Last Days in Texas

Leaving South Llano State Park, it was time to start making our way out of Texas. First stop: San Angelo State Park. We stayed in the South campground which used to overlook OC Fisher Reservoir, which is currently dry due to drought. The park is still pretty in its spring green and lots of flowers popping out all over the place.

There are 50 miles of multi-use trails in the park, which look like they'd be excellent for some easy mountain biking. There is a fancy bird blind and small herds of both bison and Texas Longhorns. We only spent two nights here and enjoyed a short hike at the North end of the park as well as some good BBQ at Bodacious BBQ in nearby San Angelo.

There are numerous camping areas throughout the park, many sites have water and electric hookups. Camp sites are well separated and we had excellent 4G Verizon signal.

Site 16, we camped in a field of flowers!

Walking the aptly named Shady Trail at the North end of the park.

We'd been warned to watch out for snakes...

...and were glad we took that advice seriously!

This was the fanciest bird blind we'd seen yet in TX.
The blinds at South Llano were fenced, this one was open and this javelina was a regular visitor!

Volunteers put bird seed on the logs and "Fred" would visit every day like clockwork.
Other viewers said they'd seen an additional peccary and a tom turkey having a feed!

We're going to miss all the lovely flowers we've enjoyed this spring in Texas as we head in to New Mexico.

The drive to our last stop in Texas, Monahans Sandhills State Park, was through oil country, not the prettiest part of the state. But the state park did not disappoint. The campsites are right next to the dunes and you could walk for miles through an otherworldly mix of dunes and hardy, low lying plants.

That's our site #12 right in front.

We had a fun happy hour with Dino and Pam, owners of this very cool Earth Roamer.
You can check out their travels at UltimateCampsite.com.

Sunset our first night.

Sunrise the next morning.
That's Hans on the dune enjoying the show.

It was neat being the first people walking the dunes in the morning. Lots of tracks in the freshly blown sand and shifting shadows as the sun peeked in and out of the clouds.

We though Rosie would love the sand...but she seems a little freaked out by it.
Hans carried her to the top of the dune and she RAN back to the RV.

Ears back...Get me home right now!

What a send off! This afternoon a thunder storm passed over us and put on quite a show!

Rain's coming! And lighting! Scary exciting!

We've had two fun months in Texas. Locals tell us this has been the best wildflower season they can remember...love serendipity!

New Mexico here we come!

Wildlife Haven: South Llano River State Park

We spent the past three nights at South Llano River State Park, a place with zero Verizon 3g or 4g signal but just enough 1X signal to be able to make phone calls. Immersion in nature is the reason to visit this park and boy did it provide nature in abundance!

Though we had a reservation in advance, the sites are not assigned until arrival. We'd scoped out the camp sites via the park map and Google Maps prior to arrival so we knew we'd like to be in site 21, 23 or 25, and 23 happened to be available. These three sites are situated along the curve at the far end of the campground, each opens onto forest and are well separated from each other. There are a total of 58 water/electric sites here.

The park supports abundant wildlife in a variety of habitats. The South Llano River flows along the North edge of the park, pecan trees grow in the river flood zone, and the juniper and cedar forests of the hill country rise away from the river bottom. We saw dozens of deer each day and several armadillos. There are even beaver in the river, though we did not see any.

There are 18 miles of trails here and we must have hiked at least 12 of them, some multiple times. All of the trails along the river or in the pecan bottoms are flat, if you head into the hills you'll get a good workout.

There are several elaborate bird blinds set up in the park, each with a water feature for the birds, feeders and enticing bird habitat, with comfy seating and bird identification books in the humans viewing enclosure.

Turkeys are also a big deal here. Approximately 800 Rio Grande Turkey roost here each year between October and April...numbers like that would certainly be a sight to see! We only saw a handful of turkeys during our stay, perhaps the few males that had not managed to attract a female during the normal roosting season.

I'll let the photos tell the story of our wonderful stay at South Llano River State Park...

Site #23, deep and private.

Rosie is a bit freaked out by the deer so near our campsite!

The view from our big picture window.

We took our chairs just a few feet into the forest from our site for total privacy and nature immersion.

Most of the other sites have less privacy, though most are well separated from each other.

The South Llano River has undercut the bank and a large pecan tree is now providing fish and turtle habitat.

Walking the bottom land.

We were wildly excited to see our first armadillo!

We had two full days in the park so we headed into the hills for several miles each day. I didn't take many pictures up in the hills because we didn't see many animals and the vegetation consisted of dense juniper and oak forest with views of hills covered in more dense juniper and oak forest. We enjoyed our hikes, they just weren't particularly photo worthy!

The bottom land was prettier in our opinion, brilliant spring green everywhere you looked.

One of many viewing blinds scattered throughout the park.

One of the prettiest parts of the hill country trails!

View from the scenic viewpoint.
You can see tiny bits of RV's right behind Hans' head, that's the campground.
The pasture on the right is private property.

This is the type of environment the armadillos forage in.

Armadillos are amazingly fast creatures...most of my photos looked like this due to their speed!
We'd spot one, make our way in its direction and it would take off through the prickly pear landscape,
heading for its hole.

Our second evening turned sunny, lighting up the green all around us.

Vermilion flycatcher

They are hard to miss!

Pretty scissor tailed flycatchers are new to us in Texas.

