May Travels across Texas

Our next stop was Inks Lake State Park.  Beautiful area only 25 miles from my last blog.  Really green due to the rain Texas has received and is still getting.  We pulled in and set up camp.  This is a view from our campsite
                                                                 It was overcast on the next day, so we toured the area and    Longhorn Caverns State Park.  Really nice cave that was cleaned out by the CCC doing the depression. 

 That afternoon it cleared up so we took a short hike down to Devils Swimming.









On May 3rd, a morning hike (around 5 miles)  with beautiful wild flowers intermingled with the cactus blooms.

 Then in the afternoon, warm enough for kayaking.  Lots and Lots of turtles

Even fish. Caught by hand.

 Next day, we move on to Huntsville State Park and of course hike and kayak.  Even saw an alligator.  This area was hit hard by the rains and winds.  Lots of trees down all around.  We also came this way to deliver a letter we picked up in Galapagos. Were able to hand deliver it.   The hike was all the way around the lake and really pretty.

 Next, we move on to the purpose of this trip, the family get together.  We stayed at Lake Hawkins City Park.  It just reopened that day from the tornado that had hit it the week before.  This area was hit hard and trees were down everywhere.  Don’t know why I didn’t get pictures of the damage, but I did get a few pictures of the lake. We got there a day early so had time for kayaking one day.

  The next afternoon, sister Anita and her husband Stan arrived about the same time as my daughter, Dee and fiancé John.  We spent afternoon and headed for dinner.

The next day, Gladys and husband Denny showed up.  We visited and played cards until late in the evening.  On Monday, we visited  The Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge.  This was interesting and a refuge for lions and tigers that had been pets and of course, as they grew the were discarded.  The animals were caged, but did have some space to move around.  They can’t be released into the wild because most couldn’t survive.

Anita being herself.

Hard to take pictures thru the fence.

  We had a great visit. Dee only stayed Saturday night and hung around to see Gladys and Denny. They had to get back to Texarkana for work.  Everyone else was going to stay until Saturday, but decided to leave early.

back row: Denny, Gladys, Anita, Stan in front Me and Bob

On Thursday, we headed to visit Dee and John in Texarkana.  The Lake we wanted to stay at was closed due to high water. There was high water everywhere.  Friday, I spent the day with Dee, shopping and lunch and then more shopping.  It was great to be with her.
 On Saturday, we visited John and Dee at the Flea Market that they have a booth at on the weekends. We also went to a city park (couldn’t stay at Flea Market all day) and made 3 loops of the 1.75 mile trail.  Then dinner that evening with Dee and John.  Left on Sunday to avoid the new influx of rain on Monday.
 Made it to Wichita Falls for the night.  I didn’t realize that Wichita Falls does have a Waterfall.

On to Caprock Canyon State Park, 100 miles south of Amarillo.  The weather cleared up yesterday, May 16th long enough for us to take a 6.3 mile challenging hike.  Challenging since in 1/4 mile you scrambled up 600 ft.  Also, below the scramble was a pretty long drop. Bob was taking the pictures since I was just holding on.  However, he pulled a Jettye and didn’t have a card in the camera.  So we only have a few pictures of this beautiful place.

 May 17th was  the first really rainy and cold day we’ve had in Texas.  So we toured trying to find the Buffalo. Stopped at an interpretive exhibit.  These swallows were nesting.  At first we thought we’d only see these iron buffaloes, but then we did see this family.

  Had a great visit in Texas.  It's really a great state with very diverse areas.