On the Road: Copper Breaks State Park to Winstar World Casino, Thackerville, Oklahoma

We left Copper Breaks a couple of days ago to come up to Winstar Casino, about 1 mile north of the Red River in Thackerville, Oklahoma. We try to keep travel days short, normally around 200 miles or so. We can travel longer, but we really don't want to. Our trip on this day was just under 200 miles, and follows the route shown below.

Today's route is 185 miles, and pretty direct with a couple of exceptions.

Unlike the drive from Angelo to Copper Breaks, this route today followed mostly 4 lane highways. I certainly enjoy that.

It was windy, wet, and just below 50 degrees when I finally got the trailer ready for travel. While I was finishing up, Donna made me a quick cup of coffee for the road; it surely was good after being out in the cool for nearly an hour.

We started the day by driving about 13 miles north on Texas 6 from the park to Quanah, a small town on the plains named for Quanah Parker, one of the last Comanche chiefs to surrender to reservation life in the 1870s.

At Quanah, we turned east and followed the 4 lane US 287 for nearly 100 miles. This is a busy stretch of highway with a lot of commercial truck traffic. The only town of size it passes through is Wichita Falls. Just east of Quanah there is a nice rest area, and another one just before Wichita Falls. Both have restrooms. Most of the land along the highway is pasture land with ranching dominating. There are a few fields under cultivation, but not as many as on the trip up to Copper Breaks.

All along this stretch of the trip, the landscape showed evidence of the previous night's heavy rains. Much of the land had standing water, and stock tanks were brimming. A strong and steady north wind hit us almost completely broadside, making for a challenging tow. But that is just one of those things you learn to endure in order to travel this way.

At Henrietta, we turned due east on US 82. From here until Nocona, a stretch of just under 30 miles, we traveled along a 2 lane highway, but it had a generous number of passing lanes. Traffic was very relaxed along this stretch. Nocona is named for Peta Nocona, husband of Cynthia Anne Parker, father of Quanah Parker, and a Comanche chief in his own right. The town is also home of Justin Industries, which makes leather goods. Justin Industries also owns Nocona Boot Company, a well-known and respected brand of cowboy boots.

From Nocona to Gainesville, a distance of just over 30 miles, we enjoyed a nice 4 lane highway. Two small towns along this stretch interested me: Muenster and St. Jo. Muenster has a strong German heritage, and small German towns always tug at me. St. Jo has a quaint looking downtown square that begs to be explored.

At Gainesville, we turned north on Interstate 35 for a short 10 mile or so drive to Winstar Casino. I'm not a fan of I-35, and each time I drive even a little ways on it I'm reminded why. It is always busy, and virtually no one on that roadway obeys the speed limit. I was glad to get off alive.

We will stay at Winstar for 4 nights.

Hike Report: Copper Breaks State Park, October 6, 2016

Donna and I took a short hike while at Copper Breaks State Park. The park has 10 or more miles of trails available to hikers, bikers, and equestrians. I put together bits and pieces from several trails to get us a short hike. Here are some stats from that hike:

• Total Distance: 4.2 miles
• Time: 1:58:20
• Elevation: 1313 feet to 1414 feet
• Trails Hiked: Sections of Bull Canyon Short Loop, Bull Canyon Long Loop, Chris Link, and Equestrian Trails.

The distance and time are a bit skewered, for some of the distance was on park roads. The actual hike itself was only 2.87 miles, if I calculate correctly from the park map.

We walked about a quarter mile from our campsite to the Bull Canyon Trailhead just west of the Comanche Camping Area. Initially, we followed this trail in a southerly direction, then began working west. It eventually connected with the Chris Link Trail, which more or less took us along the western perimeter of the park. We then took the Equestrian Trail to its trailhead near the Big Pond Equestrian Camping Area.

The first part of the trail – the Bull Canyon trail – was well maintained and had recently been mown. As it wound around a ridge, there were nice views to the south and west. We eventually skirted one or more canyons that provided some interesting views and even a little early autumn color. Near the end of this section of the trail, we came to the head of Bull Canyon, where we paused to enjoy the views down the canyon.

From this point, the trail was not maintained. In fact, sometimes it was a bit overgrown. These sections, though, were brief. I was thankful we had worn long pants. Most of this middle section of the hike really had a badlands appearance. Sometimes, it was difficult to know where the trail went. Fortunately, tracks of other hikers and even some bicycles were clearly evident, and we trusted these trails. There are also frequent signs along this section of the trail. Just look well ahead from time to time and you should be able to spot one. Probably close to half a dozen signs were down over the course of our hike, but most were lying in a way that you could tell the correct direction.

Now that we are familiar with the park, we will expand our hike should we come back. The eastern side of the park has more challenging hikes with greater elevation gains. My legs just weren’t up to that kind of climbing at this time.

Below are some pictures from the hike.

Trailhead just west of Comanche Camping Area.

Both Bull Canyon trails were mown, making for a nice morning hike.

There were many good views along the trails, including this one with just a hint of coming autumn color.

Head of Bull Canyon.

Just past Bull Canyon, the neatly mown trail disappears. Most brushy sections like this are very brief.

The Chris' Link trail looks largely like this.

This is the northern stretch of the Chris' Link trail along the park boundary.

You can barely make out a bit of water in this cattail lined pond along the Equestrian trail. This is NOT the Big Pond shown on park maps.

End of the trail. From here we road walked back to our trailer.

Wind mill at the end of the trail.

Rough Night at Copper Breaks

Donna and I did a hike yesterday morning. The skies were clear and it was quite warm. In fact, we complained about the heat several times. But this is West Texas, and the weather can change quickly.

About mid-afternoon yesterday, the skies to the north began to darken, and we could hear distant rumblings of thunder. We began watching the skies in earnest, and the radio station in nearby Childress began giving warnings, some of which were for our immediate area. At first, the storms seemed to be moving in a northeasterly direction and looked as if they would pass us by. But that changed. As the sun began settling toward the western horizon, it looked like we were almost completely surrounded by storm clouds and their lightning bolts.

We then had a hard rain, but only for 20 minutes or so. I hoped that would be the end of it.

I was wrong.

For the rest of the night, waves of rain moved through, most lasting only 20 or 30 minutes, but most of them very heavy. Sheets of rain pelted the trailer while thunder boomed overhead. If such storms scare you, don't get an RV. Hail was predicted on the radio, but fortunately, we did not get any.

After the storms moved in late yesterday, the temperature began to fall. It is 53 as I write this and still falling. The rains stopped about 3 this morning, but the wind continued to blow. The wind gets quite noisy in a trailer, and the gusts will rock you about some.

But it looks like we survived another storm in our little rig. It seems like whenever we come to this part of the state, we have some interesting weather. We camped in our Rockwood trailer at Caprock Canyons in August 2012 and endured a very violent storm there. Oh well, if you seek adventure, you have to take the bad along with the good.

Today is moving day. I'll soon start hooking up so that we can head on down the road to our next adventure. I still have a hike from Copper Breaks to post, and then I'll do my "On the Road" entry for our trip today.

I've posted a couple of pictures below, but they don't do justice to just how dark the skies were.

View towards the north. I just missed a lightning flash with this shot.

View to the east.

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.