Island Trail Exploration | Martin Creek Lake State Park
Let’s go back to Easter weekend this year where I left a post or two incomplete from our trip to Martin Creek Lake State Park. The promise of spring was so bright—plants were blooming, the earth smelled sweet…ahhh, only a few more months away!
Annual Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium rosulatum
Texas Vervain, Verbena halei
Green Antelopehorns, Asclepias viridis
Hercules’ Club, Zanthoxylum clava-herculis
Black Snakeroot, Sanicula canadensis
Lizard’s Tail, Saururus cernuus
Sugar Hackberry, Celtis laevigata
On the southeast portion of the park is an island that you can access by a pedestrian bridge. At the time we hiked there were portions of the trail that were a big soggy in places and others that were relatively high and dry. As you’ll see in all of the photos it definitely ranges from wetland to upland on the trails back there!
Purple Passionflower, Passiflora incarnata
Chickasaw Plum, Prunus angustifolia
These were a sight to see and such a thicket of them! Unfortunately the fruits weren’t yet ripe so no hungry foraging for us!
I think this is littlehip hawthorn, Crataegus spathulata but I’m not 100% on that. Hawthorns can be tricky!
Texas Toadflax, Nuttallanthus texanus
Small-flowered Catchfly, Silene gallica – non-native but pretty.
A flock of vultures waiting for something to become available to forage.
See? A little bit squishy.
I went back on Easter morning to walk the trails again while Chris and Forest fished and to get better photos of the chickasaw plum thicket—that whole area is plum trees!
I loved this open field but was annoyed how the crimson clover had taken over. I wonder if it was seeded out here or if it made its way from the roadsides into this meadow over the years and just ran with it?
I still love this state park. I only wish that the power plant wasn’t directly across the lake because when in operation it is rather noisy plus it is unsightly when in view on the lake. Otherwise, this is a great state park in the northern part of east Texas!
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shoreacres
I’m still in the throes of moving, although the boxes nearly are emptied. I’ll have to (no, I want to) come back and give these recent posts more attention, but this one was especially nice. I like the black and white of Forest a lot.
I was pleased to see how many of the flowers I recognized, too. It took me a while to identify the blue-eyed grass last year. I found it in the Broadway cemeteries in Galveston.