A Canyon, some mountains and lots of birds!

Sunset View

We had three gorgeous sunsets and alpenglows at Seminole Canyon!

Day 19: March 1

Up and out early to a whole lot of nothing as we headed north west to Seminole Canyon. We stocked up at Laredo (yikes, another big city, and a border town as well!) then the long road past Oil Fields and Natural Gas Refineries and, likely, Fracking. Eeks. The RV Parks were now empty (they were filled with workers’ RVs in the past) as, I guess, the industry has changed.

We did see some Blue Bonnets just south of Eagle Pass (early?). And we got more Gas Station Mexican Food (it’s Stripes, Laredo Tacos, in case you come here). Oh, and we passed “Casino Grocery #4” (we missed #1-3).

There were Pecan groves (not the season), one with a horse, another with goats, another with Longhorns and another with tethered Roosters (guess the fights are nearby).

We got to Seminole Canyon State Park and booked site E022 for three nights ($50 total E/W with coupon) and enjoyed an afternoon at the site looking at birds, goats and deer and the sunset.

Here’s the view from my chair:

Day 20: March 2

We spent more than 10 hours outside today! That’s what you can do in an 80F, bug-free environment!

On our bikes, we road the Rio Grande Trail (5.75 miles). For me, this was a challenge and, despite a rocky trail and lots of declines, I made it ON THE BIKE! And it was worth the ride to where the Rio Grande enters the canyon:

and we could see the Panther Cave pictographs!

The afternoon was spent getting “crispy” at the site!

Day 21: March 3

It was windy, and chilly in the wind, in the morning. We walked the birding trail to the bird blind being built (it will be great when completed). Here’s a collection of birds we’ve seen here:

Birds on a Wire (including Life Bird, Western Meadowlark, on the right):

Birds on a Bush:

Birds in Full Song:

After rattling my bones on yesterday’s bike ride, we decided to skip the Guided Cave Tour (we’ve done it twice before) and hung out for the morning..

In the afternoon, we walked the Windmill Trail and enjoyed our last late afternoon at this beautiful campsite.

Day 22: March 4

This seems to be AT&T country, so we were mostly off the grid for these days. But it was time to head farther north past a lot of Border Patrol pickups and desert and mountains (yep, 45 needs a wall!):

A Roadrunner flew across the road right in front of us and ran the rest of the way!

The Big Bend Cowboy Church parking lot in Alpine was full (those pickups take up a whole lot of space).

We got to Davis Mountains State Park, took some time to find a flat site (didn’t, but used our 20 blocks on site 42-$50 for three nights with our final coupon):

and visited the bird feeders (the best, we think, in Texas) and saw all these beauties, including the Cassin’s Finch (bottom right), another Life Bird:

Day 23: March 5

It was another chilly night and morning which yielded a great sleep.

We rode the bikes to all the feeders and to the secret water trough we were told about years ago. The Western Bluebirds and Cedar Waxwings were the stars, along with their friends:

We did see both the male and female Phainopepla:

And this Say’s Phoebe, another Life Bird:

During lunch, we decided to throw caution to the wind and head farther west into Arizona, so cancelled our third night here, but not before a final look at the feeders and water trough.

Love this campground!