Caprock Canyons State Park–A Slice of Utah–in Texas…

We made it through Memorial Day weekend and as a result we left Fort Richardson State Park to move on to a place we hadn't been before. A few hours later after heading northwest we pulled into Caprock Canyon State Park. What most surprised us as we were driving to the park was how the landscape suddenly changed from flat and boring to hilling and quite interesting.

By the time we pulled into our site we knew we had pulled into a special place. Not only is the landscape remarkably different but there are buffalo seen everywhere. They are there as a result of a rancher’s wife who decided to gift a head of pure strained buffalo to the state park. There were less than 40 in the 70’s and are now more than 100 today ( we saw lots of babies). One day they actually grazed all around our RV within 10 feet of our windows (the header photo was out of my RV windshield one early morning)!!!

Lots of wildlife is in this park as we have seen prairie dogs, coyote, road runners, painted bunting and many other species but what makes this place extra special is the fact that it looks like a slice of Utah made its way into the northern part of the state of Texas. We hiked several morning hikes as the temperatures were in the 100’s so we took advantage of the early cooler morning temperatures. I won’t say any more as I will simply let the photos below tell the rest of the story…

NOTE: We left Caprock Canyons State Park in the panhandle of Texas and stopped in Muleshoe Texas but are now heading on to New Mexico for a few nights at Fort Sumner State Park…

Wichita Falls Texas, Family and Fun We Had There...

After a short stint at Fort Richardson State Park we moved northwest over to Wichita Falls about three hours away. Why Wichita Falls, you may ask? Well I have a nephew who lives there we haven't seen for a few years and I wanted to see his son who is now two and half years old. He was just a baby the last time we saw them

We will stay at Wichita Bend Park which is owned by the city and amazingly is still only 17 dollars per night for water and 50 amp service. After settling in I contacted my nephew to see when we could meet up and he invited us over to their new house for dinner. Sharon and I went over to the local store and bought our great nephew a present and some Blue Bell ice cream for dessert. As you can see in the photo, little Graham was delighted with his present which was a fire truck! He played with it most of the evening.

My sister was also at dinner and she brought lots of old photos from her house that I asked for after my mother passed away. Above photo is my mom, me, my sister and my grand parents (yes, it was a long time ago). Dinner was really good as Steven grilled some chicken and steaks along with some potatoes and broccoli. After dinner we were reminiscing as we were going through the many old photos. We got so involved we forgot to have the ice cream after dinner!

Our last day at Wichita Bend Park we walked over to the park adjacent to us. There is a small pedestrian suspension bridge opening up to Lucy Park. We went there to play disc golf as they have a pretty decent course. And guess what we saw…. more snakes doing the dirty. I heard a noise and when I looked over to see what it was I discovered it was a pair of 5 to 6 foot long rat snakes doing the dirty despite having fallen out of the tree. It didn’t seem to bother them at all as they continued their amorous ways.

What is about us and snakes this year? We have seen more snakes in the past month than we have seen in the past ten years! Maybe it has something to do with how hot is is getting so early in the season. You would swear it was August and time for the “Hotter n’ Hell 100” the 100 mile bicycle race held annually in Wichita Falls. We ended our day at a cool little brewery called Wichita Falls Brewing with a nice cold beer. And that is how we spent the remainder of our Memorial Day weekend…

NOTE: We are now in Caprock Canyons State Park in the panhandle of Texas but are hoping to score a first come- first serve spot in Muleshoe Texas this morning…