Copper Breaks State Park (Texas), October 2016

This is the first time Donna and I have been to Copper Break State Park. It has been on my bucket list for quite a while because of the historical significance of this area.

Headquarters for Copper Breaks State Park

Copper Breaks is in northwest Texas, in Hardeman County. It is located between the small towns of Quanah and Crowell just off Texas 6. It consists of 1,898.8 acres, and is bordered on the south by the Pease River, a tributary of the Red River. Fishing and boating are available on Lake Copper Breaks. About 10 miles of trails are available, including 3.5 miles of equestrian trails. A portion of the Texas Longhorn Herd is located within the park as well.

One of the exhibits in the park's Visitor's Center.

Lake Copper Breaks from a ridge to the west.

Lake Copper Breaks from a ridge to the east. Note spillway on left and fishing piers bottom center.

Boat ramp at the north end of the lake, along the feeder creek.

Fishing pier

For camping, there are 24 sites in the Comanche Camping Area with 30 and 50 amp electrical as well as water. Sewer is not available at sites, but a dump station is located next to the restrooms/showers. Equestrian and primitive camping sites are also available within the park.

Site #9. Note the unique picnic table cover to play upon the Native American theme.

Restrooms/showers in the campground.

Road through our campground shortly after our arrival. By nightfall, there would be 2 or 3 more rigs within this shot.

The sites in the RV campground are rather bare. We camped in site #9, and were unable to get good shade even with the awning out, because of the angle of the site. There are few trees in the campground itself of size to provide shade. The restrooms/showers were in decent repair, but they did not seem to be maintained on a regular basis. In fact, we did not see a host, or even what might pass for a host site, in the campground. The park had numerous visitors during our stay, and our campground eventually had nearly half occupancy. That's not bad for a rural park off the main highways during the week. And one great advantage of that rural location is the clear view of all those beautiful stars in that darkened night sky.

Park employees do a good job of keeping the grass mown. It seems that restrooms are cleaned early each day, around 8 or 9. We were bothered by the aggressive flies, including some horse flies, at our campsite. And dog owners won't like the stickers that abound at most sites. There was no WiFi available in our campground (Comanche Camping Area), and our At&Texas signal was very weak.

This area was important to native Americans, especially Comanches and Kiowas. Just to the east of the park is Medicine Mounds, a series of 4 dolomite hills rising about 350 feet above the surrounding area. Native Americans believed them to be sacred, a place of powerful spirits with curative powers and other traits. Today, the mounds are on private property.

Medicine Mounds, North of the Pease River.

Almost directly south of the Medicine Mounds is the site of the Battle of Pease River. On December 18, 1860, along the south bank of the Pease River, a group of militia and Texas Rangers under the leadership of Sul Ross attacked a Comanche village. Although most of the Indians were able to escape, the battle had two noteworthy outcomes. First,the rangers recaptured Cynthia Anne Parker, who had been taken by the Comanches in 1836 at the age of 9 from her family's home near Groesbeck, Texas. Second, the rangers believed that they had killed Peta Nocona, a leading Comanche chief and husband of Cynthia Anne. As regards Peta Nocona's death, I've never been fully convinced that he was killed at this battle. His son, Quanah (Cynthia Anne's oldest child) always claimed that he died later on. So we have differing views on that issue. As regards Cynthia Anne, she was returned to life among her white family, but never adjusted. Less than 4 years after her recapture, Cynthia Anne's daughter, Topsona, died from pneumonia. Cynthia Anne herself died in 1871. Her 44 or so years on earth were filled with great heartbreak and suffering. First she was torn away from her white family amid great violence. Over time, though, she became Comanche and came to love that way of life. After her recapture, she tried repeatedly to return to the Comanches to see her sons again. So her final years were spent in more suffering.

Historical marker at site of Pease River Battlefield, where Cynthia Anne Parker was "rescued" by Texas Rangers and militia led by Sul Ross.

Pease River Battlefield is at the end of this road, where the trees are. The Pease River is just beyond that. Note the Medicine Mounds on the horizon to the left.

Parker exhibit in the Copper Breaks SP Visitor Center.

