Vacation 2021 Highlights Part 3 - Possum Kingdom State Park

Possum Kingdom State Park (PKSP) was the third Texas state park of our 2021 vacation. We arrived on Monday afternoon of our second week and camped in our motorhome until Saturday. 

Possum Kingdom Lake covers more than 18,000 acres. The chamber of commerce calls it "The Great Lake of Texas." My research shows it is only the eighth largest lake in Texas. But it is impressively large and beautiful and has probably the bluest and cleanest water of any lake I've seen in Texas. My water sandals got cleaner rather than dirtier when I stepped into the water when we went canoeing. 

The state park is only a small wedge of PK Lake's very long and convoluted 310 mile shoreline. It only has a few trails, but there was what looked like a well developed network of trails across the lake that we hoped to explore. They were an hour away by car however, so we hoped we could get across to them in our canoe since we thought that would be more direct. Looking at the map now I suspect it would not have been as easy as we thought. But as it happened we didn't get a chance to try it after all.

The green area is the state park. The large triangular peninsula across the lake to the east is where we wanted to go to get to the other trails.

Tuesday morning we went canoeing but it was much too windy to go across the lake. We could only go a little ways along the shore and into a nearby inlet. 

Going with the wind was not as rough.

Into the inlet. It was a little more sheltered from the wind here.

We hoped the wind would die down the next day so we could try again. But the next day it was even stronger--too strong to canoe at all. I stayed indoors until evening when it diminished a little so I went for a walk and took this video:

When it was still windy on Thursday (laundry day) we made plans to drive to the other trail system the next day.

We packed a lunch and set out Friday morning to explore the "Possum Kingdom Lake Hike and Bike Trail System" about an hour's drive from the state park. 

The yellow lines show the trails and the green patches camping and other amenities. (The gray section is a Boy Scout/YMCA camp and is off limit to the public.)

 

We hiked to Limestone Lookout. That's number 8 on the map above. 

The view was partly obscured by trees but we found ways to get around that. I stood back a ways further up the slope and also climbed further out beyond the bench. And I think John stood on the bench though I don't have any photos of that so maybe it's just my imagination.

View partly obscured by trees but still pretty.

Limestone cliffs.

John in front of the bench.

Standing back up the slope to get a better shot of the lake and cliffs.

It only looks like I was walking on the bench!

Close up of limestone cliffs.

I was needing to limit my hiking time because of sores on the backs of my heels. So after we enjoyed the view from Limestone Lookout we went back to our car. Then we drove to North D&D (see map above). We were interested in it as a possible campsite for another trip. Its a good location for easy access to the hiking trails and the lake. We also wanted to see if its RV sites would be in better condition than the ones where we were at the state park. The pavement of the site we were in was badly broken up and it was five degrees off level (we ended up with three of our tires off the ground.) Most of the other sites at the state park looked about the same. So if and when we go back to PK Lake we would like to stay elsewhere. So we wanted to see what North D&D had to offer.

I hung out at the North D&D area for a while while John did some more hiking. 

North D&D is a beautiful location. There are no hook ups but that might not be a problem for a few days if the weather is not too hot. I don't recall how level the sites were. But there was a lot of big trees and green grass. Also great views of the lake. And lots of wildlife. Though they tended to disappear quickly when people show up. When we first arrived the Canada geese and deer seemed to be everywhere. But by the time we parked they had disappeared. I didn't see them again until I had been there about an hour and I was driving away to  pick up John. 

It was still quite windy as you can see by the choppy water.

Picnic area by lake

The view from my car. I found myself fantasizing about living in one of those houses. But then again, I wouldn't like being stared at by tourists.

Saw these Canada geese as I was driving away to pick up John.

The deer didn't seem afraid of my car-- maybe because they new I was leaving.

We stopped for an early dinner at nearby Bonitaville Restaurant. I was hungry already and it was the only restaurant between there and the state park which was still an hour away. I got grilled shrimp with rice pilaf and green beans. John being a true blue Aussie got fish and chips. (I would have done if they had been gluten free!) It was all delicious and we had a nice view of the lake while we ate. 

Hopefully next week I'll post about the final leg of our 2021 vacation.

