocaching uses GPS locators to lead people through some interesting or beautiful places to find the cache. This was certainly an interesting AND beautiful place today.
We made it back to the car, a little tired after our 7-mile hike today. After two months of sedentary living, we were feeling those inclines on the trail today. We drove the rest of the park roads, and found that the signage is very true. When we found a "Watch for bison crossing roadway" sign, we also found a group of bison crossing the roadway.
While this herd has access to all the grassland on this good-sized park, we found that the park rangers also feed them. They had just unloaded cake for the bison right on the road. No, not the kind of cake that has icing and is served at birthday parties. Since we were both raised on ranches, we recognized the protein-rich brown pellets that you can see on the edge of the highway in the picture below. Cattle--and bison--eat this cake like it is candy.
We found that this herd are direct descendants of the bison that Charles Goodnight's wife encouraged him save when it looked like the American bison would be hunted to extinction. They were donated to the state of Texas in 1996, and have been prospering here at Caprock Canyon State Park ever since. We are also prospering here, glad to be on the road again!
