Travel & Places
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Limpia Creek Trail | Davis Mountains State Park
As per usual, snippets of interesting information is interspersed in the photos and the main write up is at the end! Milkweed seeds blown in the wind. Cottonwoods + Blue Sky A caterpilllar in the tiger moth family—maybe a salt marsh moth? Cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus) nest Nylon Hedgehog Cactus, Echinocereus chloranthus Havard’s Century Plant, Agave havardiana Texas Brown Tarantula, Aphonopelma hentzi — not alive! I’m equal parts sad and also glad it wasn’t alive when we encountered it. Yes, still working on the giant spider phobia. Little Nipple Cactus, Mammillaria meiacantha Texas Mountain Laurel, Dermatophyllum (formerly Sophora) secundiflorum Ornate Tree Lizard, Urosaurus ornatus Tree Cholla, Cylindropuntia imbricata On the…
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The McDonald Observatory
One afternoon during our stay at Davis Mountains State Park we took a short side trip over to the
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Indian Lodge Trail | Davis Mountains State Park
I’m going to skip ahead a bit as I edit photos of our time at Davis Mountains State Park and go straight to our first hike on the Indian Lodge Trail on our first full day at the park. I’ll be putting together other posts about our campsite, trips to the bird blinds, wildlife, and sunsets at the overlook on Skyline Drive separately. Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma woodhouseii We drove over to the trailhead and parked in the parking area behind the lodge. A scrubjay was perched in some trees nearby so we took the opportunity to get a few photos before we started. I had been calling these scrub jays…
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Clayton’s Overlook Trail | Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center
Ephedra sp. I put a guess up on iNaturalist and my guess was wrong—I figured it would be—but someone with more insect knowledge suggested Darkling Beetles, Family Tenebrionidae. Maybe I’ll investigate further soon. I’m fairly certain this is Eaton’s Lipfern, Myriopteris rufa. Nylon Hedgehog Cactus, Echinocereus chloranthus Echinocereus coccineus ssp. transpecosensis Star Cloak Fern, Notholaena standleyi Mitre Peak–We came to Fort Davis from Alpine via Tx 118 and this peak was a stunner from the road as we drove by and I noticed a sign for a county park (I believe) as we passed by. I had wished we’d had time to stop in and thought we might make a…
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A Peek Into The Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Gardens
New Mexico Agave, Agave neomexicana Now that’s a deer/antelope/sheep fence! Cowpen daisy, Verbesina encelioides Queen butterfly Tree cholla, Opuntia imbricata Beaked yucca, Yucca thompsoniana Finally I’m starting these west Texas posts! It was after lunch when we arrived close to Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and Botanical Gardens. Chris had found the place in his scouting for other things do in the region and the admission for that day was half price, I believe. Just a day or two before there had been a presentation and book signing with an author on plants for the region and Chris was bummed to have missed it. That didn’t stop…
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Bushwhacking in Sam Houston National Forest
In mid-October Chris mentioned that he wanted to go look for a particular rare plant, Bartonia texana, aka Texas screwstem. It is frequently on the list of protected plants we survey for but here’s the kicker, the photos available for this plant are few and not many people see this plant. It also doesn’t have visible vegetation on it throughout most of the year, sending a flower spike up only when it is time to bloom. Luckily, it also fits a particular habitat niche so you would only come across it in certain locations, and these locations aren’t places most people are going to be trekking to. So, it really…
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Exploring Mission Tejas State Park Part III
The final post for Mission Tejas State Park! A few little morsels between photos but a write-up at the end! Indigo Milk Cap, Lactarius indigo: I was so excited to see this! The state park had shared a photo on social media a few days prior to our hike of this cool mushroom and I had seen someone else share their find in Ohio, so I put it on my bucket list to see one of these. We kept our eyes peeled for them but it was Chris who found them in an early morning hike before Forest and I got out of the tent. We went back later to…
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Exploring Mission Tejas State Park Part II
Hidden away on the Olen Matchett Trail near a remote corner at the front of Mission Tejas State Park are a set of old CCC tubs. Constructed when the CCC workers had set up camp to construct the state park, the tubs are a few feet downhill from a spring. Before our dinner the night we stayed at the state park we made one last hike to see what this interestingly labeled point on the state park map meant. At a slope behind the top of a hill we found the set of tubs. The spring was at the top, the clean rinsing tub in the middle, and the bathing…
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Hanging Around Camp at Mission Tejas State Park | Wordless Wednesday
(Ok, so nearly wordless, but you can’t quite tell here but the piece of wood to the right of the fire pit, there’s a pipe coming out of it. yes, that’s the water source. It’s usually near the electrical outlet, typically near the parking. Let me say, getting water when smoke is blowing your direction isn’t fun. Poor planning on whoever did this!)
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Exploring Mission Tejas State Park Part I
Salvia azurea Liatris elegans Passiflora lutea Oak mistletoe, Phoradendron leucarpum, I think! American Pokeweed, Phytolacca americana Texas Bull Nettle, Cnidoscolus texanus Black walnut, Juglans nigra Before we arrived at the state park that last weekend in October, Chris had noted that there was some kind of trail run going on in the park. I was a little surprised considering the park isn’t huge, but after looking at the park map and seeing that it was adjacent to a Davy Crockett National Forest tract I knew that there was much more here to be explored. The park was very busy when we checked in and we were unable to get to…