Mason and I both had long hard days at work on Friday. I even had to go to the doctor and have blood drawn...I didn't faint or throw up so that's a huge step for me. I was able to switch my work schedule so that I got this Saturday off, so that Mason and I could go camping on the three-day weekend. We left early Saturday afternoon for Caprock Canyons in Quitaque, TX. Mason doesn't have to take any leave if we go less than six hours away, and the drive was about three both ways. The ride there was pretty nice, we saw lots of animals and oil pumps. We arrived at the campsite before three and four, so we set up our tent and quickly went out to explore.
There were some campsites that you had to hike a mile or two to get to so we headed down that trail hoping to see what their campsites were like. Ours were nice with a grill, and covered picnic table area. We walked about a mile down the trail, with our water, and saw that there was a mountain that you could climb. Not sure if mountain is the proper terminology, but that's what I'll call them. Mason was very eager to go for anything. So we set onward and upward to climb to the top. It was a 2 mile, "steep and rugged" trail according to our map, because it was mostly all rock. We climbed about 1000 feet. When we reached the top, we were pretty equal height to all the surrounding peaks. We saw some other hikers going down who told us that we could take a trail around the entire rim, but the best/shortest way to get back down was to go back the way we came. After a rest at the top we made our decent, since it would be dark soon. Going at dusk was a good time of day because it was significantly cooler. We even saw a deer on the way back.
Day One Pictures: If you click on, or put your mouse over the pictures you can read the captions.
There were some campsites that you had to hike a mile or two to get to so we headed down that trail hoping to see what their campsites were like. Ours were nice with a grill, and covered picnic table area. We walked about a mile down the trail, with our water, and saw that there was a mountain that you could climb. Not sure if mountain is the proper terminology, but that's what I'll call them. Mason was very eager to go for anything. So we set onward and upward to climb to the top. It was a 2 mile, "steep and rugged" trail according to our map, because it was mostly all rock. We climbed about 1000 feet. When we reached the top, we were pretty equal height to all the surrounding peaks. We saw some other hikers going down who told us that we could take a trail around the entire rim, but the best/shortest way to get back down was to go back the way we came. After a rest at the top we made our decent, since it would be dark soon. Going at dusk was a good time of day because it was significantly cooler. We even saw a deer on the way back.
Day One Pictures: If you click on, or put your mouse over the pictures you can read the captions.
We had very noisy neighbors at our campsite. They had two loud barking dogs, and the entire family spoke in loud thick southern Texas accents. Hillbillies if I ever saw any! The other neighbors were an older, quieter couple who was up early on Sunday reading the gospel. We had some scares on our first night, thinking that there was a bobcat close outside our tent, but later discovered the old man next tent over was a loud snorer.
Sunday, Mason wanted to check out a bat cave that we had heard of. Only problem was that we didn't have exact directions to get there, so we ended up driving an hour and a half north through prairies and more canyons to find the bat cave. After no signs of the cave, but finally obtaining a cell phone signal, we were able to call back to the park to ask for directions....the cave was a ten minute drive from our camp site...if men only could learn to ask for directions. I decided to trust the man again, as we headed on a 5 mile trek to the bat caves. The cave was an old railroad tunnel, so the path we hiked was long and straight since it was the old railroad tracks now covered with dirt and rocks. It was so HOT and long! It was in the low nineties, which was decent for what it could have been, but we began our trek mid-day at 1pm when the sun was high as a kite with not a cloud in the sky. I of course didn't whine at all...well, not exactly. On this walk we saw tons of grasshoppers, two snakes, some unidentified black animals, cows in open fields, daisies, and some lizards. It took us a little over two hours to climb to the cave, which turned out to be quite smelly. There were lots of bats, and you could hear them from the edge of the cave, I didn't venture in. Mason was more adventurous but didn't go under where they were mainly flying. We took a twenty minute rest at the top, refilled some water and were back on our way. On the way up we had been so hot, we took our shirts off, which later ended up being a bad idea, since you can imagine how the sun was burning our bodies. The walk back provided some shade with a few clouds every so often. I think we played a few hours worth of twenty questions on our long walk.
After a disappointing experience with cooking dinner on Saturday night, and not much food, we decided to go into the town of Quitique for dinner. There was one place to eat. Wichita Falls seems like heaven compared to most of the towns we passed through. The food was decent though and was enough to fill our bellies. Although, tired and hot we decided to search for the buffalo herd some more since they were supposed to be native to the Caprock canyons. We saw two buffalo, and they were put in a valley somewhat caged. We went back for an early bedtime. There were millions of stars which were beautiful to watch.
Day 2 Pictures:
http://neiu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013073&l=bf597&id=77800450
Today, we woke and had some Chef Boyardee ravioli chargrilled by Mason, and we set off for a short hike through the river bed that was below our campsite. We saw lots of frogs, tadpoles, and a butterfly. It was pretty cool to see how the water carved away at the rocks and sand. There was even a small flow of water today. We packed up and headed home around noon, and enjoyed a stop at Dairy Queen on the way. We're now safely home and pretty sore from the sunburn, but for once Mason if worse off than I am. Darn work tomorrow...
Day 3 Pictures:
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