On the Road: San Angelo to Copper Breaks State Park (Texas)

Donna and I are all hooked up and on the road again. Today, we ventured up to Copper Breaks State Park, just south of Quanah, Texas. Here is the route we took.

San Angelo, Texas, to Copper Breaks State Park. Total distance: 213 miles.

For the first leg of the trip, we followed US 277 from San Angelo through Abilene to Stamford, where we then picked up Texas 6 for the remainder of the journey.

The journey up through Abilene was pretty basic for us as we have been on this highway quite a number of times over the years. It really is a pretty nice drive, but it is almost entirely 2-lane except for 2 or 3 passing lanes about 20 miles south of Abilene.

About 30 miles north of San Angelo and just a couple of miles south of Bronte, the highway crosses the Colorado River. This far west, it's hard to believe that the Colorado has enough water to fill all of those lakes downstream, such as O.H. Ivie Reservoir and the Highland Lakes (Buchanan, Inks, LBJ, and Travis), not to mention lakes upstream such as J. B. Thomas and E.V. Spence.

Several miles north of Bronte, just north of where Highway 70 splits off to the north from US 277, the recently restored Fort Chadbourne lies nestled along the east side of the highway. Donna and I visited that historic spot just a few years ago and were really impressed by how much had been done with no government aid whatsoever. Ah, the spirit of individualism. You can see my blog entry for our visit at http://ramblin-gamblin.blogspot.com/2014/08/day-trip-fort-chadbourne.html.

Along this stretch, there are a number of oak trees rather than the scrawny mesquite that have dominated the landscape so far. 

Not too far past the fort, the highway passes through one of the more scenic areas of the trip. There is a series of hills stretching from east to west in the area that the highway winds through. It's a very nice break from the typical West Texas flat, straight highway. These hills may be the westernmost section of the Callahan Divide, but I'm not certain of that. Just a short distance to the east is the historic village of Buffalo Gap, which got its name from the gap, or pass, in the divide through which buffalo passed. But that is another trip and another story.

And before you know it, Abilene looms ahead. We zipped around the west side of Abilene, then headed up through Anson to Stamford. This entire stretch of 277 is 4 lane and a very easy drive. On the north side of Stamford, we split off to the west on Texas 6, which runs south all the way to the Texas Coast near Galveston.

Jones County courthouse in Anson, Texas.

From Abilene on north to Copper Breaks, most of the land is devoted to farming except for land along the breaks and streambeds. The land is mostly flat and the roads tend to be straight. The towns are small, but spaced about 20 to 30 miles apart. It's a pleasant drive for the most part along a 2-lane highway, and traffic is very light.

Farmer working his fields along Highway 6 just west of Stamford

We crossed the Brazos River about halfway between Knox City and Benjamin. Like the Colorado this far west, there isn't much water in the river; it is mostly riverbed.

Old and new bridges across the Brazos River.

Marker concerning the old truss bridge over the Brazos.

The old truss bridge, built in 1938-39.

The muddy Brazos River

I was surprised when we dipped into a couple of canyons formed by the South and North Wichita Rivers, respectively. This far East of the Cap Rock, the canyons are really broad valleys.

Valley, or canyon, carved by the South Wichita River.

The entire drive took us about 5 hours, including a short lunch break at a roadside park just north of Knox City. We stopped once for gas at Abilene. For other travelers, there is  Walmart with gas pumps on the north side of Stamford where Highway 6 splits off to the west. Traffic from San Angelo to Abilene was heavy; next time, I'll go to Abilene via Ballinger and Winters.

Old Fat Man Adventures

During our recent stay in the Davis Mountains, we met a gentleman named Barney. We visited late one afternoon at our site for 2 or 3 hours, then ran into him again atop Skyline Drive a few days later. Barney full-times in his Artic Fox travel trailer, and seems to have a great time. Like me, Barney shares his adventures through his blog, which he calls "Old Fat Man Adventures."

