Lake Corpus Christi State Park

Mon Jan 22:  We ended up having a great weekend.  Sun and humidity came back to the Rio Grande Valley.  We got the truck all packed up with way more stuff than we will use or need for the next 3 days of camping.  Good thing we have a truck!

Our journey began about 8 am, abut 160 miles to the state park.  We stopped at

for a nice walk and lots of wildlife, we seen some deer but did not get pictures, these Nigais were running away from us, they were a lot bigger then the deer we seen.

We seen lots of animal prints in the sand.  This one was very large, assuming a cat of some kind.

always looking for skulls....

after a few more incidental stops we arrived at the park at 2:00 pm.

Our shelter with amenities:  #5

Twin beds, just like Rob and Laura Petre, A/C and heater on the back wall, we brought a small fridge and microwave.

brought a small lamp and lots of food and clothing too.

after setting up we went walking the park.  There are two trails about a mile long each with beach and boat ramp areas and of course the campground areas are good to walk through too.

We found the Crested Cara Cara

and a Pyrrhuloxia, which looks like a cardinal with a yellow beak

Lake Corpus Christi

Dinner by campfire...  Hot Dogs and beans

Great day, glad we rescheduled from last week..

Tues: We got an early start to go to Refugio Tx, the birthplace of Nolan Ryan.  Not to see his birthplace but to look for a rare bird.  Needless to say the Golden Crowned Warbler eluded us for about 2 hours..  time to move on..  We headed to

where we seen lots of wildlife
A feral hog

large raccoon

another large raccoon and a (White form) blue Heron

A scaup

  and an alligator!

they were doing prescribed burns where we met Laura B.  she is the person who contacted us about a volunteer position before Harvey hit! maybe next year??

they have "A Big Tree" on property that withstood Harvey.

We did not arrive home until way after dark, more hot dogs and chile over the fire for a wonderful dinner.

Wed: up early to go to

Harvey hit this area pretty hard.  Most of the park was closed, no hiking trails.  It was very cold and windy by the water.  We did not stay here too long.  they too have a "Big Tree"

Lots of debris and destruction in the town of Rockport

We had a wonderful lunch Paradise Key, it was still under construction but open for business

We got back early to camp, time to shower and take a nice walk around our park.

Road Runner

and a Texas sized grill

since we had such a big lunch, no dinner..  but a nice campfire.

Thurs: After a great walk around our park for one last time we headed home, around 9:30 am.  Our first stop was about 2.5 miles from our shelter.

Great place to walk, although we had to cross the stream without stepping off the wobbly rocks.

Walked to the dam, we did not think we could cross this water without getting wet.

my first ever picture of a Grasshopper Sparrow, they are really shy little birds

Cloudy day, a bit rainy by the time we got home.  A quick stop at our local HEB (grocery store) for a tender tasty Flaming bird plate to have for dinner.