as high as the heavens: Vacation Highlights Part 2: Fort Richardson State Park

Fort Richardson State Park was our next destination on our 2021 vacation. We camped in our motorhome in the equestrian area. It was the only place that had sites available when we made our reservations. It was a open grassy area within walking distance to the fort. It was nearly empty when we arrived Friday afternoon. But it filled up and was full all day Saturday and Saturday night. The equestrian area doesn't have sewer hook ups and there were no restrooms nearby. But since our motorhome has facilities and we were only there for four days it didn't matter to us. There were no horses there that weekend.

We saw and photograph a lot in our four days there. I'll try to just hit the main highlights though, as I want to finish writing about our 2021 vacation before we go on our 2022 vacation!

The fort that the park is named after was established in 1867 as an outpost for US Army soldiers to protect settlers along the Texas frontier. It was abandoned in 1878. The National Guard also used it briefly during World War II. For more information on its history go to https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/fort-richardson/park_history

There are several original buildings still standing and an interpretive center.

Here are just a few photos from our visit to the site.

Interesting flag pole.
The building in the back ground is the original hospital. It is a pretty building. But according to an informational plaque, soldiers at the time tried to avoid going there as long as possible!

Original officer's quarters built in 1867.
We thought our trees were too close to our house!
The tree is probably not original.

Beautiful mesquite tree. I've never seen one with such a twisted trunk before. In the background is the interpretive center. It's in a reproduction of the non-commissioned officers quarters.

A ranger we talked to said this railroad bridge was not part of the original fort. It was moved to the site in more recent times from a nearby creek because of safety concerns. Trains were no longer using it but local children liked to jump off it into the creek below. So the city leaders decided to move it to the park.
If you look very closely in the photo above you can see John next to it by the tree.

Now, as you can see, there is nothing fun to jump into from it.
But it's fun to photograph.

Coming back from the store Saturday afternoon from buying brownie mix :-), and and other essentials, I was surprised and delighted to see a number of large kites flying in the fort area. It is such a wide open area it was a great place for it. We took our cameras and went over there.

The kites were quite big. Even as big as a person in some cases. The kite string (actually very strong cables) was tethered to the ground with metal stakes.

We chatted with the people who were flying them. They are originally from the Philippines but currently living in the west Texas town of Odessa.

Sunday morning we went hiking near the Lost Creek Reservoir. It was my first hike of our vacation. I still had to go easy so as not to re-injure my heels. (See the previous post if you don't know what I'm referring to.)

It was a windy day again.

We noticed large numbers of coots on the water. It is common to see a few but this was many times more than we have ever seen. They were mostly just floating all bunched up together bobbing on the waves but occasionally one would dive down and quickly come back up again.

John taking pictures of the coots.

The next photo I set to "original" size so you can see them better. To see it all you will need to use your scroll bars at the side and bottom of the screen. Go ahead and give it a try it is worth the trouble to see them. This was only a portion of the coots. There were more to the right but I couldn't get them all in.

A close up of the coots.

We were hiking in the Lost Creek Reservoir area on the left. Our campsite was in the area on the right. It is an unusual state park in that it is divided into a few different segments with several miles between and the town of Jacksboro between the two areas.

flower like fungi

When we got back to our campsite after our walk I was delighted to see that all the other campers had already checked out and we had the whole equestrian area to ourselves. In the evening after dinner we made the most of it and moved our lounge chairs to another site where we could enjoy "golden hour" with a lovely view of the mesquite trees.