I enjoy reading blogs by other people, especially those who do a lot of traveling or hiking. I can relate to these folks, and I usually learn a great deal from them. Barney's blog is especially interesting. He has a talent for noticing things that the rest of us might miss or take for granted. And he takes good pictures of these things. Barney's a good writer, and he makes some very astute and often humorous observations on life. You can tell he enjoys living the way he does, and he seems to really enjoy people, animals, and plant life.

It takes a bit to catch on to Barney's writing style. One reason for this is that he refers to himself in the third person. For example, he might say something like, "The OFM (old fat man) slept in this morning." He refers to his trailer as "the Castle," and he calls his GMC truck "Sierra". Taken collectively, he refers to his entire outfit as "the team." By adding this distance between writer and subject, he is able to laugh at himself. I always enjoy folks who can make fun of themselves, like recent commercials featuring Peyton Manning and Lindsey Vonn.

Another thing I like about Barney's blog is that his travels seem to cover areas Donna and I are familiar with. During our visit at Davis Mountains State Park, we discussed campgrounds we had both stayed in and places we like to eat. It was nice to visit with someone who knew the same areas we knew. For example, both of us had recently been to Brantley Lake State Park outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico. He even quizzed me on the best BBQ in Junction, Texas, and I passed his test by answering Lum's rather than Cooper's.

Barney has much more mechanical skill than I, so lately I've been interested in some repairs he has been making on his trailer following a tire blowout. I never would have thought about checking the undercarriage for damage to LPG lines and brake wires. This is how you learn more about RVing.

And one last thing about his blog . . . Barney is pretty regular in posting to his blog. For the most part, he seems to publish almost every night. He does a much better job of this than I do; but then, as a full-timer, he is doing a lot more living than I.

I've added a link to Barney's blog to the right. If you like to read about people traveling about the country, I think you'll enjoy what he writes.

A Rainy Day in West Texas

I love rainy days. They are a rarity in West Texas. And we rarely get those all day, slow falling rainy days. Those come far too infrequently for me. Most of our rain comes with violent thunder and lightning as well as high winds. I'm not crazy about those storms, but I always welcome the moisture.

Today, we are blessed with one of the good rains. It moved in late last night. When the rain first arrived, it was accompanied by some thunder and lightning, but that soon gave away to the slow, easy rain we are still enjoying as I write this.

We currently have just under 2 inches, as evidenced by the picture of the rain gauge below. But I expect more to fall before the system moves out of our area.

Almost 2 inches of rain in less than a day. Great!

Below are some pictures I snapped from both my front and back patios of our neighborhood. Enjoy!

This is the street that runs in front of our house. You can see the wet surface. We have a single oak tree in front as well as one in back.

This view from our back patio looks northeast to the Oak Tree Club, which houses the  administrative offices for our community as well as meeting rooms, kitchen, exercise room, pool room, game rooms, library, and hair salon.

This view looks southeast from our back patio. Our regional airport is off in this direction in the distance, and we can watch the planes arriving and departing. Donna loves to watch planes in the sky.

One of our hummingbirds

Another shot of the same hummer.

How Much Is Enough?

How much is enough? I guess it depends on who you are. Earlier in the year when we were out west, I watched a strange trend developing that alarms me a bit. Perhaps this has been going on for a while and I had not noticed it. I’ve not really seen it happening in Texas, at least not on a large scale. But I’ve seen it quite a bit in the RV parks where Donna and I stayed in Nevada.

I have a Dodge Ram truck that I pull a 28 foot trailer with. That is it. If we take our bicycles, we carry them in the back of the truck. There are many larger rigs out there, especially 5^th wheel trailers and motor homes. Some are quite large in their own right. But a new development is for these already enormous rigs to pull some pretty sizable trailers. Some of these are open trailers, while others are enclosed utility trailers. I would venture that most trailers contain some sort of ATV, for driving the desert out west seems to be a very popular pastime. But some also carry motorcycles, and I’ve seen a few that even carry cars. It’s not unusual to see a motor home towing a small car that can be used for transportation once the motor home is parked, but those are relatively easy to tow.

