Christmas and West Texas - 2011

After the brutal heat of Summer 2011 finally broke, BB, Henri and me ventured back into the trailer and combined Christmas with a West Texas Trip. 


On Thursday, December 22, we spent an early Christmas with Kathy and Tina , at their beautiful home in San Antonio.  Tina's parents Wayne and Taki were there, and Shelly, Blake, Lydia and Grant joined us as well. 

S LLano River SP

After our early Christmas in San Antonio, we drove on Friday morning to Junction and checked into the South Llano River State Park.  This was our first visit to this state park and we will definitely be back.  This park reminded BB and I both of "home."  We were able to take some nice hikes at the park on Friday.  Besides the appeal of the South Llano River, which attracts swimmers and tubers during the warmer months, the area abounds with turkey and deer. It's nice to sit at your camp site and watch turkeys strutting, and bucks running the does.

S Llano River SP

The park has very nice, tree-shaded camp sites, each with electricity and water and a sparkling clean restroom / shower building.  No individual sewer hookups on the camp sites, but a dump station is nearby.  We checked into site # 53 which afforded beautiful views and ample wildlife.  Other than the two trailers present which are park hosts, the three of us had the entire park to ourselves!

The volunteer group "Friends of S Llano River SP" have done a remarkable job with several "bird blind" installations,  where they have constructed comfortable, enclosed viewing blinds and added water and food to attract a remarkable variety of birds.  BB said she could have set there all day and watched the birds. 

BB at the Overlook, S Llano River SP

Like many of the state parks, S Llano River has excellent hiking trails that we enjoyed.  On one hike, we went up to a beautiful observation area overlooking the park and the S Llano River valley.  There are many more hiking trails we hope to try out on return trips. 

On Friday, we had been watching the weather carefully as a winter storm was predicted to come in from the west bringing much colder weather and a good probability of snow and ice.  We tried to extend our stay in Junction one day to miss the worst of the weather, but were unable to change our reservations through the TPWD customer service phone number.  This could have been because it was the holiday season, or partly because I could not figure out how to circumvent their automated answering system to talk to a real live person.  Of all the excellent aspects of the TPWD state park system, their vendor-run reservation and call center seems to be the one thing that needs work as it can be cumbersome.  Even the park rangers admitted they cannot access their own reservation system to make changes.

BB & Henri at the Rest Area
I10, Near Ft Stockton

So on Saturday, 12/24/11, we struck out for Fort Davis and the Davis Mountains State Park, hoping that the weather and roads would not be too bad.

This was the first "White Christmas" we've had in several years, as it started snowing by the time we reached Fort Stockton, and continued snowing all the way into Fort Davis.  Fortunately, the roads did not deteriorate too badly and we made decent time. This was Henri's first experience with snow, and while he is normally anxious to jump out of the truck and go find the nearest tree or bush, he didn't quite know how to take this white stuff.  He seemed to be saying "hey, I'm dragging the ground here and it's not fun!" 

While there was considerable snow on the ground and some flakes still falling in Fort Davis, the snow stopped on Christmas Eve, but the temperatures fell to the low teens.  I found out that a 20 foot, uninsulated water hose doesn't handle those temperatures very well as the water line into the trailer was frozen solid the next day. However, in true West Texas fashion, it warms up nicely during the day and everything returned to normal quickly.

Davis Mountains SP

The Davis Mountains State Park is truly a unique and beautiful piece of Texas.  The park has an area with full hookups, as well as water and electricity sites, and primitive sites as well.  We camped in site #26 which was a very nice site full hookup site.  We think site #21 is our favorite because it is up higher and has an excellent view of the surrounding mountains.

Snow!

Still a little cold, we decided to take a drive up toward the McDonald Observatory and see the scenery while there was still snow.

The Fort Davis area experienced major wildfires during April of 2011 and although it left the state park structures themselves largely untouched, you can still see evidence of the fires on the hills and mountains around the park and around Fort Davis.  The fires must have been especially bad between Fort Davis and Balmorea.

BB on a Hike

 If you enjoy hiking in mountainous terrain, you'll love this state park.  BB and I hiked several trails while were were there, each of which were a little difficult for a low-slung wienie dog like Henri, but he got his walks throughout the park as well each day.

Pistol Pete Pecary

Yum! Turkey Today!

Like S Llano River, the Davis Mountains SP is blessed with ample wildlife to observe.  BB added several new birds to her life list, and we saw several mule deer and javelinas daily.  Javelinas are particularly plentiful in the park and a large herd of them would come through the park on their way down from the mountain in the mornings, and return back through the park on their way back up the mountain in the evenings.

Woe to anyone who has left food outside on picnic tables or in ice chests, as these guys will turn over anything if they smell food in your camp.  One of our neighbors mad the mistake of leaving their roasted turkey and all the trimmings outside and the javelinas thought this was a particularly great Christmas feast.  They kept coming back every day to the same camp site to see if anything was left.  (Likely because our neighbor admitted that she had thrown the turkey carcass in the area behind their campsite.  Not a good idea).

BB on the Old CCC Trail

The weather warmed up beautifully for the remainder of our stay and we thoroughly enjoyed our week in Fort Davis. 

Since driving from Fort Davis back to Austin is a little longer than BB and I like to make in a single day, we broke up our return home with a return stay at the S Llano River SP in Junction.  This time, we camped in site #27 which is an excellent site with plenty of privacy.

We tucked Mingo II into it's trailer stall in Pflugerville (a little dirtier from the week's use), and were glad to get home into our regular bed.  Henri immediately set too reclaiming his yard from cats and squirrels who had free run while were were gone. 

With that task done, we watched the neighbors celebrate the New Year with fireworks in our front street, happy to have spent some time in other parts of this beautiful State, but glad to be home. 

Cowboy Santa's and
Goat Shearing

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year everyone!