Visit to McKinney Falls State Park

December 5, 2019

I've had to go to Austin three days in a row. I got a new lens in my eye, then had to go back the following day for a checkup, and then had to get my neck and back worked on. I've been hiking somewhere every time I go to Austin, except for my surgery day. After my appointments, I look up a local hike and go do it. On this day, I decided to go hike in McKinney Falls State Park, to check out the upper and lower falls of Onion Creek.

McKinney Falls is only thirteen miles from downtown Austin and is was an easy park to visit when I lived in the area. It has lots of places to hike and some to bike, as well as lots of wildflowers and birds. It also has swimming holes under both falls and you can fish without a license, as you can in all Texas state parks. It is also the park where I photographed a flower opening over a ten minute period.

My first glimpse of Onion Creek from the bluff above it

A view near the lower falls

Most of the "holes" in the rock are small and shallow.  This one was about four feet deep and supported a tree

It was fun to see these limestone rock formations in dry conditions. Sometimes most of the area is covered by water 

One of the few trees with colored leaves

A view below lower falls

There were a few individuals of a couple of  species of flowers still blooming

Persistence - this little tree seems to be growing in rock

A view of lower falls - in spring the falls will be all along the ledge

Both the swimming holes below upper and lower falls have swim rescue rings

This brilliant grasshopper(eastern lubber grasshopper - Romalea microptera) caught my eye when he flew onto this branch

Near Upper Falls - actually the channel on the right is one of the channels forming the falls now

I found these glowing oak leaves below the trail

The Upper Falls are barely there in this low water

A zoomed in view of the falls

Creek View from the picnic area

These leaves were lying all arranged for their picture

I straddled the carved out channel ,where most of the water is flowing, to take this picture 

Asters were still abundantly blooming - and I figured out how to get to my macro setting on my new camera

On a personal note, I'm in LOVE with my new eye. Now, as predicted, I can barely see out of my left eye and can't wait till Tuesday when I get that lens replaced. 

Hike on Old Baldy Trail

November 3, 2019


After completing several days of camping and exploring across New Mexico, I enjoyed a day of just hanging out and getting in a little hammock time.  The following morning, I  got an early start on a hike I had been wanting to do to the top of Old Baldy. When I had been here the last time, Kris and I had hiked in the park, we took a series of trails that took us to the top of an adjacent mountain, from where I could observe hikers on this trail. I resolved to hike it the next time I got here.


I got out just at sunrise and enjoyed watching the day brighten as I got to the trailhead.

The trailhead is well marked and in the cabin area, across from the food trucks and little store

It was easy to see how this mountain got its name - most of the hiking was on bare rock

But early on some of the path looked like this

The park is along almost three miles of the Frio River - fun for tubing and paddleboarding

The sun was just coming over the mountain as I reached this spot

I was intrigued by the expanding landscape as I came back to overviews of the Frio River

Boulders got bigger near the top

I loved the backlighting of the rising sun on the cacti

Getting near the top

The path is through here

I stopped to admire this tough little penstemon  - aptly named rock penstemon

The view of Frio River from the highest point above it

Another view from the top

A very surprising end of the trail

Another hiker and I traded pictures of each other

When this comes out, I'll be two days away from my first cataract surgery. Can't wait.

Little Hike at Bogue Chitto State Park

Hulin and I decided to go a little further afield for a short hike, so  visited Bogue Chitto State Park in south Louisiana.  The day was partly cloudy with times of sunlight. We arrived mid morning and found it to be very quiet and totally without humans except for the ranger who took out entrance fee and ourselves. 

The landscape there is very different from my Montana views.  It is flat, wooded, and very green.  There was only a few trees showing any color: sumacs, tupelo, sweetgum and a few other species I didn't know.  The color was more like bits of jewelry, rather than the full blitz I've been seeing further north. I was scolded by a few Carolina wrens and blue jays, but otherwise birds were scarce. 

A bit of fall color across one of the ponds open for fishing

There are lots of invasive plants - these are elephant ears - a menace to wetlands

Even the cypress trees are finding it hard to realize they should be turning -
days are 70's - 80's and nights are in the 60's - 70's. 

Only a few flowers were still blooming

This leaf caught my eye because it is the exact pair of colors I used to
paint a friend's bedroom for a Christmas present

The river is open for paddling 

The Bogue Chitto River has both very low banks to higher ones. The campground is on a bluff.  We didn't visit it this trip.

View looking upstream on the Bogue Chitto River - currently running very high and fast

The river has lots of sandbars - great for overnight paddles with camping

I had to take extreme closeups to capture fall color

There are lots of acorns to feed squirrels - for some reason a squirrel had
eaten only half of several acorns

View on the way down into the gorge

One of the most interesting parts of Bogue Chitto is that is seems to have both sand dunes and swamp within it.  There is a gorge, which is accessed by 65 steps down and then, then by a boardwalk through a swamp.  All of this is almost pure sand. But the bottom was very swampy. There were also a few other places on the trail where the trail changed elevation over what appeared to be sandunes, now covered with trees.   Even though leaves are not turning, lots of them had fallen, making the damp steps and boardwalk slippery.

Hulin coming down into the gorge - 65 steps

A tiny clear streamlet, draining the lowlands along the boardwalk at the bottom of the gorge. 

Mushrooms in pumpkin color

A tupelo tree leaf I found on the boardwalk

Oakes mostly turn from green to brown but this one was a little redder than most

There were few Yaupon berries  and they were protected by mockingbirds

Another bit of fall color

Part of the path after I came out of the gorge

In the piney highlands

Sweetgums may be my favorite trees in fall.  They turn shades of yellow to red to purple,
sometimes all  on the same tree.  And I love to watch chickadees hang upside
down from there spiny fruit balls while extracting the seeds. 

It was a good hike on a nice day. But we did work up a sweat in the heat and humidity.  I'm looking forward to my departure Monday to slightly cooler environs.