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.

We had a lovely time and would like to go there again when we have more time.

Stay tuned for part three of our Vacation highlights. Or maybe the next phase of our landscaping project. We'll see...

To see Part one of our vacation see the previous post button below.

Vacation Highlights: Part 1 Mineral Wells State Park

I thought I would take a little break from blogging about landscaping to write about some high-lights of our 2021 vacation. 

We camped in our motorhome in four state parks over three weeks. There is a lot I could say about each one but I want to try and just hit some of the main events and high-lights.

The first several days we stayed at Mineral Wells State Park (MWSP).  

Our first morning, while eating breakfast I glanced up from reading and looked out the window and was rewarded with this sight of a deer also eating just across from our motorhome: 

I watched it for a few minutes and snapped several photos. Then it crossed the road toward me. It got quite close to our motorhome before disappearing into the woods.

It was a lovely way to start, or maybe I should say restart, our vacation.

It felt like a reassurance that despite difficulties it was a good thing that we had come on this trip and now it was time to hit the reset button and enjoy the time away.

From the start this trip felt fraught with problems and potential problems. 

Although I wanted the time away, I was worried about my Mom. It was the first time we would be that far away since she had moved to the new assisted living home early this year. And then shortly before we were to leave she started having a couple of worrying symptoms. We scrambled to try to find solutions and were in contact with her doctor. He seemed to think it would be ok for us to go ahead with our travel plans. 

We were also unsure of our motorhome. A few months before this the anti-sway system air bags went flat and we couldn't find anyone to replace them. We assumed it was more of a comfort issue and thought it would be safe to drive, but opted to only go a relatively short distance just in case.  

And then the day before we were set to leave John discovered that one of the inside back tires on the motorhome was flat. It was a new tire so he hoped that it was just a matter of the valve not being tightened all the way. The shop that replaced them all a few months before had left a couple of the valves loose at the time so when he went to get it from them a couple of the other tires were flat and had to be re-inflated before he could even drive it away. They made a couple of other mistakes too so we were hoping this was also due to their carelessness. Anyway John pumped it up and checked it the next morning and it was still holding air. So we thought it was fixed and set off as planned. 

We didn't hear a peep out of the tire pressure gauge monitoring system the whole way to Mineral Wells so we thought the tire was fine. After getting the motorhome set up John went on a hike and I stayed behind to get settled and rest up from the trip. A few minutes after he left the tire pressure monitoring system started beeping. I didn't remember how to make it stop and couldn't reach him on his cell phone. The beeping drove me outside after a few minutes. Eventually I was able to reach him and find out how to turn it off. 

When he got back from his hike he checked the tire and it was completely flat. He usually turns off the tire pressure monitor when we arrive and set up at our destination but for some reason he didn't this time. It turned out for the best so we could know that there was a problem before we got ready to leave for the next state park at the end of the week. Since it was Sunday when we arrived he waited until the next day and called a tire place in Mineral Wells. (It's called Double H Tire. We highly recommend them. They did a great job for us.) 

 (316 E Hubbard St, Mineral Wells, TX 76067)  

John thought it was interesting timing and that maybe it was God's way of making sure we went on the trip.

A couple days before we left home I made the bad decision to wear some "cute" shoes that were not broken in yet and they ended up scraping layers of skin off the backs of my heels. I was shocked at how quickly it happened and how long they took to heal. Even with "mole skin" and Band-Aids and ointment and proper hiking socks with liners I was not able to hike or even walk much for several days. 

But we did go canoeing. 

Don't worry, the trailer and truck in the center of the photo are not sinking. They are on the road that is on the other side of the dam.  

One of two small islands.

The second and larger island has what looks like the remnants of a fireplace and chimney from an old house.

We saw an otter on a rock in that little indented place in the middle but it dived below the surface just before I took a picture. We circled the island again in hopes of seeing it again but it wasn't interested in being seen!

Turtle on a rock. We were so far away I could barely see it but I somehow managed to get this shot by zooming way in and almost blindly pointing it in that direction and hoping I would get something.

Going out we had a fare amount of wind but coming back it dropped and there was barely a ripple.