Thanksgiving at Guadalupe River State Park

Gladicosa pulchra

It’s been a hot minute since we went to the Hill Country. Well, it’s been a hot minute since Forest and I have been to the Hill Country. Chris goes almost quarterly either to Austin, or more recently, to San Antonio, for work projects. But it has been since late winter or maybe spring of 2023 since I’ve ventured to the Hill Country for recreational purposes. We made plans for Thanksgiving camping at Guadalupe River State Park, which the last time we’d been there was four years ago in 2020 for Thanksgiving. We also paired that trip with South Llano River State Park. I don’t think I ever wrote trip reports for either of those—looks like I have plenty of photos to mine to write about later!

When we arrived at camp on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we set up camp in the dark. I worked half a day and then we had to battle traffic west down I-10, plus a stop at HEB, and then finally to the park. Our headlamps lit up the leaflitter around camp and all of the spiders came out. Forest helped me find them and I took some photos, which I believe are all a type of wolf spider, the scientific name above. No common name, at least according to iNaturalist.

Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor

In true Texas fashion, we’ve had mostly warm weather this fall with little snippets of cooler weather, though the real cool weather did start arriving just in time for Thanksgiving. That didn’t stop the caterpillars from trying to finalize any last minute feasting before they pupated for the winter.

The cypress along the Guadalupe River always enchant. Most people call these bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, but there is growing debate and discussion that a large portion of these plants in central and south Texas are actually Montezuma cypress, Taxodium mucronatum. The growth habit is certainly different than bald cypress, most noticeably they lack knees. I’m not sure if anyone is doing genetic work on these trees but it would be great to have some insight into what exactly to call these trees! Either way, they are magnificent trees to sit and play under!

Ah, limestone!

Forest was enamored with rock hopping on the river and despite warnings about getting wet shoes, he put together sticks into bundles to help him rock hop across the shallower spots to get onto bigger rocks. He was quite proud of himself and did not, in fact, get his shoes wet!

We drove over to the Bauer Unit in the afternoon on Friday to hike some of the trails there. Since we’re rich in rocks in central Texas you can often find older homestead walls, a la New England rock walls!

More tree climbing on the north side of the river!

On Saturday morning we took a tour of Honey Creek State Natural Area, which is accessible through GRSP and only open during guided walks on Saturdays throughout the year. We had two Texas Master Naturalists and former professors guide us so we got a great discussion about geology and flora and fauna along the way. My only complaint is that there should be more or longer tours because there was significant chatting, which is fine and educational, but we just didn’t really get to spend as much time seeing Honey Creek itself and I guess, getting to explore in a way that would let you know the place more. I suppose that means going back for another tour later!

Texas Buck Moth, Hemileuca peigleri

A view of Honey Creek

On the way out someone notice this polyphemous moth caterpillar up on this oak branch. Caterpillars were definitely out!

On Saturday afternoon, Forest and I did a lot of wandering around so he could play Pokémon Go on my phone (he’s had a sudden renewed interest in Pokémon after a friend of his has been over to play)

On Saturday afternoon, after our Pokémon Go time, Forest and Chris went down to the river by themselves and I stayed at camp to read. Forest managed to rock hope all the way across the river and was super proud about himself!

And on Saturday night we took another night drive to see what animals we could find and came across this gray fox crossing the parking lot near the river. A few minutes before this we got a really excellent view of a ringtail cat which was so cute and adorable and skittered up a tree where my phone was too slow to get a photo of it because it disappeared before the photo was done.

Excellent camping weather and I know we need the rain but this weekend is dreary, rainy, and cold. I had plans for some book hiking this weekend but that appears to be out. Alas, there’s plenty to catch up on here around the house!