Monday, February 25 – We did another “Making Memories with Friends” field trip today. The group was only Paul and Marsha and Angie and Rick. Our destination was La Sal del Rey (the King's Salt) also known as “La Purificacion.” It is a salt lake which includes an estimated four million tons of salt and was once part of an extinct inland sea.
Home of 1100 types of plants, 700 vertebrate species, and more than 300 kinds of butterflies, the region is one of the most biologically diverse in the nation and is commonly visited by nature enthusiasts, birders and history buffs from around the world.
Our trail was a dirt road.
The lake has a circumference of five miles, is a mile long, and normally ranges from two to four feet in depth. The bed consists of 99.0897 percent sodium chloride. The large salt deposit has no connection with any other body of water and no one knows for sure how the lake was formed.
Paul tasted the salt and confirmed.....”It sure is salty!”
We walked on an area that was once under water that felt “mushy” under-foot due to the amount of salt. It just felt like any minute we would sink ankle deep in muck. But thankfully, we returned to firm land without a mishap.
They are drilling oil/gas wells in the area and a gate guard required us to park about 1.5 miles from the lake.
We hiked not really sure where we were going but Marsha's iPhone gave us a visual reference where we were and led us right to the lake. We hiked several miles around the salt deposits in spite of gusting winds that were making everything rather dusty.
Marsha found lots of shells and other signs of life left behind.
We were concentrating so hard on finding this place that we didn't even know we were driving on a famous street.
WEAVER Ranch County Rd. How appropriate.
We stopped at a local restaurant, Cheddars, on the way home for lunch/dinner and enjoyed a delicious meal. It was a long day in rather windy conditions. When we arrived home, we found that leaving windows open during dust storms is not a “good thing.” Everything was covered with dust......jeesh!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day.
Time for the damp microfiber cloths. Love the way they remove dust from anything.
ReplyDeleteYou were so fortunate to have a geologist like Paul in your party to confirm the presence of salt. Who would have guessed?
ReplyDeleteInteresting place guys.
ReplyDeleteNever figured a salt lake would be in Texas. Did you see any flamingos? They usually hang around those southern salty places. Well, maybe you have to be a little farther south ... such as the Island of Bonaire?
ReplyDeleteWe love Cheddars. We have to get to south to check some of those places out. Didn't know there was a salt flat in Texas.
ReplyDeleteHadn't heard of this. We may have to check it out before we leave!
ReplyDeleteFor a second there I thought you'd flown the coop to Utah!
ReplyDeleteYup, it's Salt alright - thanks, Paul, good detective work!
I didn't realize there were salt lakes in TX. I am always learning something new from your blog. :)
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