Fairfield Lake State Park, 3/11 - 12/18

58. We got Scampsite #93, in the middle camping area.  There are 3 camping areas: one was closed for remodeling, ours, and then the one that had just reopened after remodeling.  It's nice to see maintenance being done on the parks.  The hiking trails are not close to the campgrounds, I think this park is much more about fishing and boating and the location of the trails felt a little bit like an afterthought.  It is a big park though, on a big power plant lake, so there is a lot of room for it to be spread out.  We hiked all the trails, saw lots of birds, and woke to a chilly morning in the low 40's!

Scampsite #93

Hiking trail

Lake view from the trail.

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Nearby attractions:  Fairfield Lake is near the town of Fairfield, which is a county seat and has a cute little courthouse.  The first time we went to Fairfield (courthousing), as we were walking past the attached jail, I said loudly, "Anybody in there?" and an inmate yelled back at me!  It was so startling and funny - most of those old, attached (or nearby) jails aren't in use anymore.  (It actually made us start noticing which counties still use their old jails.)  

Big Spring State Park, 2/11/18

57.  Day-use park; we stopped here because the car navigation took us right past it after our weekend of Snowy-Owl-Hunting in Odessa!  My mother-in-law also needed to renew her Parks Pass (nobody was in the office, so it's still expired), and we needed a stretch-and-bathroom break.  Plus, the scenery was far better than a gas station any day of the week!  :)  There's not much to this park, other than scenic views from atop the hill next to Big Spring: a CCC-built Headquarters building, a CCC-built group picnic shelter, short hiking trails, and 360 degree vistas.  This would be a great picnic spot on a longer trip.

CCC-built Headquarters.

CCC-built group pavilion.

Inside the CCC-built group pavilion.

Big Spring is a county seat with an unremarkable courthouse.  However, the Hotel Settles has recently been restored and reopened, so that would be a reason to stay in Big Spring.  

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. 

Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site, 10/7/17

53. This is a day-use only site, so we had to get creative!  The Inn was lovely, our tour guide was a Park ranger named Adam, who knew tons about the Inn's history.  Since the Inn was going to be difficult for us to visit in anything other than a camping trip, and there aren't any state parks with camping nearby, we discovered Gibbons Creek Reservoir, which is the reservoir that cools the coal-fired power plant that serves several municipalities in Texas, including Bryan.

Rainwater collection to the cistern.

Dining room for the Inn.  Notice the fans, also known as "Shoo-Flies".  

Room refurbished as if Sam Houston, the Inn's most famous guest, was staying there.

The cheap quarters.  There were 3 of these beds, plus the pallet on the floor.  3 adults, 4 if at least one body was a child, slept in one bed, along with all their bugs, weird habits, and diseases.

The Inn, from the picnic tables.

Tack for the mules who pull the stagecoach, Waylon and Willie. 

The Inn was located at the junction of 5 different stage lines, so they have a replica stagecoach.  Once a month, the Inn takes visitors on rides to town (Anderson) on the stagecoach. 

After our visit to the Inn, we proceeded to explore Bryan and College Station a little bit, notably the breweries.  Coincidentally, we picked the day of the Texas A&M vs. Alabama (currently ranked #1) football game, so town was a bit busy.  

New Republic Brewing, College Station.

We explored some dirt roads (190 & 192) and found Gibbons Creek!  The crossing is blocked off because the bridge has holes in it, but the creek is very pretty and apparently floods occasionally. 

Gibbons Creek and bridge. 

Gibbons Creek bridge. 

The coal-fired plant at the Reservoir used coal that was mined locally.  These mines haven't been used in years and the land is being monitored for contamination.  Theoretically, the lands will all be put on the market in 2020.

Our campsite, #9, at Gibbons Creek Reservoir.  

Gibbons Creek Reservoir.   The road to the campground goes on top of the dam. 

Gibbons Creek signage.

The power plant at sunset.  

Currently, it's not in use and is for sale.  Ideally, the plant and the reservoir would be sold privately as opposed to being decommissioned and draining the lake.  This is all due to the fact that solar, wind energy, and natural gas (of which Texas has a lot) are cheaper and less pollutive than coal-fired power plants.  

Other things to see and do in the area: Bryan has a brewery as well: Blackwater Draw and has a brewpub.  We tried to get BBQ from Fargo Pit BBQ, which was one of Texas Monthly's recent top 50 BBQ Joints, but being a huge game day, they sold out by 1:30!  Another time....

In the same warehouse-y area as New Republic Brewing was a distillery and winery (Perrines) and Messina Hof is also located in Bryan.  

Anything Texas A&M offers to the public will be interesting: football, vet school open house, etc. 

The Brazos County Courthouse has all new windows and looks better than it did when we first saw it, when some of the windows were covered with plywood, but it's still an ugly building. The old downtown part of Bryan is really cute and has great potential.  

Anderson, where Fanthorp Inn is located, is a sleepy little town, but it does have a cute courthouse and good antique shops.  Washington-On-The-Brazos isn't too far from Anderson also.

Martin Dies Jr. State Park, 5/27 - 29/2017

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