Eisenhower State Park, 11/22/2022

 83. We did not camp here - for a multitude of reasons, we've never been able to camp here!  This trip we chose to camp at Ray Roberts and use that as a more central basecamp to other places, Eisenhower being one of them.  This is a surprisingly big park on the shores of Lake Texhoma.  There are numerous campsites, a huge privately owned marina, and a plethora of ATV trails (which were closed when we visited).  We hiked a short, but hilly trail near the shore, saw ammonites in the rocks, and gawked at the monstrous boats stored at the marina.  

Part of the trail took us to the shore, where we could see just a few of the many boats stored at the marina. 

Pano of Lake Texhoma from the marina. 

Eisenhower State Park is also really close to Denison and Sherman, so we explored those towns a bit as well.  Denison has a brewery, a distillery, lots of antique shops, the old Katy Depot, President Eisenhower's birthplace house, and the home of T.V. Munson, the man who saved the wine industry.  

Sherman has 2 breweries, antiques, and is a county seat as well.  

Katy Depot.

Grayson County courthouse.

President Eisenhower's birth home. 

Ray Roberts Lake S.P. 11/20 - 24/2022

 82. Scampsite 92, Isle Du Bois unit - a lovely wide, 2-vehicle pad on a little slope, but surrounded by trees - it felt like we were in our own private space, more so than at other parks.  The Isle Du Bois unit is a park for boaters, fishing, horseback riding and mountain biking - there are several DORBA trails (single-tracks for bikes), long trails for horses, a large boat ramp, fishing pier and fish-cleaning area.  The longest walking trail is paved (unusual) and there were several ADA-accessible camp sites as well.  There are playgrounds in the camping areas as well.  The weather was cold and on-and-off drizzly, so we spent some time outside of the park as well.  

Ray Roberts Lake has 2 more units as part of the state park group: the Johnson Branch, which is on the other side of the lake (north side) from Isle Du Bois, and the Lone Star Lodge & Marina, which is part of  Jordan Park.  

The Lone Star Lodge & Marina has rooms, pontoons, jet skis, kayaks, tubes, and lily pads for rent.  When we visited, there were pieces and parts of docks on the ground, so it looks like the marina part is getting some love.  

Johnson Branch Unit was surprisingly devoid of RV's (and tents, but the weather was iffy, so that wasn't really a surprise) and we never did figure out why.  It's a lovely unit, also with lots of DORBA trails, but smaller trails suitable for kids as well.   

Scampsite 92.

Ray Roberts Lake, part of the paved walking trail and the swimming beach. 

Lone Star Lodge lobby. 

There is A LOT to do in the area: Denton is really close, is a county seat (gorgeous courthouse), has 2 breweries, antiques, restaurants, and a "haunted" old bridge - we visited the bridge in daylight so didn't experience The Goatman.  

Old Alton Bridge, 1884.

Denton County Courthouse.  

Meridian State Park, 9/3 - 9/5/22

​81. Scampsite #12.  We camped in the low-voltage sites, which usually works well for us - this particular park's low-voltage sites are only 19 feet long, so it was a tight squeeze on a steep drop-off that required ALL of our stacking "lego bricks" and a rock!  In the future, perhaps choose the higher-voltage sites, which also had pull-throughs.  The park is beautiful, and has CCC-made features: a refectory, a bridge and a cool grill with a view of the lake.  The lake is small but beautiful.  The hiking trail around the lake was indeed challenging - even had stone stairs in a couple of spots! 

Scampsite 12.

Bosque County Courthouse in Meridian.

CCC Refectory.

CCC bridge.

The stairs on the Bosque Trail.

The bird blind.

From the surrounding area: 

Clifton Whipple Truss Bridge.

Hico bridge.

The pony bridge next to the big bridge near Hico.

Dinner at Zur Autobahn, a German restaurant 4 miles south of the park.  Delicious! 

Meridian State Park is near Meridian, the county seat of Bosque County, Hico, and Clifton.  In Hico we visited a chocolatier and sampled delicious truffles, and visited 2 old steel bridges, one of which is still in use today.  In Clifton we found another old steel bridge, which is no longer in use, and sampled local wines at Red Caboose Winery - try their more recent ones for the latest and greatest! Red Caboose is also located in Meridian, but the Meridian tasting room wasn't open on Sunday, when we wanted to go.  

Mustang Island State Park, 1/1/2022

 80. No camping here, just a day visit.  We walked out almost to the end of Fish Pass though, so that was cool.  (We were already staying in a condo in the area and have decided that camping on the beach isn't really our thing).  

Nearby: Corpus Christi, the Texas State Aquarium, the USS Lexington, of course all the beaches, walking, collecting shells and observing small creatures and birds! 

Lake Corpus Christi State Park, 11/22 - 11/24/21

 79. Scampsite #5.  Lake Corpus Christi is a lovely, large park.  There are about 3 miles of hiking trails which are lovely and flat.  The bird blind is AMAZING - it's actually a huge area, with a blind and about a dozen different feeders hanging around.  The fishing pier is the nicest one we've seen in a state park - it's long, wide, well-made, and well-lit at night.  The wildlife here wasn't as challenging as at Choke Canyon; we did see one of the resident bobcats - it ran across the road in front of our truck!  We had a skunk investigate the far edges of our Scampsite (bedtime for us!), and there was a small herd of deer that visited every day.  There is a firewood vending machine, which is really nice for those of us who don't tend to carry cash.  Boating and fishing are definitely a big draw here, but there is plenty of other stuff to do too, including the old CCC building.   

Scampsite #5.

The CCC-built refectory.

The bird blind area.

The fishing pier at sunset.

The fishing pier at night.

Lake Corpus Christi has A LOT to do, but is also relatively close to Corpus Christi, which has lots more to do.  Sadly the old courthouse in Corpus Christi is falling into disrepair and last we heard there aren't plans to restore it.  

Choke Canyon State Park, 11/21 - 11/22/21

 78. Scampsite #137, a few days away before the Family Madness of Thanksgiving!  :). 

This was a much-needed break away from our daily lives and the stress of the school year so far.  Choke Canyon is a small, remote park.  If you don't boat or fish, there's not a lot to do - hiking trails are short, and there's a nice bird blind.  Wildlife was interesting: within minutes of our arrival to our site, a flock of wild turkeys showed up and walked past, followed by a small herd of deer, then a few javelinas.   We learned that javelinas WILL chase you if your dog is acting aggressive and threatening towards them; fortunately our dog and the javelinas did not actually meet up close.  The javelinas were very vocal most of the night; I recommend closing windows at night.  

Scampsite 137, the lake in the background.

Javelina in the foreground, turkeys in the background at the edge of the bush line.  

The lovely bird blind. 

Choke Canyon isn't near anyplace big or entertaining, so definitely plan to stay at the park and entertain yourself there.   

Lake Somerville State Park, Birch Creek Unit, 12/30/20 - 1/2/21

 77. Scampsite number 69, we needed to get out of town and fall in love with our Scamp again.  

We began with trepidation - we knew there was a big storm system bearing down on Somerville and the Hill Country, but we went anyways, hoping the weather people would be wrong.  We were able to set up camp while it was still dry and walk along the lakeshore (and have to bushwhack to find the trail again, much to Jen's consternation) but it begain drizzling Wednesday evening.  

Thursday, the four of us (Jen and Jeremy rented a trailer and had a site as well), walked around the trails nearest to our campsites and then the J's decided to return to their trailer.  We kept walking (with the dogs too of course).  We ended up walking almost as far as one can go from our campsite, to the Cedar Elm Day Use area, at which point we turned around.  The rain started in earnest shortly after we turned around and we discovered which parts of our clothing layers were not, in fact, waterproof.  The trails became small creeks and there was no higher ground to walk on, so we sloshed as quickly as we could.  All four of us were partially (me) to totally soaked (Aaron, the dogs) by the time we got back to our trailer.  It continued raining through the night; our attempt at a campfire was foiled (just like the rest of 2020), but New Year's Eve Game Night with the J's was fun - we played several rounds of Monopoly Deal and all of the black cards in Cards Against Humanity in our trailer.  Somehow we stayed up until midnight, rung in the New Year, and crashed. 

Friday, the J's left, the rain stopped and we hiked the trails near Flag Lake in the afternoon.  Saw lots of birds and vow to return with Sherry in the spring for the spring migration.  

Saturday we loaded up and drove through the Group Trailer Area - it turned out there was a Fiberglass RV rally (a couple of the men had approached our trailer on Thursday and invited us to join them) - mostly Casitas, but there was one 19' Scamp similar to ours, an Escape and a Bigfoot.  The folks were real nice and we are interested in joining them in the future.  

We hiked a couple more short trails Saturday morning and hit the road.  

Scampsite 69.

The storm front as we drove in.

Pano of Lake Somerville, before the storms.

The last PATHETIC fire of 2020.

Sunrise, 1/1/21.

Yegua Creek, near Newman Bottom Primitive Sites. 

Also in the area: Well, we didn't explore much this time, due to the weather and the pandemic.  It's just not as easy and safe to go visiting small towns and wandering shops. Plus it was New Year's, so not much would have been open anyway.  But, this park is near Bryan, College Station, Brenham, and Caldwell.  So if one needed to get out to a town, there are lots of options within 30 miles.  

However, there are SO many hiking / equestrian trails that one could stay very busy and see lots of beauty without leaving the park property.  Not to mention fishing, boating and all the usual water fun.  

All in all, we love this park and are looking forward to returning to bird more trails without the dogs (day trips) and possibly backpack / bikepack some of the more remote trails.