The other day I thought I'd take a short trip out west..well, west of Corpus Christi, heading toward a small town called Alice, Texas [named after a daughter of the famed King Ranch]. But, I hadn't planned on driving that far...only about half way; stopping at a Riparian park off the highway in among the huge live oak trees. The park is just outside the little town of Banquete Texas on the Agua Dulce Creek. There is a lot of "Alamo" history in this area and part of the infamous cotton road during the Civil War. Santa Ana's men lead by Urrea on the way to the Alamo ambushed many of the Texians. And by the way, Agua Dulce, in Spanish, means Sweet [dulce] Water [agua].
Okay, 'nough of that. At the park... On this particular morning, not many birds found. In fact, mostly just flying around in among the trees and not photographable. So, I just walked. It's a small park, and the park road twists and winds through the trees making it shaded most all around. And taking the looped paved road around twice was only about a 3 mile walk. I stopped and stepped off the 'trail' many times to be among the majestic live oak trees. These oak are not like you see up north...they are evergreen and the leaves are waxy, small, and oval. I took many pictures, so here y'go:
A footbridge crossing the dry creek bed.
Along & Off The Trail:
...looking up, looking down, looking ahead---
look closely, RR tracks in background; following the Cotton Road of Civil War era.
...the abundance of trees was a nice change of pace throughout the park. This was my first loop. Once I returned to my starting point, I got back in the car and grabbed my lensball for the 2nd go 'round. Upcoming post.