W15 Days 20-22

Day 20 March 5

It was 78F when we went to bed last night and 42F this morning. It was meant to be a rainy day, so we headed further west for a long drive to Seminole Canyon State Park.

Since it was a driving day, it was filled with observations from the passenger seat:

• travelling on the “Texas Tropical Trail”-ha!
• our first batch of Blue Bonnets
• “All Saints Nursery”; are they growing them from seed? raising them?
• Canada Creek
• “Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Convicts”
• A “doggy” Border Patrol (we got two thumbs up as Canadians
• the size of Mesquite on the roadside was getting smaller and smaller (in the desert now)
• some exotic animals on Wildlife Ranches among oil, gas and fracking ranches
• much less of a  Border Patrol presence than in the past
• Zorro Creek

It actually was a good drive and we got to Seminole Canyon State Park (Site 2, E/W, $50 for three nights with final 1/2 price coupon)

Nice to be in the desert. Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 21 March 6

It was VERY cold this morning (32F) and we planned on taking the Fate Bell Pictograph Sit tour at 10:00!

The woman next door had thrown some birdseed (we were told we could not and were disappointed since we had our oranges, a “found” feeder and some cracked corn ready to go), but David got some shots of our campground birds including a Cactus Wren, a pair of Canyon Towhees, a Curve-billed Thrasher and a Black-throated Sparrow:

We donned our down jackets, toque, headband and mitts and headed off to a tour with volunteers Laurie and Allan and a couple from Oregon. We had done this tour the last time, but it’s a good one, and Laurie added her touch to the explanations of the pictographs we were seeing.

This statue is at the beginning

…and leads our way down into the canyon and a walk to a nearby cave:

These are some of my favourite pictographs from the first stop:

Other than for Mr. Flindfield, a likely railway worker, there has been no claim by any known Aboriginal people as to the meanings of these pictographs. The paintings are fading fast and watercolours created in the 1930s may end up the only record of these stories.

Another site showed more pictographs:

…and we enjoyed the morning looking and listening and imagining. We were also out of the wind!

After lunch, we got the bikes and rode 5.5 miles along the Rio Grande Trail. This park has good biking/hiking trails along the canyon.

They’re challenging enough, and worth the effort, especially when you get to the “prize”, another pictograph in Panther Cave:

It was a chilly, windy but sunny day. A good one!

Here’s a view of the View and our campsite:

Day 22 March 7

Here’s a shot of last night’s beautiful sunset:

We had no real plans for today, so puttered around hoping the wind might die down (it was around 45F). David got some bird pictures, including a Life Bird, a Lark Bunting:

No down coats today, but we bundled up and headed along the Rio Grande Trail:

Our first stop was the Preso Outlook, and we saw a Red-tailed Hawk tucked in a cave:

Later, there was an in-air between this Hawk and another we couldn’t identify. Amazing.

We probably hiked more than biked on our 3.7 mile journey since we were on the Canyon Rim Trail (literally):

We got back and relaxed for the afternoon and David took a few more campsite bird pictures:

The Spring Break campers have started to arrive (it is Saturday). We’ve had three relatively kid-free weeks, and this may change next week. We’ll move on tomorrow.

Here’s the final view of the View in Seminole Canyon: