Check-In Is At 2:00!

We managed to get a 3-night reservation at South Llano River State Park in Junction.  We are finding that it's difficult to get reservations at any of the state parks as the on-line reservation system allows folks to reserve months in advance. 

Since S. Llano is only 1 1/2 hours from our house, and we have a very difficult time sitting around waiting to leave, we decided to leave a little early.  We knew that check-out is noon and check-in is 2:00pm so we thought arriving a little early wouldn’t be a problem.

We were wrong.  Even though the site was vacant, this park has a strict policy of not allowing early check-in.

With an hour-and-a-half to kill, we parked in the day use area and went on a nice little hike through the woods.

Day use area

The park has very nice trail maps posted on the trails.

We walked down to "Buck's Pond"

We were pleasantly surprised with all of the wildflowers that were still blooming, and the variety of butterflies, insects, and birds. 

Reakirt's Blue on small daisy

Sulphur butterfly on Verbena

Damselfly

We headed back to headquarters to check-in (making sure it was after 2:00 pm!).

We had a very nice site (#45) with an easy back-in and no close neighbors.    

After getting set up we headed into Junction for lunch.  We have been to this area many times including volunteering at S. Llano in November 2019 so we are familiar with the restaurants in town.  The Mexican restaurant wasn’t open so we headed to Lum’s for barbeque.  Lum’s has been in Junction since 1976 and has excellent barbeque.

After lunch we headed back to the park where we stopped at a couple of bird blinds. In the heat of the day, the water features in the blinds are particularly popular. 

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat

There are 4 bird blinds in the park.  We usually aren’t in Texas during this time of the year and were interested to see what birds we would see at the blinds. 

The male Painted Bunting is a spectacularly colorful bird, while the female is more muted. Remember, she has to sit on the nest and not get eaten!!

Painted Bunting male

Painted Bunting female

There are 22.7 miles of trails in the park.  Our second day we were on a trail at 7 am.  

Mid-Canyon Trail

Some of the trail was nice and level.

 Some of the trail was a little rocky. 

Besides birds, there were some beautiful wildflowers.

Purple Leather Flower

Pencil Cactus in bloom

Wildflowers being eaten by a Cottontail

Our goal was to walk 3 miles.  This is the farthest I’ve walked since my knee surgery.  I made it the 3 miles but I was happy to get to the truck!

After the walk we went back to the bird blinds and took more pictures. 

Golden-fronted Woodpecker getting a drink

Orchard Oriole female

Orchard Oriole male

Yellow-throated Warbler

The next day we hiked the River Trail.  It’s a beautiful trail that meanders along the Llano River.

River Trail

This pecan tree will probably be washed away

in the next flood.

The trail is in a pecan bottom and is nice and shady.

This Turkey Vulture was relaxing and hadn't started flying yet this morning. 

Our last morning we took our time getting packed up and headed back home.

Our second outing in the new trailer went well.  Even though we still have cabinets without anything in them, with a much smaller trailer we don’t bring everything we own with us.

So, when my mouse battery quit working, we had to make a trip to the dollar store.  Other than that, I think we’ve got things figured out with the new trailer.

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Happy Birthday Mark!

 It was nice to get out and go someplace this year for Mark’s birthday. 

Not too far from our house is the second largest bat population in the world that is open to the public.

We have been to many bat caves and always enjoy the show.  This sounded like something fun to do so we made reservations along with a reservation for a beautiful cabin in the hill country.

We left our house and drove to Utopia (Texas).  After having lunch at the Lost Maples Café, it was too early to check into our cabin so we headed to Garner State Park.

Garner State Park is on 1774 acres in Concan.

 This is why it’s called the Texas Hill Country

 The park is on the beautiful, clear Frio River. 

We spent a couple of hours doing a little bird watching. 

Wild Turkey

Summer Tanager

Purple Martin

From Garner we drove back to Utopia to check into our cabin at the Utopia River Retreat.

Our cabin - “The Lookout”

The cabin was very nice but the best part was the back deck.

Kitchen

Livingroom

One of the bedrooms. 

The back deck is about 25’ up in the treetops.

It sits right on the beautiful Sabinal River. 

We had a couple of hours to sit and enjoy the view before heading to the bat cave.

Texas has 33 species of bats, more than any other state.  The Mexican free-tailed bat became the official state flying mammal in 1995.

The Frio Bat Cave is located on a private parcel of land-locked land within the Annandale Ranch in Concan. 

We met the guide at the gate entrance at 7:00 pm and followed him the 2 miles through the ranch to the Frio Cave.  This was a Monday evening and there were only 3 other couples and a couple of kids.

The walk up to the cave entrance was short, a little steep, on a paved road.  The wildflowers were in full bloom. 

This is a maternity cave where 5-10 million bats return each spring to give birth to their pups. After the pups are born the population increases to 10-12 million making it the second-largest single-mammal colony in the world.

About 7:50 the bats started emerging. 

It didn’t take long before the sky was full of bats.

When it was discovered that decaying bat feces (guano) becomes saltpeter, the chief ingredient of gunpowder, a full-scale mining operation was started in the Frio Cave. Throughout the Civil War and World War I the cave provided tons of guano.  The actual drying kiln for the guano is still here.

Today bat guano is collected during the winter months after the bats have headed back to Mexico.  The guano is used to make fertilizer.

Bags of dry guano from last winter.

The first room of the cave is 225 feet wide and 80 feet long with a 40-foot ceiling. The second room, known as “the great bat den”, is roughly twice the size of a football field.

During the peak of the summer, it takes about 3 hours for all the bats to emerge.  We watched them for about 45 minutes.

The next morning, we spent some time walking around the Utopia River Retreat.  There are 9 cabins on 22 acres but it looked like we were the only ones here.

We walked down to the Sabinal River before spending some time on the gazebo. 

Sabinal River 

Here’s Mark with some of his birthday gifts (new binoculars and hat). 

We enjoyed our time in this beautiful area. 

On our way back home, we stopped at Lost Maples State Natural Area in Vanderpool, for a little hiking and birding.  It’s also on the Sabinal River.

Juniper Hairstreak

Golden-cheeked Warbler

We have been to this park many times but I didn’t recall ever getting a magnet.

Lost Maples is definitely magnet worthy! 

Feliz Cumpleaños, Mark!

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