Saturday April 13, 2024
In order to mentally prepare for the big move to the big apple I requested two days off of work so that I could take an extended weekend trip to relax and to visit more US national parks here in Texas.
I want to complete more of my National Park Passport book with stickers and stamps from nearby locations before I am no longer within easy travel distance.
As for the Texas state parks passport book, this will not be completed but I do hope to make a few more visits in my remaining time in the state.
New York doesn’t have a passport book as far as I can tell, but perhaps there is another way that I can document my future adventures there.
Perhaps I could log park entry receipts into a book?
Or what if I purchased a postcard and gave a short summary of my visit to the park to keep in a scrap book?
These are items to determine after I know more about New York’s parks.
As for this trip, the locations that are my priority to visit during this four day adventure are as follows:
- Day 1: San Angelo State Park
- Day 2: Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Day 3: Big Bend National Park
Day four will primarily be used for driving home and visiting local state parks along the way that catch my fancy.
And so I set off for adventure!
I have a campsite reserved at San Angelo State Park for the first night of this trip.
I know that Big Bend will be a popular location and so I have aligned my visit to arrive here on a Monday in hopes that this park will be less crowded.
The goal of this first day of the trip is to head as far West as possible.
I found it difficult to find camping locations in West Texas and because of this I wasn’t able to drive as far as I would have liked.
To make up for this I marked out several Texas state parks that are along my day one route for a short visit.
First stop: Longhorn Cavern State Park.
This is a delightful park that as known for hosting cave tours.
I arrived too early and so I took a short break at a nice scenic overlook parking spot.
Whenever I drive past a scenic overlook, I always wonder how scenic they are. I haven’t pulled into many.
I think I will try to visit more of these while I am out and about in the future.
I have visited Longhorn Caverns previously and have taken the cave tours, but at the time I did not have a Texas State Park passport book.
One day I would like to visit here again and explore the hiking trail.
The gift shop at this park is one of the best.
It’s up there with Inks Lake State Park & Tyler State Park.
During this brief visit my passport book was stamped, I used the penny smoosher and purchased a postcard as well as a park sticker.
Next stop: Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.
While driving to this park I saw a street sign with flashing yellow lights that warned that this park entrance is only for folks who have reserved their entrance in advance.
I thought to myself “This is fine. I’ll just visit the headquarters and shop to get my stamp. I can skip the hiking that I had planned to do during this visit.”
As I neared park entrance and saw a long line of cars extending beyond the entrance gate into the highway I decided to keep driving.
No time for this nonsense.
I don’t look up parks in advance because I enjoy the surprise of finding out what makes a park special.
Sometimes advanced knowledge about the popularity of a park or the correct days to visit are vital, though.
This was one of those occasions. Oops.
I wonder what makes this park so popular?
Next stop: South Llano River State Park
I picked up a spider at some point, as this little lady was on top of the car when I arrived.
The gift shop at this park had some unique items.
They have a boomerang for sale!
This is one of the items on my adventure list!
Sold.
I purchased the boomerang and a sticker.
During my visit to this park I discovered that there are eagles who are like me thanks to this sign.
And here is their amphitheater.
Hengey.
Time to hike Overlook Trail. 1.8 miles.
This was an interesting trail that went up into the hills.
Below is a slideshow of the pictures that I took here.
I use an app called Pl@ntNet to look up plants from time to time. In this slideshow you can see some of the pictures I took to look up two plants that I discovered are a Fragrant Sumac and a Currant of Texas.
After the hike I sent a quick postcard to my pal Tony and then off to the park where I will be spending the night. San Angelo State Park.
In preparation for this trip I gathered some sticks from around my apartment as well two bundles of fire wood.
I did not realize I would be in the desert and I wondered if there would be a burn ban.
I was also surprised that it was so easy to find campsites here when there are so few around.
Also, is this park gated?
I have a habit of leaving very early in the morning and I may need a gate code to get out.
Answers are as follows:
- Burn ban: No.
- Gate: Yes.
- Code to get out at night: Acquired
When I asked about the burn ban the rangers mentioned not letting the wind blow embers into the brush which seemed silly at the time, but now that I am here at the campsite and up on a ridge I can say that it is far too windy to set up a fire.
Judging by the state of the fire pit, the campers before me had the same thought.
It may also be too windy to set up a tent.
I recently purchased a pole repair kit for my tent as one of the polls had fallen apart and one of the segments was lost.
This is not the ideal situation to build and test my replacement pole, but since I do not have a choice in the matter I will push through and try my hardest.
Arachnid visitor number 2.
Here are a few more pictures taken before I put up the tent.
Tent location:
First, I’ll get a quick vibe for how much space I will need by laying out the tent.
Have I mentioned that I bought this tent for forty dollars about fifteen years ago?
The quality of this tent will be a recurring topic.
The ground here is difficult to pound these tent stakes into.
I bent several.
The ground is hard, but level enough to sleep on comfortably.
I think that I’ll try to use the existing tent poles for this tent and use a single segment from the replacement pole to make up for the missing piece of the original pole.
The pieces are not the same size, but I think that they are close enough in length to work.
Success!
Now should I try to put the top on?
I am worried that the wind may try to take my tend and donate it to a campsite in the next county over.
No way to know if I don’t try, I suppose.
Double success!
Look at how much the wind makes the top balloon up.
I have a kite in the car. This is a great time to use it with all of this strong wind!
No.
I was wrong.
Too much wind.
I opened my car door and one of the small stickers necessary to assemble the kite was blown away and lost.
Wind. Both a friend and enemy of kites.
Side note: There is a horse here which is also named Levi.
The water situation at this park is tricky. I had difficulty finding a place to refill my water bottle.
I drove around for 15 minutes before I was able to find the RV campsites where an unused location’s water pipe was available to fill up my bottle.
I also found a bathroom in this area that has a shower.
A goal of mine on this trip is to take a shower at one of these old bathrooms.
Water filled. Shower found. Time to get comfortable for the night.
I kept written notes during this trip as I figured my reception would be spotty and that relying on a cloud hosted spreadsheet could cause issues.
I am now at the part in my notes where I see that I left a memo for myself which reads “Get a new tent, nerd.”
Dear past me,
I am sorry.
I will not be doing this.
Regards,
Levi – 6/1/2024
Tent relaxing time.
Ranger bear agrees.
The evening is beginning to set in, but then I had a third and much scarier spider visit than the previous ones.
While urinating in a restroom, a large and furry spider crawled out from under a lip of the urinal.
It is an unusual place to be when you have this moment of vulnerability at odds with an inability to flee.
Back at camp, it’s beginning to get dark and I am hopeful that I can find some scorpions by using my black light flashlight tonight.
These are very good at finding a few types of bugs, some funguses and human made items.
Some types of paper, cotton and plastic are very easy to spot.
I looked around for some time.
I did not find any bugs, but…
I did find a man-made item.
It’s the piece of the kite that blew away earlier!
Well, that is a success my friends.
I’ll take it.
Time for bed and the last bits of planning.
What time should I wake up to start driving towards Carlsbad Caverns?
Do I have time for that shower?
Should I poop in the bathroom with the giant spider? – Note, I mention this because in my notes there is a part that says “Poop?” I have come to learn that my wife imitated my handwriting and wrote this as a practical joke.
Should drive in the dark to the RV camp to use their bathroom?
Why did I take the picture below?
It’s not in the notes.
Keanu says “Get out of here! I’m in the bathroom and I want privacy!”
Adventurenet.net 
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