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Vol. 1 - Florida & Southeast 11/08
Vol. 2 - the Southwest 11/09
Vol. 3 - The Southeast v.2 11/10
Vol. 4 - Southeast v.3 11/11
Vol. 5 - Southeast v.4 11/12
Day 33, Camp 15 - Seminole Canyon State Historical Park, Comstock, TX
Posted 12-20-2009 at 06:52 PM by Phantom
2009/12/18 - (2 nights @ $23 per night)
Day 33, Camp 15
Seminole Canyon State Historical Park
Comstock, TX
ALL PHOTOS RELATED TO THIS BLOG
ARE AVAILABLE TO VIEW AT:
https://picasaweb.google.com/pshoemaker49
Drove a grueling 20 miles up US 90 to Seminole Canyon State Historical Park. Got here about noon and had to wait outside the gate until 2 pm for them to open. They had been closed all week for a Whitetail hunt. Only open on Friday & Saturday ... closed again Sunday night. Apparently there are way too many deer in the area. We only saw one. He looked scared. We wanted to make sure we got a site as there are only 23 with electricity. We were third in line. Really wanted to see the caves with Pictographs. Paintings that go back 4000 years! The oldest in North America! Got camp set up fast... our first real taste of the desert / canyon country. We were on the back loop all alone... nice desert view looking out to distant mountains in Mexico... and the sunset. Wonderful. Driving back to the campground, a beautiful Gray Fox crossed the road right in front of us. Another first. Very beautiful creature! We hurried off to the 3 pm tour of Fate Bell Cavern... only available by guided tour. It was about 250 feet down into a canyon and along the bed for a half mile or so, then up into the cave. The paintings were pretty neat. Unfortunately they were quite faded from what they were just 70 years ago. When they made the Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande in this area, they made the whole area more humid. Not good for cave paintings. What were vivid and colorful in the 30's are now very faded... some nearly gone. So... what had existed for eons... through wind, rain, sun, storm, flood, quakes, etc., we have managed to nearly obliterate in a mere 70 years! Still more amazing. Saturday we did a short canoe trip on the Pecos and into the Rio Grande... downstream a couple miles to Parida Cave... only accessible by boat!... no tours or trails... to see more Pictographs. Very cool. It was amazing to canoe on these big rivers... with huge cliffs along the banks. It was very, very quiet... only a couple Herons and Gulls along the way. I had wanted to go to Panther Cave and see the 9' long panther painting, but it was 7 miles one way. We decided it was too far for our 10 am start. It was great to see what we did. The new canoe is sleek and fast... and at 42 lbs., so much easier for me to load and unload. It's a bit tippy when empty so I loaded about 80 lbs. of firewood into it for some ballast. That slowed us down a bit. Might try it empty again next time.
Sunday dawns clear and sunny. We head out for Alpine... last stop before Big Bend. Oh boy!
Day 33, Camp 15
Seminole Canyon State Historical Park
Comstock, TX
ALL PHOTOS RELATED TO THIS BLOG
ARE AVAILABLE TO VIEW AT:
https://picasaweb.google.com/pshoemaker49
Drove a grueling 20 miles up US 90 to Seminole Canyon State Historical Park. Got here about noon and had to wait outside the gate until 2 pm for them to open. They had been closed all week for a Whitetail hunt. Only open on Friday & Saturday ... closed again Sunday night. Apparently there are way too many deer in the area. We only saw one. He looked scared. We wanted to make sure we got a site as there are only 23 with electricity. We were third in line. Really wanted to see the caves with Pictographs. Paintings that go back 4000 years! The oldest in North America! Got camp set up fast... our first real taste of the desert / canyon country. We were on the back loop all alone... nice desert view looking out to distant mountains in Mexico... and the sunset. Wonderful. Driving back to the campground, a beautiful Gray Fox crossed the road right in front of us. Another first. Very beautiful creature! We hurried off to the 3 pm tour of Fate Bell Cavern... only available by guided tour. It was about 250 feet down into a canyon and along the bed for a half mile or so, then up into the cave. The paintings were pretty neat. Unfortunately they were quite faded from what they were just 70 years ago. When they made the Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande in this area, they made the whole area more humid. Not good for cave paintings. What were vivid and colorful in the 30's are now very faded... some nearly gone. So... what had existed for eons... through wind, rain, sun, storm, flood, quakes, etc., we have managed to nearly obliterate in a mere 70 years! Still more amazing. Saturday we did a short canoe trip on the Pecos and into the Rio Grande... downstream a couple miles to Parida Cave... only accessible by boat!... no tours or trails... to see more Pictographs. Very cool. It was amazing to canoe on these big rivers... with huge cliffs along the banks. It was very, very quiet... only a couple Herons and Gulls along the way. I had wanted to go to Panther Cave and see the 9' long panther painting, but it was 7 miles one way. We decided it was too far for our 10 am start. It was great to see what we did. The new canoe is sleek and fast... and at 42 lbs., so much easier for me to load and unload. It's a bit tippy when empty so I loaded about 80 lbs. of firewood into it for some ballast. That slowed us down a bit. Might try it empty again next time.
Sunday dawns clear and sunny. We head out for Alpine... last stop before Big Bend. Oh boy!Total Comments 0
