Our weekend at South Llano River State Park, Junction, TX

Deer Antler Christmas Tree in Junction, TX

After a false start last year, we finally made our way to South Llano River State Park (SLRSP) just south of Junction, TX. This little 525 acre park abuts up to the South Llano River and is part of the Walter Buck Wildlife Management Area. The park opened in 1990 and I believe it's one of the newest parks of the Texas Parks and Wildlife group of parks. And not only did My Sweetie come with me, we also had Biker Bear Chick with us to help share the driving time!

We arrived early on Saturday afternoon and went inside to get our pass and assigned spot for camping. We started walking up and My Sweetie noticed a Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) flying around the feeder out front of the Visitor's Center. I continued to look at this amazing bird as we entered the building and could kick myself for not bringing our camera out of the truck.

Once inside the building, we started getting our passes, paying for the campsite, and generally talking about the weather. As we were in this process, a lady came in to say that there  was a snake on the front porch. The staff dropped everything they were doing and ran out to see what kind of reptile critter it was. After being identified as a bull snake (Pituophis catenifer sayi), a large non-venomous species, the staff called for the ranger to come remove said snake. I'm not sure the ranger was overly concerned about the snake.

After a bit, we got our campsite number and went to set up our PuP. On the way to the site, we saw another snake slithering across the road and into the dense undergrowth to the east. I began to wonder if this place was literally "crawling" with snakes. Even so, we got our camper into the space and set it up with a minimum of hardship and without seeing any more reptiles.

After the setup was completed and we took time to make sure we could find the bathrooms in the middle of the night, we started our walk to Buck Lake and, eventually, to the South Llano River. On our way to the lake, we had to cross a very open field which was surrounded by various sorts of trees. This area is the turkey roosting area and is closed during the winter months (to March) in order to let the turkeys sleep in peace (I guess). We found Buck Lake quite easily but was disappointed to learn that the bass were all catch and release. No fried fish supper for us. :(

We trudged along until we came to the river bank. We carefully threaded our way upstream for a bit until we decided the underbrush was too thick to continue. Heading in the downstream direction, we finally reached the spot where the tube riders exit the river. Here, we did our touristy bit and looked at all sorts of rocks before deciding to play in the cool river.

My Sweetie has a thing about sticking her feet in the rivers around here. She did the same thing at Big Bend National Park and at Dinosaur Valley State Park. Although she is experienced at wading, she still gets a big shock with the cold water in the rivers!

We returned to the campsite and found a very interesting beetle pushing along a ball of dung. Yep, here in the wilds of central/southern/west Texas not too far from the banks of the South Llano River, My Sweetie found a fascinating dung beetle. Watching this insect critter roll its ball of dung across the path (quickly, too!) was fascinating to say the least. These cool critters are Scientific Name: Phanaeus vindex MacLachlan; Onthophagus gazella Fabricius
Order: Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae - Scarab Beetles; Subfamily Scarabaeinae - Dung Beetles. I am not sure exactly which beetle this one is but it is definitely rolling a ball of dung!  There are 58 species of Scarabaeinae Scarabs in Texas according to the Associate Curator, Texas A&M University Insection Collection Edward G. Riley.

After returning to our campsite, I had a problem keeping my cold drink from being taken by Biker Bear Chick. I don't know what got into her after I scolded her. As you can see, BBC also likes to climb trees. It's a good thing the hawks and owls weren't present or we'd be short one BBC on the ride home.

My Sweetie was returning from the showers and noticed something on the ground. She called for me to bring the camera and I caught a picture of this cute little critter hiding by not moving a bit. We were both within 18 inches of this bunny and it did not move at all. Only by looking very closely could you see that it was still breathing. After a few minutes of heated argument, My Sweetie and I decided to leave it be. You see, she wanted to grill it and I wanted to stew it and neither of us could convince the other to change their mind. So, this tender morsel got to live another day (or was eaten during the night by an owl).

Sunday morning started off very early. Here, you see BBC and My Sweetie just coming awake after a very restful night. During this night, we had big gusts of winds followed by periods of absolutely no wind at all. Then, we'd have gusts again. We only had a few minutes of rain throughout the night but it did rain 3 or 4 times. 

My Sweetie had to visit the facilities during the night but didn't even notice that it had rained. Unfortunately, the only time she noticed the light rain was when the wind started blowing moisture into our tent camper. Being ever diligent, she got up and zippered all of the windows, except, of course, the one closest to me. No matter as I didn't think it was raining too hard anyway.

After a breakfast of Eggs Benedict, we headed out to climb the scenic overlook. Yep, she tried to kill me once again as this short hike was mostly straight up hill. OK, it was mostly on blacktop but still - uphill! Once we arrived at this scenic overlook, we both were sorely disappointed by the scenic part of this overlook. We saw a bunch of tree tops. Oh, and a vulture drifting on the wind currents.

After hiking back down to the truck, we noticed a bird blind near the parking lot so decided to see what's to see. As we approached, another couple left and we had the entire blind to ourselves. Amazingly, there were quite a few different types of birds showing up including lots of dove, cardinals, and others (like sparrows). Spending several minutes in the blind, we took quite a few photos before we headed by to the truck and left the park to head to the Caverns of Sonora. We elected to take that side trip since we both like caves and we have not visited this one for quite a long time (think of decades). I have another post solely about our trip to the Caverns.

After returning to the park, we had our meal of Beef Stew which had been cooking all day in our small crock pot. This became a great warming supper to prepare us for the cold night to come.

Sunday night was very cold. We think the temperature dropped to below 47º F. I thought the night was too cold and almost turned the heater on but didn't want to get out from under the covers!

We quickly packed up to head home. But the travel bug wasn't completely squished yet. We also took the time on Monday to visit the State Historic Site of Fort McKavett near Menard, TX. Once again, I felt I had enough material to publish a separate post only about this historic fort.

As far as rating this park, I found the facilities to be nice and everything was very quiet - well, except for those noisy birds cooing and chirping from sunrise to sunset. And the owls at night. And those huge gobblers calling for their friends! We saw snakes, birds, fish, deer, and dung rolling beetles. Overall, I really enjoyed the park and highly recommend it to all sorts of campers. I give this a three camper rating!