Saturday, March 19, 2022

Birding and Hiking in Alamo Texas…

IMG_3596

We have been in Alamo Texas at Casa Del Valle RV Resort for awhile and decided to share a little about this place and why we came here. The resort is one of the many over 55 resorts in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV).  Aside from the price of $199.00 per month for first time visitors we were attracted to the location of this park.

IMG_3580

Alamo Texas is about an hour and a half from the beach at South Padre Island, However, it is pretty centrally located to several state parks and wildlife refuges in the  Valley. While we have eliminated South Padre Island as a future home once we stop RV’ing we felt as if we should also check out the interior of the RGV.

IMG_3482IMG_3630

The attraction of the RGV as a future home is the cost of living down here is quite low. The weather is attractive as well although the summers can be quite hot. What we didn’t know was whether or not there were enough other amenities to attract us to this locale.Thus we made a list of places to visit during our stay.

IMG_3531IMG_3521

High on the list was Bentson-Rio Grande State Park near Mission Texas which we have already ventured over to twice. We have visited before and remembered this park has a lot of hiking and/or biking opportunities and is great for birding. On our first trip we hiked a few miles and birded along the way.

IMG_3488

What makes this park good for birding is that the staffers and volunteers have set up several bird seeding stations with a few photo blinds as well. A lot of birds seen in this part of Texas can only be seen here in the entire United States so it isn’t surprising to run into people who travel from all over the USA just to come here to birdwatch. Sharon always looks forward to sightings of the plentiful and colorful Green Jays. This park never disappoints in that regard!

IMG_3496

The state park is right on the border of Mexico as many of the parks are in this area so we often see the dreaded border wall. We also see lots of border patrol and an occasional Texas National Guardsman because they were deployed by the governor to assist Texas with their so called border crisis. Interestingly in the almost three months we have been here we have heard zero stories on the local news relating to the “crisis”.

IMG_3655

Today’s photos are from the state park and we hope to revisit this park again  before we leave.

IMG_3646

NOTE: We are currently in Alamo TX until April  27th…

4 comments:

  1. Great birding photos, and again thanks for the labels. The Belted Kingfisher is certainly a beauty.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the way he/she looked at me... kind of like "What the heck are you looking at dude!"

      Delete
  2. Wonderful photos. I can imagine what it takes to stalk those down for a photo. I added a possible stay in Alamo Texas to our list of stops. Boy the prices in Florida have been and are getting more ridiculous.....

    Good luck on the continued hunt for a place to setup a new household. We have decided to start our early stage of doing the same thing come this summer. We are thinking a condo at this point and already know it would be somewhere in the central United States which for legal reasons of domicile I must say could include Texas. Maybe a small condo and still travel extensively but way early to have a definite plan.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, RV campground prices have really shot up over the last year or two. Florida has about priced us out of a winter stay there although we will look at Florida for a possible winter stay again this year.

      Delete