Falcon State Park, 12/26 - 27/17

56. We stayed in Air-Conditioned Shelter #23 because of other travel considerations and it worked out nicely.  The Air-Conditioned Shelters are big enough for 2 very sturdy, wooden bunk beds, a large aluminum table, 3 windows, 2 outlets and the air-conditioner, which also heated very well.  Unfortunately, the weather did NOT cooperate with us - the morning of the 27th we awoke to 42 degrees and drizzle.  The birds (who were the main attraction) had hunkered down and the trails were muddy, so we decided to leave that morning (we'd originally planned to leave on the 28th). The park staff were super nice and even refunded our money, which we weren't expecting at all! 
A note for future shelter use: bring the biggest (widest) twin mattress you can find (park doesn't provide mattresses or bedding), bring extension cords so you can reach your phone while it's charging, and bring a small table on which to set things that are plugged in 4 feet above your head!  :)

Inside the shelter.

Shelter 23.

Crested Caracara.

Osprey with dinner.

Falcon is near Zapata and Roma.  Zapata is a county seat; its new courthouse is built to look old and gorgeous (most newer courthouses are modern-looking).  Zapata has grocery stores, restaurants, antiques and other places of interest.  

Roma is closer, but is much smaller with fewer amenities.  However, Roma does have it's own World Birding Center and between Roma and Falcon are at least 2 more renowned birding sites.  Roma's old part of town is lovely, but not well cared-for.

Copper Breaks State Park, 11/22 - 11/25/17

55. Copper Breaks State Park - Scampsite #3.  This is a smaller park, but full of interesting terrain.  It is completely walkable if you walk a lot already, but many people brought bicycles for getting around.  We were there for Thanksgiving, and so were several large family groups.  Once the park got dark though, things got very quiet. Copper Breaks is a small, muddy "lake" that is dammed up perpendicularly to the Pease River.  There was almost no waterfowl, but lots of sparrows, robins, bobwhites and redwing blackbirds.  The landscape is hillier and rockier than Lake Arrowhead was, so the hiking was more interesting.  We hiked all of the Bull Canyon trail, Rocky Ledges Loop, and Juniper Ridge Nature trail. 

View of Lake Copper Breaks at sunset.

Our Scampsite at sunset.

Pease River.

3-D map of the park.

Scampsite #3.

Permian-era ripples in the sandstone.

Copper Breaks hiking.

Copper Breaks is located between Quanah and Crowell, both of which are county seats.  We did some grocery-shopping in Quanah and the courthouse there is lovely.  There is also an old building that has been turned into a museum.  When we visited Quanah while we were courthousing, the town had miniature replicas of the courthouse made and for sale, although that particular day they were out of stock.  Quanah is proud of their lovely little courthouse! 

Lake Arrowhead State Park, 11/2017 - 11/22/17

54. Lake Arrowhead is a lovely park.  The lake attracts lots of waterfowl and there is a prairie dog community next to the lake.  We hiked all the trails, the northern end of the Onion Creek trail was the most interesting.  When we got to our Scampsite (#21), there were few other campers in the park, but by the time we left, it had filled up dramatically.  Despite being full it was still pretty quiet.  There is a functioning pumpjack near the bathrooms that makes pumpjack noises - our friends had tent-camped  there several months ago and were bothered by the noise at night, but we didn't notice it in our trailer.   There is also an 18-hole disc golf course here - it was too cold one day and then too windy the next to play, but it was pretty flat and well-tended. There were lots of people fishing on the lake and there is a boat ramp too, although we didn't see many boats.  The park also has a firewood vending machine, which we've never seen anywhere else and which was easy to use!  How clever!

Prairie dog.

Onion Creek trail has a tunnel under the road.

The Lake Arrowhead dam. 

Disc golf course map.

Scampsite 21!

The noisy pumpjack.

One of the holes on the disc golf course. 

Firewood vending machine. 

Lake Arrowhead is very close to Wichita Falls, which is becoming a more interesting little city.  There is a brewery in the making (Wichita Falls Brewing) that should be very good (the brewer made a name for himself at Infamous Brewing in Austin), there are restaurants, antique shops and hike and bike trails as well.  Wichita Falls is a county seat as well.