A Central Texas Autumn

Last weekend we went to Pedernales Falls State Park for our first camping trip of the season. It was beautiful and while the Pedernales River was not running much (hey, Texas is in a major, major drought!) it was still wonderful. It is only about three hours from our house so even though we set up the tent in the dark it still wasn’t a terrible drive from the Houston area to west of Austin.

I’m always upset with people who gloss over autumn in areas that may not have major leaf shows like the northeast. Fall happens in different ways in the south and the drought is making it appear more pronounced with the dead trees showing up everywhere.

The dry rocks across the river. This particular area is most popular but it does not allow swimming.

A random watermelon or other gourd growing on a sand island. I’m guessing someone left a rind out and up sprouted a plant!

This cypress shows how deep and fast the river can flow; look at the debris wrapped up in the limbs!

Sycamores were showing the beauty of Texas autumn.

I took a lot of videos that I am hoping to put together into a bigger video. Having problems with my movie maker though so it might be a few weeks before I get it up. We did two different hikes, one to Wolf Mountain (think large hill…still kicked my butt though!) and another to a different section of the park across the river. That side had some poorly labeled sections of trail and we spent at least twenty minutes wandering around trying to determine where the trail went.

I definitely recommend going to this state park. It is beautiful and has a lot of things to see. We had a western scrub jay show up at our campsite, relative of the Florida scrub jay, and a pair of cardinals that were in love with Chris’ truck. I think they liked seeing their reflections in the windows.

Hopefully more camping excursions will happen this Fall!