I’m concerned about this trend for numerous reasons. First, when you are rolling down the highway with all these different pieces, there have to be some safety issues. For example, how fast do you pull these trailers down the road? Most trailer tires are rated for 65 mph, but I see these rigs traveling faster than that. I can verify this because I get passed by them quite a bit. And when you have this much weight – weight from the RV itself as well as the weight of the attached trailer and its contents – there is an added element of danger.

In the RV parks themselves, I watch with some amusement as these folks attempt to park these enormous rigs. Many of them are upset because there is not enough room for them. As a result, many of them end up with some of their equipment sticking out somewhere and causing a bit of a traffic hazard. And because of their large size, some of them spread out into their neighbor’s area. They feel that because they are larger than a little outfit like mine that they are entitled to sprawl wherever they can. But I pay for a spot, and that entire spot is mine – they have no right to any of it. I’ve paid for my space, and I’m entitled to all of it whether I use it or not. Now, if they want to sublet part of it, I'm open to negotiations.

But this trend is just a reflection of how we live our lives in all areas. We go to a fast food place and we “supersize” our order. Homes continue to get larger and larger. Our televisions continue to get larger. We seem to be consumed by a passion for everything to be larger. Our American appetites are enormous. Will we ever be satisfied?

Well, to each his own, I suppose, just as long as it doesn’t affect me.

Below are a few pictures of these oversized rigs. I've blotted out any identifying information, such as license plates.

Big motor home, big trailer, and dune buggy. Note the flat tires on the dune buggy. And there was a car with this rig as well. I don't know if the trailer carries the buggy, the car, or something else.

Imagine the total length of this rig going down the highway. You have the truck pulling the travel trailer, which, in turn, pulls the utility trailer.

Another large motor home with utility trailer. The car at left belongs with this rig. I do not know if the car was hauled in the trailer or not. If so, it must be a tight fit. Notice the window unit at front of motor home -- odd!

This fifth wheel is pulled by the white truck that is partially shown at far left. There is a flat bed trailer the man is working on, and it carried the dune buggy at right-center. This is another very long rig on the road.

Another large motor home and a very long utility trailer. I'm sure the trailer carries the VW, but overall length of these two vehicles is quite long.

At least one simple trailer carries the car and the boat.

Another large motor home and another very large utility trailer that is almost as large as the motorhome.

And another very large motor home and utility trailer.

At Home Between Trips

We enjoyed our outing to the Davis Mountains. It's nice to go out in the trailer for a while but then return to a comfortable home. But we like traveling, and we have trips planned frequently throughout the next several months.

In the meantime, we are staying busy at home. Donna has been especially busy. The old girl discovered a way recently to freeze avocados. The method works well. With the price of avocados steadily rising these days, Donna is taking advantage of this system. This past week, a local grocery store had a sale on avocados for $.28 per pound. We bought a lot, and Donna has been putting them up. We'll be eating avocados for quite a while now.

And Donna has fallen in love with Hatch green chiles. These have been on sale recently in the area, and Donna bought a bunch and canned them. So, we may have nothing else, but we'll be eating chiles and avocados throughout the winter.

I've been waging war on fire ants, especially in our back yard. We've had fairly frequent rains this summer -- which is great -- but it surely brings out those little varmints. As soon as I get 3 mounds treated and under control, 2 more pop out somewhere. In between these skirmishes, I've been doing some little odd jobs to make the place more homey.

And we have our Rio Concho West events we participate in. Last week, we attended a piano performance by a lady from our local symphony orchestra. This week, we have a performance by a magician. On another day, we are hopping on our bus for a ride to a sister property for a meal.

We also have guests coming. This coming weekend, my brother and his wife will be stopping in for a night on their way to the Big Bend country. They have never been to that part of Texas, so it has been on his bucket list for a while. I'm excited for them to see that part of the state that Donna and I love so much. I hope they enjoy it. I'll be the first to admit, though, that West Texas can be an acquired taste. You have to have an appreciation for the desert and isolation to enjoy it out here. Not everyone does.

The following week, Attila and her Huns (our daughter and her little brood of terrorists in training) will invade our peaceful community. We've alerted all the local authorities, and SWAT teams will be standing by. We'll need some rest after they leave, so our next trip is planned for a few days later.

