Tyler State Park - Part 4 - Canoeing

Late on our last afternoon at Tyler State Park we went canoeing on the lake. 

I wanted to take photos just before sunset during “golden hour.” That’s when the sun is low in the sky and casts a golden light on the landscape. (Just after sunrise is also a good time.) 

We were actually a couple of hours earlier than the recommended time for the true "golden hour" that photographers usually aim for, but given that we also wanted to have a picnic dinner on the lake and I was already hungry we set out around 5:00 p.m. Still the sun did cast a nice golden light on some of the photos as you will see.

There was a spot I had in mind for the picnic. It was across the lake from the camping area. But when we got there, we discovered that the water was too deep to land the canoe there. Instead, we ate our sandwiches in the canoe in the shade of a high wooded bank nearby. 

This is the spot I wanted to have our picnic at. I took this photo when we went there on foot a few days before. Instead we ate on the other side of the trees on the left while floating in our canoe.
After we finished eating we made a detour out into the lake to avoid disturbing the man who was fishing from the fishing pier (center). 

Then we kept going around the lake.

This might have been a good place to pull up the canoe for our picnic. But by the time we saw it we had already eaten. Maybe next time...

This little dragon fly hitched a ride for a few minutes.

The beaver pond with the turtles that you saw in part 2 of this series is on the other side of this bridge. There was no way through in our canoe so we had to turn around on this side of the bridge. There were also turtles on this side the other time, but we didn't see any this time.  

Still a lot of pretty golden light even if not officially "golden hour."

Just passing the boat rental area on the right. We brought our own canoe so we didn't need it. (Just before here there was also a nice swimming area with a beach, restrooms and snack shop but it was too windy and bumpy to take photos at that point. I also didn't think the people who were there would want me to photograph them.)

Now heading toward the boat ramp. It's in the shadow to the left of center. 

Thanks for coming along on our canoe trip. I hope you enjoyed it.

Below are links to the other posts about our time at Tyler State Park. 

Part 1 - Camping at Tyler State Park (lots of flowers)

Part 2 - Tyler State Park (2nd half lakeside hike w/turtles)

Part 3 - The Rose Garden (flowers again, obviously ;-)

Two more photos because I can't help myself! 

John took this on our lakeside hike in Part 1

I don't know what these are. Any ideas?

Tyler State Park - Part 3 -Tyler Rose Garden

Halfway through our week of camping at Tyler State Park we had to go to town for some errands and decided to visit Tyler Rose Garden while we were there. It was well worth the trip, even if we had not needed to go for other reasons.

There were several bushes of this gorgeous rose. It's name is "Cinco de Mayo." Coincidentally we were visiting on the actual fifth of May. 

We ate a picnic lunch in the shade with a view of ... more roses!

I noticed that the "grass" next to our picnic blanket was actually a mixture of plants. Even a wild strawberry was in the mix.
I wondered if they had intentionally planted a variety of shade loving ground covers to give the appearance of grass because I know it is difficult to grow traditional grass in shade. I thought about asking their gardeners about it. But then we overheard one of them complain to another one that the grass was mostly weeds.
Well, I thought it was clever, anyway.

There are other pretty things to look at too. 

We visited the gift shop to get a Mother's Day card for my Mom. This is a view from the balcony of the building where the gift shop is. There is also a museum about the Texas rose festival and the rose industry. I preferred to look at the actual roses. But I just read a blurb about the museum on their website and it looks like it might be worth seeing sometime. Maybe we can visit the museum if we go back again. 

Another view from the balcony

My energy ran out long before we saw all of the roses! But hopefully this will give you some idea how beautiful it was.

The roses are at their best in Spring and Fall. October is the next recommended time to go if you missed this Spring. 

Next week will be the 4th and, probably, final installment of our trip to Tyler State Park - Canoeing on the lake.

Note: John took a few of the above photos.