A pair of parks

West of San Antonio, two Texas stopovers boast abundant wildlife, archaeological sites and a generous smattering of wildflowers

Following the spring north from Louisiana, the Texas leg of my RV adventure led me to a pair of Texas state parks I had always wanted to visit: South Llano River State Park and Seminole Canyon State Historic Park.

South Llano River State Park is one of the prime winter-roosting areas for the Rio Grande turkey Wild turkeys court here and the roosting area is off limits to people at this time of year. When I heard this, I thought my trip here would be a bust as far as turkeywatching and photography was concerned. However, when I got to the camp area, turkeys were everywhere.

I photographed a few and decided to just watch them until the following day as it was cloudy and the light was bad. A ranger said the birds were a bit spooky since the campground was about full, but the birds were still willing to allow me to approach to within 25 yards.

I stayed at South Llano River State Park for a week. My original plan was to stay there for a day or two, but I found plenty of subjects to satisfy my photography passion and simply did not get around to leaving as scheduled. The park is about three miles south of Junction, Texas, via U.S. 377. Junction is on Interstate 10, so the park is very accessible, and the South Llano River flows through the park.

If there were not so many deer, turkey rabbits and songbirds in the park, there might not be much to keep a person interested. The campground hosted a herd of about 15 deer each evening that I was there. I have not seen that many deer in 30 years in Louisiana.

This is an excellent time of the year for bird-watching in southwestern Texas. The winter resident birds are still here and the early migrants from the south are passing through as well. Every RV seemed to have a bird feeder of some type hanging near it. The campground hosts had a number of hummingbird feeders out that were swarming with hummingbirds. I bought a field guide to birds, so I could identify all the strange birds and learn a little more about old friends. Actually, I did not see too many old friends; most of the birds here were new to me.

The weather was great. It was a wonderful time of the year to be outdoors in Texas. It was crisp in the morning and warm later in the day, perfect for sitting and watching the birds at the feeding station, catching up on reading or planning the next phase of the trip.

There are hiking trails in the park for those who wish for a little exercise. While on the trail, I saw both fallow and axis deer-these exotics are the only ones with antlers this time of year-but I was not able to get close enough for photos.

I was very fortunate to be in the Junction, Texas, area in March as Iwas invited to attend the annual tour of Seven Hundred Springs. Seven Hundred Springs is located on private land, about 10 miles south of Junction on U.S. 377. The hosts at the campground told me about it and invited me to go on the tour.

We all met at the courthouse in Junction and traveled to the Seven Hundred Springs Ranch in a 50-vehicle convoy. This is a very popular, once-a-year event for the local people as well as the tourists. As part of the Seven Hundred Springs Ranch, with history that goes back to the Spanish explorers, the springs flow (even in the hardest of droughts) from the bottom of a bluff that is about 100 feet high. Atop the bluff sits the ranch house, which is beautiful, with a wonderful view.

Upon returning to the campground, I caught two photographic subjects for that day, which included a blackchinned hummingbird and a goldenfronted woodpecker-they were both near the bird feeders. The hummingbird proved too fast for me on the wing, but I got him sitting on a branch.

One morning, after photographing more turkeys, I left South Llano River State Park and drove to Seminole Canyon State Historical Park. It was a comfortable 125-mile trip south on U.S. 377 to Del Rio, Texas, and then 45 miles west on U.S. 90 to the park (it's due west of San Antonio on U.S. 90).

The only way you may enter Seminole Canyon itself is on guided tours, which are ably guided by park rangers (10 a.m. and 3 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday only).

On the walls of caves (called shelters), pictographs have been painted. Although people have lived hereabouts for around 7,000 years, it is believed that the pictographs were painted about 2000 BC. No one knows what the pictographs mean.

The people who painted the pictures must have been extremely hardy soles. It would be difficult to scratch a life from this land even today They had the native desert plants and animals to support them and perhaps they raised a few crops, but this is a dry, hard land.

Seminole Canyon State Historical Park is an interesting place. You can explore much of it in one day, and there is a hiking trail to the Rio Grande River.

The campground is at the top of a hill surrounded by desert vegetation. As are all Texas state parks that I have visited, Seminole Canyon State Historic Park is very nice. However, the wind blew so hard during the night I thought I was in a boat. I learned that west Texas has same very strong winds for no apparent reason. Of course I had not seen a weather forecast for a week and probably would not for a while longer.

Springtime in Texas can be a heady thing, what with the wildflowers, wild birds and wild wind, but don't let anything stop you from seeing it.11

For park information, call (800) 792-1112. For camping reservations, contact Texas Parks fy Wildlife, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744; (512) 389-8900; www.tpwd.state.tx.us. CIRCLE 212 ON READER SERVICE CARD.

Copyright T L Enterprises, Inc. May 2000
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