Along the Sabinal River | Lost Maples State Natural Area
We arrived at Lost Maples, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere west of San Antonio, to find we were definitely not the only people at the park. This park is known for its fall color and people from all over flock for day or overnight use. A line to check in, lines for the bathroom up front, a full parking lot—this place was busy! There are few and far between state parks that I have been too that have ever been this crowded and usually they involve a beach (Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park comes to mind).
We found a parking spot and got our gear together to head off down the trail. We were planning on spending two nights in the backcountry, which isn’t all that backcountry-ish as the park is relatively small, but it was hiking! Two of our friends/colleagues were coming too but would be meeting us later so we were in no rush to make miles or get anywhere in particular. We’d pegged the first campsite, A, to be our destination for the night knowing that the other two would be coming later, possibly during dusk.
We meandered about along the Maple Trail which was supposed to have the highest fall color with the bigtooth maples in this area. I think we were off by a week with the color, but it was still beautiful.
Lunch was a dry spot in the middle of the low-flowing Sabinal River. The trail was busy with people.
We stopped here and there to look at plants, trying to identify ones we knew and becoming curious about the ones we didn’t.
Our next stop was Monkey Rock and after that we still had plenty of time to explore before setting up camp for the night.
3 Comments
Joan (Hemlock)
Looks like a neat spot and a fun trip!
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