Three hikes and dancing - That's 14,000 steps today

After deciding to "stay one more day" yesterday, again we decided to "stay one more day" today. We're enjoying our time around Canyon Lake, and we have a few more things to do here. We're always looking for a good hike, and today we found three. We started at the Guadalupe River Park just a few miles from our campground.

A nice hike with views of the river, we also got some nice views of more local wildflowers like this primrose.

After the recent rains, it feels good to be back on the trail, wandering through more of God's wonders.

Our second hike of the day started at Overlook Park, where we found a trail that took us over the rocks and right down to Canyon Lake. We're camped on the other side, so we've seen this big lake from both sides now.

Hidden among the rocky climb back to the overlook point was--you guessed it--more wildflowers like this purple verbena!

We're finding that the Indian Paintbrushes are at the end of their blooming season here, but we're still seeing a few pretty specimens.

Our next hike took us even higher into hill country to the James C. Curry Nature Center. You don't often see a highway with a 22% grade, and we were glad to be in the car instead of the motor home today.

From our view at the top, we could look down over the hills below. The new green leaves of the deciduous trees are peeking out around the deep green of the junipers. This make a checkerboard green splash of color that Denisa really likes.

We got to experience more of that 22% grade on the hike as we walked straight down and then slogged our way straight up again. It's hard to capture steepness in a picture, but our fitbit confirmed that we climbed the equivalent of 32 flights of stairs today.

We're guessing that you won't be surprised that Denisa took more pictures of wildflowers. We are just now beginning to see the reds of the Indian Blankets.

After all that hiking, we rewarded ourselves with a nice lunch. Mark's brother and sister-in-law recommended a local place that did not disappoint. We're sad that we forgot to take a picture of all the antlers at Richter's Antler Cafe, and of our lunch guests. If there would have been wildflowers involved, Denisa would have remembered the camera.

From there, we made the circle back to Gruene Hall. We found out that the live band tonight was playing "Texas Country" music, and we were ready for some dancing! This is the oldest dance floor in Texas, and they have spared no expense with their interior decorating. From the single bulbs lighting up the dance floor to the chicken wire over the glass-less windows, it's all original. We made enough trips around the dance floor to also note that old wood floor has a few warped places.

We danced to most of the songs for the next two hours. That added to our step count considerably for the day, as we're up to 14,270 steps (or 6.4 miles) now. Considering all the elevation change of our hiking, we got a pretty good work-out today. We should sleep well tonight, as we're making the best of our last day here at Lake Pointe Campground near Canyon Lake, Texas.