In the meantime, we just continue to enjoy retirement, one day at a time.

Hike Report: Primitive Area, Davis Mountains State Park

I'm really ashamed to even call this a hike. We really only walked a mile or so. But the scenery was great and the experience was interesting.

Several years ago, Davis Mountains State Park acquired land across Highway 118 from the park headquarters. The area is largely undeveloped, and currently consists of primitive camping and several miles of trails, including opportunities for equestrians and mountain bikers. As I mentioned in a previous post, DMSP does a great job with presentations and other events (see Events on their web page). I noticed one event where staff would lead a hike in the new area, so I thought this would be a great opportunity for Donna and I to see that section of the park.

We rose to overcast skies last Saturday. Temperatures were cooler than they had been. Donna and I put on our hiking gear and headed to the HQ. We met our guides there, a volunteer couple from the Austin area who spend several months a year at the park. We had met them a couple of nights before when they gave a presentation on the birds of the park. We were joined by only one other person, a younger man from the Houston area.

After signing in, we jumped in our separate vehicles, and our guides led us the short drive (quarter mile or so) down the highway to the locked gate on the other side of the highway. After opening the gate, we drove through and made our way down the natural surface road to the parking area. Our guides told us that due to recent rains, Limpia Creek was higher than normal. Since the trail crisscrosses the creek repeatedly, we would not be able to hike far.

View northwest from the parking area. I believe this area has the highest elevations in the park, but I'm not absolutely positive of this.

If you view the Trails Map, you'll see that the primitive area (as I will call this area north of Highway 118) is pretty extensive. From the parking area, there is a trail not on the map that runs almost due north to the creek. This is called the Seep Trail because of the seep along the creek in that area. The tour normally follows that trail, but because of the condition of the creek, we headed west along the Sheep Canyon Trail instead.

I'd really like to explore this area of the park more extensively some day.

After a very short walk of a quarter mile or so, we reached the creek. It was running nicely. Had Donna and I been alone and we had all our hiking gear, I would have put on our water shoes and forded the stream and continued our hike to the other side. However, this was not a true hike, so we had not brought hiking gear we normally might have carried; instead, this was a short outing to view plants and animals.

First crossing of Limpia Creek. You can barely make out the trail on the opposite bank. The creek is not deep here, perhaps a foot or two. As I understand, the trail crosses the creek 2 more times. However, we turned right and bushwhacked along the shore.

We then began following the creek downstream, bushwhacking through the brush. Our guides and fellow hiker were bird enthusiasts, so they were happy to stop every few yards and scan the trees and skies in search of birds. Although Donna and I enjoy birds, we are more interested in seeing mammals and hiking. And there are larger mammals in this part of the park that are visible, including aoudad (Barbary sheep), deer, and pumas. However, we saw no mammals on our hike, and we saw very few birds.

In some places, the creek was very shallow, but spread out over a larger area. It would have been fairly easy to ford here.

Cottonwoods line the creek almost the entire distance from west of the park to Ft. Davis.

Nice shot between cottonwoods along a deeper pool in the creek. I really wanted to see some aoudads on that slope.

This photo gives some idea of the flood line of the creek from the recent rains.

As we bushwhacked down the stream, it began to mist lightly. When the brush became too thick, we turned around and began heading back upstream. We arrived back on the trail and turned back east to the parking area. As we worked our way down the trail, stopping occasionally for our birding friends to scan the skies with their binoculars, the mist turned into a light rain. The light rain then grew heavier. I had a hood on my jacket as well as a cap, so I decided to just tough it out for the short walk back to the truck. Donna had no head covering, so we broke out her pancho to cover her already soaked head.

We knew the hike today would be short, so we did not take any real rain gear or hiking gear other than our thin, light-weight panchos and hiking poles. Had we expected a longer hike, we would have taken our rain gear and water shoes and been able to cross the creek and endure the rain more comfortably. As it was, we were happy to get back to our trailer, where we turned on a space heater, took hot showers, and made some hot coffee. Ah, coffee -- the best camping libation there is!