WE HIT THE TRAILS TODAY

Thursday, February 1 –  This morning here at Seminole Canyon, we had a gorgeous sunrise with a special appearance of the moon.

Today's plan calls for a hike on one of the several trails in Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas. There are seven trials in the park. We did the guided Fate Bell Shelter Pictograph trail yesterday. Our plan today is to do parts of several trails combined into a circular route.

We began on the Rio Grande Trail for .45 of a mile and connected to the popular Canyon Rim Trail.

Rio Grande Trail. Sign in the back says…Beware of snakes…yikes!

Pretty easy going so far.

This Canyon Rim Trail traverses the rim of Seminole Canyon and the Rio Grande corridor. It is labeled as Challenging. It really isn’t. The surface is rugged which makes hiking a little troublesome. The trail gave us many opportunities to view the canyon floor more than 200 feet below. Don't get mesmerized by the scenery or clumsy on the loose stones or you may end up at the bottom of the canyon!

Many times we were hiking right along the edge of the Canyon.

Bridge to the Past.

Had to watch our step.

We branched off temporarily on the Presa Overlook Trial which ends at a beautiful overlook into Presa and Seminole Canyon. We stopped nearby for a short break and to reenergize ourselves with a little snack from our backpacks.

We continued down the Canyon Rim Trail for a short distance before connecting to the Presa Trail which cuts away from the canyon onto higher ground. We followed this old ranch road about a mile before connection to Middle Fork Trail.  

Presa Trail. Not nearly as rugged as Canyon Rim. Difficulty: Moderate. We say easy.

Middle Fork Trail. Listed as moderate. Again, we say easy.

The last part of the trail was reconnecting to the Rio Grande Trail which we followed back to the trailhead. We covered about five miles which was enough since it's been awhile since we hiked that far. We'll tackle another trail in the next couple days, so come back and follow along.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

FATE BELL SHELTER TOUR, SEMINOLE CANYON

NOTE: We are now at Big Bend. We have no cell phone service and spotty WIFI from the park store. Hope all is well in the outside world…lol

 

Wednesday, January 31 – After getting set up at Seminole Canyon Campground just outside Comstock, TX, we relaxed outside until about 3 p.m. It was then time to head to the Visitor's Center for the Fate Bell Shelter Pictograph guided tour. It is a ranger guided tour that departs twice daily, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The only way visitors are permitted to visit the floor of the canyon is by going on this tour. The cost is $5 per person, BUT the price increases to $8 per person on February 1, 2018. So by going today instead of tomorrow as we originally planned, we saved $6.

There were 12 people on the tour plus our ranger guide. We walked down about a mile's worth of switchback trail and steps to the canyon floor.

Tonya our ranger guide.

Lots of steps but not bad at all.

This area was used 4000 years ago by nomadic Indian tribes traveling and hunting in the area. The Fate Bell Shelter is thought to be one of the oldest cave dwellings in North America. There are four areas of pictograph figures that are simply amazing. Protecting these drawings is the reason for limiting visitors to guided tours. You do have to climb several sets of stairs and scramble over some rocky cliffs to see the pictographs up close.

The floor of the Canyon is beautiful.  Solid Texas limestone.

We had to climb more steps to get to the Fate Bell Annex. The first of the pictographs. Over 35 researchers have tried to find the meanings of these drawings. No one to this day knows exactly what they mean.

Once we entered Fate Bell Shelter, we noticed mats on the floor. The ranger explained that the rubber mats helped control dust which effects the breakdown of the pictographs.

Up more steps to the Shelter.

Mats for protection.

Looking out of the Shelter into the canyon.

Of course, the return up the 200 foot cliff to the Visitor's Center involves climbing many stairs and uphill switchbacks, but everyone in our group completed the hike without any problems.

Be aware that almost everything in this environment bites, stings, or scratches. All the bushes have thorns. On our hike, we hurried past several very active bee colonies. Fortunately, we didn't see anything that bites, but were warned the javelinas in the area are pretty aggressive.

Active bee’s hive.

We had a beautiful sunset tonight. The night sky was DARK! This area is known for it's dark night skies.

We had a great time on the very informative Fate Bell Shelter tour. We highly recommend it to any visitor. We have several days of hiking planned during our five days at Seminole Canyon, so y’all come back and see what interesting things we find in the area.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

SEMINOLE CANYON STATE PARK…PEACE AND QUIET

Note: We have been without cell phone service and Internet for 4 days. We drove 40 miles to Del Rio to make some phone calls. We will be without WIFI and cell phone service for several more days. We will try to catch up with everyone’s blog posts and emails soon.

Wednesday, January 31 – Before we departed this morning from the Kickapoo Casino campground in Eagle Pass, Texas, Marsha was excited to view the Super Blue Blood Moon eclipse. Being in the Central Time Zone, our best viewing time was between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. We had clear skies and were treated with a great view of the moon out of the rear window of our 5^th wheel trailer.

We started our day's travel by moving to the west side of Eagle Pass to get the mandatory annual inspection for the RV. It is somewhat difficult to find an inspection station that does the RV inspection. For $7.00, all they really did was check that all the lights work, and that the brakes function correctly. Oh well, that's taken care of for another year.

We continued our travel along the Tex-Mex border today traveling from Eagle Pass, TX, to Seminole Canyon State Park, just west of Comstock, TX. The drive to Seminole Canyon was a little over 100 miles. It was a relaxing and uneventful drive on US-90, a great road we've used in the past when crossing Texas. It is a parallel route to I-10, actually being a bit shorter with a 75 mph speed limit, although we travel at 62 mph, and a much nicer way to travel across the “Big” state.

 
We decided to purchase the Texas State Pass when checking in at Seminole Canyon SP. It costs $70, but we received four half-off camping coupons and free admission to all Texas State Parks. We figured our stops in the coming weeks will have us breaking even by mid-February. The pass is good for a year. Be aware that Texas is one of the states that charge you $3/person entry per day in the state parks, even when you've paid for a camp site. Just in this park, we would have had to pay $6/day for five days.

After getting set up in Site #26, a blacktop site with water, 30 AMP electric, picnic table, shelter and fire ring, we took Bella, our cat, for a short walk around her “new digs.” People sure get a kick out of seeing a cat on a leash...Haha. We did find out that WI-FI is available at the nearby restrooms but it only works for texting, no Internet and absolutely no cell phone service. This park is just about full, but we don’t even notice it. It is so peaceful. We enjoyed our first day at Seminole.

Site #26 is very large.

Looking right.

Looking left.

Wide open space.

Paul just relaxing.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.