Our new adventure for 2011 is to check out the Texas State Parks. We went to Enchanted Rock State Park a few weeks ago to check out this giant glob o rock with the pups. Boy was it a hike! This is the trail heading up to the rock.
Then, last weekend, we headed up about 2 hours north of our house to a park just southeast of San Saba - Colorado Bend State Park, on the Colorado River. After an 8 mile drive down a very dusty road, we finally descended upon the park and the river. It was a beautiful park. Since we had already paid $60 for our annual pass, all we had to pay was $14 to camp overnight. Not bad! However the park had some lessons for us ...
We set up shop at camping space #22 ... due to it's proximity to the water, the trail and it was at the end, so should be furthest away from other people.
After a bit of fishing for Josh, and a little bit of sun for me (and I do mean only a little ... of course it would be overcast on our trip), we decided to head on over to the falls. At the other end of the park there is Gorman Falls, and we could either drive the 8 mile road back over there, or take the trail. According to the Texas State Parks map, it was only about a 2.5 mile hike so we figured we could make it. DO NOT TRUST THE STATE PARK MAPS!! We learned, as you will see ...
So we embarked on the river trail... this little 1.5 mile jaunt would take you to a fork in the road with two options. One would be to continue on the river trail, which ironically enough, jaunts away from the river and adds a little bit to your hike. Or there is a "seasonal" trail that continues along the river. We chose the "seasonal" trail, or what we thought was the seasonal trail because we thought we had already gone 1.5 miles by the time we reached the hippie campgrounds and foolishly listened to some of them who told us the trail continued past a tree that was laying in the trail's path. That should have been our first clue. Afterward, we named it the "Choose Your Own Adventure" path because that's really what it felt like. We were climbing over trees and limbs, ducking under trees and limbs, there was hardly a trail to follow at times and we were guessing... going through some thick brush and hearing "things" rustling around in it. It was a rough trail to say the least ...
Josh actually ended up slicing his finger open trying to move a branch, so my battle wounds were small compared to his. But then come to find out as we met back up with the river trail... that was not the seasonal trail. WTH. So we still had at least another mile or more to go and we'd already been walking over an hour. It doesn't take me an HOUR to walk a MILE AND A HALF. The map lies!!!! So we finally reached the "seasonal trail" ... which actually did end up looking WAY more like a trail than our "Choose Your Own Adventure" trail. However, we did have some sketchy pathways to cross like this one here -
But! There was finally light at the end of the tunnel! We reached the end of the seasonal trail, and hit back up with the main trail and finally found a sign that we were near the falls! (And only 2+ hours into this supposed 2.5 mile hike now) That's Josh pointing to the sign for Gorman Falls ...
Interesting side note ... this pic was taken by a fellow who brought his two young children on this long hike, with their bikes, and brought no water for them. We met up with him on the seasonal trail and he was Mr. Directional Know It All. A PITA he was. But we felt really sorry for his kids, so we ended up giving them our water.
Josh heads off for some late night fishin and I head into the tent for some early night snoozin. I get up with the sun in the morning, and it's a little chilly so I bundle up and kick back in my zero gravity lounger for some rest time before it's time to head home.
All in all, we had a fun trip to Colorado Bend. It was cheap too. Beautiful park and river area, it'd be nicer once the river is up though. And we learned ... DO NOT TRUST THE STATE PARK MAPS! :)
Which State Park shall we go to next?!?
