Colorado Bend State Park

This past weekend we went camping at Colorado Bend State Park. It is an absolutely beautiful park in the Texas Hill Country. We left Friday around 1:00 p.m. and were there about 3:30. The campground is at the end of a very long, bone-jarring gravel road. Seriously, we may have to get new shocks for the truck. But the camp ground is in a valley on the banks of the Colorado River and is literally in the middle of nowhere.

We pitched camp and then took a short hike along the banks of the river. We saw 3 armadillos. Andrew wanted to chase them but Adam informed him his ears would fall off if he touched one (well, they do carry leprosy). We also spent a lot of time throwing rocks into the river, great fun for the 4 year old set. Then we went back to camp, built a fire, ate dinner and hung out until bedtime.

The next morning, Andrew and I got up at 7:15. It was 31 degrees. Did you catch that? It was below freezing. After about 5 minutes, I woke Adam up and informed him we were driving to town for breakfast. You just can't cook in those kind of conditions, well, at least I can't. So after breakfast in a nice, warm cafe, we returned to the park and took off on a hike.

The big attraction at Colorado Bend State Park is Gorman Falls. You start at the top of a hill and hike down to the river and at the bottom is this beautiful waterfall. It's about a 3 mile round trip hike and Andrew hiked almost all of it (he rode on Adam's shoulders for the last 1/4 mile).



After eating lunch at the camp, we went down to the river and went fishing. We didn't catch anything, but Andrew learned how to cast. Where we were fishing, the river runs through a canyon and Andrew discovered the fun of echoes. We had great fun shouting silly things and listening to our echoes.



We saw a lot of wildlife while at the park. Lots of armadillos and deer, including some big bucks (it was opening weekend of deer season), a couple of wild turkeys, and a bobcat walked right past our campsite. I was very excited about seeing the bobcat, Adam...not so much. Oh, and there were a ton of daddy longlegs. I hate daddy longlegs. I mean I really hate them. And they were every where and on every thing. Billions of them. Adam and Andrew thought it was really funny when one crawled up on my hand and I started screaming and jumping around like a banshee. I aged about 10 years in 1 second.

But other than the icky spiders, it was a great weekend. There are only about 25 campsites at the park, so it was not crowded. There is no electricity so at night you can see all the stars. And the setting is beautiful and so peaceful.

Now, I just have to get the smell of smoke out of everything...and make sure no daddy longlegs hitched a ride home with us.