Guadalupe River State Park

May 30, 2006

See that tiny group of people on the edge of the river below the massive cliffs? That's us! Well, technically not "us" because I'm the one taking the picture - but you know what I mean.

Examining their surroundings are Rachel (pink), Andrew (orange), Jacob (green) & Caleb (dark green).

The river is spread out and very shallow here. Sorta like standing in front of a fire, to get wet all over in this water you must do the rotisserie: roll over & over. At this level, you'd have to work to drown.

Jacob likes this photo. Can you guess why?
And, um, Andrew does not. Same reason. :-)




We went hiking at the park - original concept, that.
I thought this was an interesting looking tree (I'm sure Alice appreciates that!). You can see how it was damaged by the last flood plus there is still some debris approx. 8 ft up the tree.


Caleb & Andrew on the trail. I'm sure they found lizards to catch but not a horny toad. Stan's the only one of us to have ever seen a wild one & that was when he was a youngin'.

Stan & Rachel on the trail. Not far from here we came to a park nature facility which had hundreds if not thousands of granddaddy long-legs contentedly doing push-ups in hairy-looking mounds on the building's eves over our heads until boys with sticks stirred-up their party so they scattered, bouncing in all directions overhead. I had some great video that perished when the kids computer crashed. Sorry!

The kids found the old campsite "just around the corner" from this playground. How did they remember? They retraced their steps to how they got to the playground 9 years earlier. Top priority for 8 & 6 year old boys: getting to the swings & slide.

Our FL friends had trouble believing that our park photos were made in TX so I had to include a cactus shot.




And one with Mexican Hats.

That's the name of the flowers, not my daughter nor any of her apparel, although her hat does say "TEXAS".

We hiked to the top of cliffs then started making our way down. The going got rougher & rougher until Rachel & I decided to go back the way we had come. We were later quite glad because the guys managed to find some poison ivy and everyone but Jacob (not allergic the bum. Imagine!) itched all the drive home to FL.

While she & I followed the breadcrumbs back to the river, the guys used their brute strength to climb down the rocky, vegetation laden cliffs then floated down the river to the shallow area where we waited.

Thus ends the tale of the park and the trail over the rocks and the trees and the plants that make me sneeze, down the cliffs to the river, so cold it made me shiver, back up the hill to the van so we can go home again and remember with fond thoughts the trip that brought red dots.

Yeah, I'll keep my day job. :-)