The Big Bend of Texas (07-25-21)

 
Paul and I love this area of Texas, and have been here several times. Big Bend is one of my favorite national parks- but this time, we came for something else- Big Bend Ranch State Park.  We chose to stay at a resort that is closer to the state park than the national park. It has a pool, fitness room and restaurants. I guess part of the reason I have been choosing resort type places is because its so hot outside, we need things to do besides hike.

Anyway, our first morning there it was our intent to drive into the state park and do a hike. As we sat drinking our coffee, I punched it in Google maps and discovered its a 2 hour drive- mostly down a dirt road. Well, we had lingered too long over our coffee, so we didn’t make it to the park that day. I had forgotten that to get anywhere in this area is at least an hour and a half drive. We elected to leave very early the next day and make a whole day of it.

Instead, we took a short ride along the Rio Grande, enjoying the scenery.

Up early the next day we headed into the park. One of the things I noticed on the bone jarring ride down the dirt road, was a veritable forest of Ocotillo.  We are used to seeing one or two of these plants, but this was thousands of them. And there were “babies”, which we rarely see anywhere.

We stopped at the ranger station to get the scoop on what we should do, and she recommended Cinco Tinajas Trail, about 3 miles round trip.

A tinaja is basically a natural basin with water in it. We hiked as far along as we could without having to go IN the water, then headed up the side, to look down into the chasm.

Further along the trail we came upon a red tailed hawk.  It was really neat to see the mockingbird dove bomb the hawk repeatedly. He must have been near the bird’s nest but he sure didn’t seem to take the attack seriously.

He didn’t seem to care about us much either, showing his apparent disdain by ignoring us.

It was already getting quite warm by the time we finished that hike, so we elected to pass on the second one we were going to do, and just drove around the park, having decided that Big Bend Ranch State Park would be a One Day and Done kind of park.

On the way back to the rig, we stopped to do a short hike into Closed Canyon.  The walls of the canyon are so high, its partly in the shade, making it cooler in the canyon. However, it was 102* outside, and one of us thought that was a little too warm to venture very far into the canyon, so we took a peek, and headed back out.

Being gluttons for punishment, we were up and out the door by daybreak the next day, hiking up a hill adjacent to the RV park.

It was 4 miles round trip, giving us views of the surrounding area and the Rio Grande.

We were done early enough to spend some time in the pool before heading to nearby Study Butte for the 4th of July parade.

On the drive there, it became increasingly clear that there wasn’t going to be a parade, but we still had a great time watching the storm come through.

Not to be deterred, the following day we once again headed to Study Butte for the postponed parade, but it was not meant to be…another storm came through the area, and the parade was canceled again.

This time we skedaddled fast enough to make it to our favorite restaurant just ahead of the crowd.  Starlight Theater has excellent food, and live entertainment most nights. In fact, we ate here twice on this trip.

Our final day in the area we headed to Big Bend National Park.  Before we went, I checked a hiking map to see if there were any interesting trails that we hadn’t hiked yet. I didn’t think there were, and I was right.  We have hiked most of the trails that are under 15 miles…some of them 2-3 times. So, I picked my favorite trail, and that’s what we hiked- Lost Mine Trail.

On our way in to the park we were kind of happy to see the cloud cover hanging over the Chisos Basin.  Clouds would make the hike much cooler….as long as they cleared before we got to the top.

Luckily they did, and we were able to enjoy the fantastic views at the summit.

Once our stay at Big Bend was over, we headed to El Paso to see Paul’s mom.

Texas (07-05-21)

 As we entered the state of Texas, we got out a map to take a look and see where we might want to go. Hill Country was high on our list of options, and we reached out to friends to get some recommendations. And then we realized that we would be traveling quite near our “home” of Livingston TX, and we began to think.  It has been 11 years since we updated our wills etc and this was a good opportunity to take a look at them and make any changes we need.  So we detoured just slightly out of our way, and spent two days in Livingston, updating our “Life Documents”. Our attorney had retired so we needed to hire a new one.

These days  so much is done electronically that we discussed what changes we want and then went on our merry way.

Our first “fun” stop was Kerrville Texas, hill country, but we were slightly delayed in arriving.  As I was navigating, I realized we would literally drive right past the Blue Bell Creamery in New Braunfels.  Blue Bell is Paul’s favorite ice cream.  Lucky for us there was room in the parking lot for our rig (the small print on the sign says "We eat all we can and we sell the rest)!

The company formed in 1907, buying excess milk from local farmers to make butter.  In 1911 they added ice cream to their repertoire, and the company grew from there.  There are no tours anymore but you can buy ice cream and trinkets in the store.  Each scoop costs just a dollar, so I assumed they would be small, and I bought two for myself.  Ooops.  I couldn’t finish them, oh well.

The RV park  where we stayed in Kerrville (Buckhorn Lake Resort) is now one of my favorite ones we have stayed in over the years.  They just do a good job, and it helped that we were in the Adults Only section, complete with adults only pool, laundry and fitness room.

We took a day trip to Bandera- the Cowboy Capital of the world. It was the staging area for the last great cattle drives of the late 1800s, which gave it that title.  

There is a small museum there, so that’s where we started.  It showcased many of the famous local cowboys and cowgirls, like Stephanie Byrd, who began competing at age 6. We meandered around downtown before heading home.

There was one other thing we wanted to do before moving on from Kerrville.  See the bats.

Old Tunnel State Park, in the summer, is home to upwards of 3 million bats. At this time of year the pups haven’t been born so there are only about 800,000 bats.  They roost in what remains of an old tunnel, hence the name.  At around dusk each night, they emerge from the tunnel to look for food.  All of them, in a span of about 15 minutes. 

The volunteers do a short, but informative program describing the bats, their habitat, and their habits.  The colony can eat 25 tons of moths a night! While we listened, we watched the wildlife.

How well you can see them depends somewhat on how far past dusk they emerge- they were late tonight which made them hard to capture on camera, although we could see them better with the naked eye. You can see  a swarm of them in the sky.

Nearby Garner State Park had a spot available for just two nights, so that’s where we headed next. This park is so popular with families, I think the fact that it had any openings was a fluke. When I booked online it said the spot had electric and water and was 43 ft long, but when I put in our equipment, it said only tents were allowed. I called to confirm that our rig would fit, and booked it.

The Frio River (luckily the name is a misnomer) runs through this park, creating an enormous, nature made water park. Families have been coming here every year for decades, and some have plaques at their site, bearing their inaugural year.

We were pretty clueless, but we got the hang of it quickly and bought a tube for floating down the river. We only needed one because two weeks ago, a tube was our T-Mobile Tuesday freebie.

The weather was perfect for floating, and Paul and I spent a couple of hours in the water.  We walked to one end of the park, put in, and floated to the other end, where we got out, feeling we were done for the day.

There were a half dozen rope swings along the way- most of them in use pretty regularly.

The park also has several hiking trails- we chose to hike to Crystal Cave- about 2.5 miles round trip, before we left. Unfortunately, if the cave ever had crystals they are long gone, and what remains is thousands of daddy long legs.  I waited outside.