One of the few tom turkeys strutting his stuff across a meadow.

There's an armadillo in this shot...

I stopped when I saw this one and then slowly crept towards it,
they have poor vision so I hoped to get closer without it seeing me...

He senses me and stands up to sniff the air...

See how easy it is for them to hide in this environment?!

Here's another one trying to sniff out the danger.
Notice the hairy belly!

We even had a beautiful sunset one evening.

This was a wonderful back-to-nature stopover for us. We'd definitely stay here again, it's peaceful and beautiful and the wildlife can't be beat!

Fredericksburg, The Heart of Hill Country

We've had a fabulous five nights in Fredericksburg, TX. Besides visiting Enchanted Rock and the LBJ Ranch, we also walked downtown Fredericksburg and some of the very lovely surrounding neighborhoods. There are numerous well preserved historic homes and commercial buildings from the mid to late 1800's, and the German ancestry is readily apparent.

Though Fredericksburg is a tourist town, many of the tourist focused shops have quality looking merchandise and there are a lot of decent looking places to eat. We only ate out once and chose to relive Hans' childhood with a traditional German meal at the Old German Bakery and Restaurant. Though we did not buy any, their pastries looked decadently delicious!

In five days we did not manage to do everything the area has to offer, including the National Museum of the Pacific War, which we've heard is excellent. Darn, I guess we'll have to come back!

Shop alley.

The old courthouse is now the library.

Bluebonnets are looking lovely in pockets all over town.

One of many beautifully preserved historic homes.
The limestone building on the far left is an old jailhouse!

A German feast! Rouladen and Currywurst

We've had quite a bit of clouds during our stay and Sunday was no exception when we met up with Bob and Susan (Travel Bug) from San Antonio for one last hike and lunch before we move out of the area. We rendezvous'd at Joshua Springs Park and Preserve and got caught up since we last saw each other a few weeks ago on a nice five mile hike around meadows and up to a fogged in viewpoint (we didn't mind the clouds so much because it kept us cool--Texas humidity has been in the air lately!).

Walking one of the meadows at Joshua Springs.

The neon green of spring growth brightens a gray morning.

Our lunchtime wildlife sighting.

Lisa, Hans, Susan and Bob sharing lunch and camaraderie.

After lunch the four of us drove up to Comfort, TX and walked the streets of this charming, old hill country town, then piled into one car and drove some of the back-of-town roads along a tributary of the Guadalupe River. It was another fun day spent in easy going, comfortable company.

Comfort was founded by Freethinkers...my kind of people!

Plenty of nicely preserved old Texas buildings in Comfort, whose slogan is "An Antique Town".

Cute cafe: Comfortable in Comfort, TX!

This cute building is a greenhouse on private property!

Cypress Creek.

After saying our good byes, on Bob and Susan's recommendation, we drove Old San Antonio Road back to Fredericksburg. What a lovely stretch of hill country road! Rolling hills of meadows and oak and cypress forest, ranch and farm land, all in every shade of green imaginable.

The railroad is gone but the trestle remains.

We took a short detour to visit James Kiehl River Bend Park, another good find by Susan and Bob. This small park is dedicated to Mr. Kiehl and other servicemen and women who lost their lives in the service of their country. Short trails along the Guadalupe River provide birding and fishing opportunities, while interpretive plaques provide information about the areas railroad history and local flora and fauna.

Cypress reflections in the Guadalupe River.
We heard what sounded like a peacock on our walk but never located the source of those distinctive calls.

We interrupted a few of these guys feasting on something in the road...

Campground Review

Lady Bird Johnson Municipal RV Park was an excellent place to stay for a few nights. Many of it's 98 sites have a view of the runway at Fredericksburg airport. We had site 86, an extremely long pull through that used to support two RV's back to back and now is one site. The only bummer is that your door faces your neighbors door, pretty close by.

The Municipal park contains all kinds of sports fields as well as a public golf course, public pool, tennis courts and fishing in Live Oak Creek/Lake. There are two very pretty nature trails that cover about two miles, plus add on the loop around the entire park grounds and you've walked about three miles...excellent! There is an enormous (like 10 acres) enclosed dog park between the RV's and the air strip, oddly we never saw a dog in there. The only thing missing is a laundry facility, but you can find that about two miles up the road into town.

We really enjoyed staying here. Watching the variety of aircraft was interesting and walking the grounds and trails was serene and beautiful; the park is huge and very pretty in its spring clothing. Very quiet at night. $30/night for full hookups. Decent Verizon signal. We were about 15 miles from both Enchanted Rock and LBJ Ranch, and only three miles from the center of Fredericksburg. We'd definitely stay here again.

We are in Site 86, our neighbors door faces ours.
The air strip is behind the truck.

Many of the sites in this park have a front row view of the air strip.

There were three old military helicopters practicing hovering one sunny day.

The Hangar Hotel and the Airport Diner face the runway.
Notice the hotel balcony with chairs for plane watching.

A B17 and a B24 took off several times a day during our stay.

The butterfly / hummingbird garden adjacent to the RV park.

Evening reflections on Live Oak Creek Lake.

View trail or water trail?

Bird blind overlooking several feeders.

This guy was as big as Hans' fist!

Today we're off to South Llano State Park, an easy hour drive from here, where we'll be without signal for a few days unless we go in to town...