Texas State Parks

[mdmost 43004]

That makes me sad. We're tacking on Blanco State Park so we can get some cool water when it's already a billion degrees in early July. 

Going to check out Cedar Hill State Park tomorrow and do a little hiking. My oldest has something in the area tomorrow morning that I have to drop her off and pick her up from so rather than head back home for a time, I figure I'll go check it out.  

[mdmost 43004]

Cedar Hill State Park was enjoyable. For Dallas, it's a pretty nice park and a cool thing to have in an area that's pretty flat and not very natural. Hiked the Duck Pond, Plum Valley, and Talala trails all before noon. I didn't bother with any of the DORBA trails since I didn't want to dodge bikers or have them dodge me. Tons of bikers near that area so I think it was a wise decision. I'm not a huge fan of Joe Pool Lake so the Duck Pond Trail and Plum Valley Trails were the real draw. Pretty shaded until you walked up towards the overlook. Not bad for a morning when I had nothing better to do. Grabbed some brochures for other Prairies and Piney Woods parks. Will keep those in mind for the fall. I really need to get back to Caddo Lake. 

[mdmost 43004]

So a little nerdy thing I'd like to share with fellow lovers of Texas State Parks. I like to collect stickers of each park I visit. Slap them on the back of our car's rear windshield. Not as easy with some of the parks that have either terrible designs or nothing. I looked online and found a lady who does really cool Texas State Parks stickers. She even creates ones from scratch as I mentioned to her when I was buying the Cedar Hill one that I was planning on going to Old Tunnel and Blanco in July. She put together two of them a day later. If you're interested, here's her site:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/vanyakar/shop?artistUserName=VanyaKar&collections=2472045&iaCode=all-departments&sortOrder=relevant

 

[hobbes2702 13048]

19 minutes ago, mdmost said:

So a little nerdy thing I'd like to share with fellow lovers of Texas State Parks. I like to collect stickers of each park I visit. Slap them on the back of our car's rear windshield. Not as easy with some of the parks that have either terrible designs or nothing. I looked online and found a lady who does really cool Texas State Parks stickers. She even creates ones from scratch as I mentioned to her when I was buying the Cedar Hill one that I was planning on going to Old Tunnel and Blanco in July. She put together two of them a day later. If you're interested, here's her site:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/vanyakar/shop?artistUserName=VanyaKar&collections=2472045&iaCode=all-departments&sortOrder=relevant

 

Thanks for the link. We do this for Texas and National parks we do but they go on our water bottles.

Edited April 18, 2023 by hobbes2702

[mdmost 43004]

5 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Thanks for the link. We do this for Texas and National parks we do but they go on our water bottles.

I don't know if this has been shared before but my brother sent me a link to this which I think my wife is getting me for Father's Day.

https://www.wonderybrand.com/pages/parks-of-the-usa-bucket-list-water-bottle

[hobbes2702 13048]

That might be a Mother’s Day gift for the lady. Thanks again. YNWA.

[utee94 15835]

Yup.  I grab stickers every park/forest/seashore we go to, and they go on the RV's front door.

Edited April 18, 2023 by utee94

[stc 1462]

i've always found it weird that there's not a central theme to the state park merch...like one designer that creates a sticker/shirt for every park. some parks have great merch and some are complete shit...and the shitty merch is often at a good park (looking at you pedernales falls).

[utee94 15835]

2 hours ago, stc said:

i've always found it weird that there's not a central theme to the state park merch...like one designer that creates a sticker/shirt for every park. some parks have great merch and some are complete shit...and the shitty merch is often at a good park (looking at you pedernales falls).

I consider it to be part of the charm. 

 

 

[mdmost 43004]

So I am very gruntled about the new DISD calendar that came out. The kids used to get two Fair Days on consecutive Fridays in October. One was on Texas OU Friday and the other the following week. We had been planning a trip to Guadalupe Mts, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, and Franklin State Park. Not going to camp but just to visit, do some hiking, and take in the sights. DISD has now changed the Fair Days to two consecutive days so now it's Thursday and Friday the week after Texas OU. There's also a staff development day on the 16th.

So we now have 5 days off in a row and I can take more time so we don't have to rush on that trip. We can leave on Thursday morning and head to Van Horn. We plan on staying a night at the Hotel El Capitan. Then we'll start our counter clockwise journey over the next 4 days before heading back on Monday through El Paso back to Dallas. I also might now add in the Hueco Tanks SP since it's close. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by mdmost

[CoachTex 2628]

Garner State Park still one of my favorites.

[mbtex 683]

How was the Frio flowing

[CoachTex 2628]

Not bad. It is going over the damn but still low. Rain has the water pretty stirred up right now. 

[CooterBrown 18015]

Hit up Pedernales Falls on Sunday. Wasn't particularly crowded. Took my youngest mountain biking for the first time and didn't pass one person on the trail even though the parking lot was pretty full.  The river was flowing well and was nice and relaxing. 

[Biff Tannen 45691]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:54 AM, mdmost said:

I don't know if this has been shared before but my brother sent me a link to this which I think my wife is getting me for Father's Day.

https://www.wonderybrand.com/pages/parks-of-the-usa-bucket-list-water-bottle

Fucking sold.  That's awesome.

[mdmost 43004]

Alright. Booked our July 1-3 parks. My family aren't campers so we're staying at an AirBnB in Johnson City. Going to check out Longhorn Caverns on the way down. Going to spend a good portion of the day at Pedernales on Sunday and then go over to Old Tunnel SP to see the bats at dusk. Next day, we'll head over to Blanco SP and do some swimming. Going to hit up Real Ale Brewing while we're there. Return home on July 4th since the wife and I both have to work on the 5th. So that's 4 state parks in that trip. 

[stc 1462]

Camped at Colorado Bend last weekend. Love the trails at that park. River was browner than normal from the rain, but everything else was green and plenty of wildflowers still blooming. The pit toilet situation was terrible, someone literally took a shit on the floor of the bathroom closest to our campsite, wtf.

[CooterBrown 18015]

On 6/2/2023 at 1:11 PM, mdmost said:

Next day, we'll head over to Blanco SP and do some swimming.

Have you been there before?  We went a couple of years back and the swimming there was not little kid friendly. Muddy bottom, no visibility, and gets deep like 3 feet from shore. There's no beach, you climb down tree roots on a muddy bank. We stayed like 30 minutes and left. 

[mdmost 43004]

17 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Have you been there before?  We went a couple of years back and the swimming there was not little kid friendly. Muddy bottom, no visibility, and gets deep like 3 feet from shore. There's no beach, you climb down tree roots on a muddy bank. We stayed like 30 minutes and left. 

No but it's one to check off since we're close. If it sucks, we'll find something else to do. 

[mdmost 43004]

I booked the same day at Guadalupe River State Park as that looks a lot like the trip we took a few years back to Mason and hung out in the river during the hottest part of summer. It's only 30 minutes further from Blanco. So go to Blanco, see if it sucks or not, head on to GRSP. 

Edited June 5, 2023 by mdmost

[mdmost 43004]

Went to Pedernales this morning and stay till about 2. Falls were just a trickle but the river was nice and cool. 
 

Spent the evening at Old Tunnel State Park. The bat emergence is awesome to see. Had Alamo Springs Cafe an hour before our lower area bat viewing. An all around great day

[CoachTex 2628]

Cross posting from rv.  Goose island state park is always solid.

[mdmost 43004]

Yesterday was nice. Started off at Blanco State Park which was enjoyable. Wasn’t muddy at all like previously reported but the falls weren’t running at all so it looked a little dry. We then got some ice cream at Oroblanco before driving to Guadalupe River State Park. That was my wife’s favorite of the trip. We just walked down to the river and laid there in it for a few hours. Really enjoyable. A great trip, 5 parks in one long weekend.

I will restate my opinion I said to her, the Hill Country is just good for your soul. I don't know if I could live there but I'll be damned if I don't enjoy every time I'm there and my kids also have a great time. It makes the rest of living here a lot easier to take in. Getting in a river is a perfect antidote for when it's balls hot. 

Edited July 4, 2023 by mdmost

[tchookem 3903]

Anybody with a recommended campsite in Palo Duro SP?

Hoping to get there for Spring Break.

[gofuckyourself 8339]

Reporting in that Colorado Bend State Park water levels were, unsurprisingly, abysmal.

Despite that it was still gorgeous scenery and the hiking and trails were great.

It's an awesome park but I think the massive camper increase over the last few years will have growing pains.

Hopefully the dumbasses who have never gone camping either learn the etiquette, or quit, and camping goes back to how it was a few years ago.

People unaware of park rules, or lack of enforcement, made it much less of a "getaway" then it could have been.