Texas: Caprock Canyons

Dear fellow glamper,

I  must admit to you I was a bit hesitant about Texas when we first moved here.  As a “northerner” I had a set of ideas about what Texas is all about: oil rigs, ranches with a thousand head of cattle,  and short grass prairies stretching on and on just forever.  Now, like pretty much everything I thought of as an absolute in my 20s, all those preconceptions have been tossed aside, and I admit I was totally way off.  Texas is pretty awesome.  Like, really.  In particular, I have a crazy mad passion for the Texas State Park system.  I love the variety, the natural beauty, the campsites, just everything.  We bought an annual pass last year and have used it so much I am afraid each time I show it to a ranger that they will say, “now, ma’m, this pass is plum used up.”  The pass covers daily entrance fees, has a bunch of coupons for discounts on camp sites, and means you can fish in the parks for free. Love it.  Oh, and did I mention you can make your camping reservations on line?!  You can see site availability, and make sure you will have a parking pad large enough, or small enough, for your rig. So darn easy!

Caprock Canyon is one of the parks closest to us.  Driving through the flat panhandle and coming across this canyon system feels like tumbling into a different world.

As  we took this trip over  father’s day, we woke up and made cinnamon rolls.  As happens every time I  present the girls with breakfast pastries, they immediately turn into Oliver Twists, all big eyed and wretched looking, suffering from the terrible conditions of the workhouse, and reach out plates licked clean of the first helping and say, “please, mum, I want more.” And then of course I immediately have to pick up our  discussion of Dickens and how he is the best author of all time and no, they can’t have anymore because it demonstrates the cruelty poor Oliver suffered and its important to know these things, and then I put an apple in front of each of them with a wink, and they scowl, and it’s lovely.

Though it has been hot while we’ve camped (highs in the upper 90s), it’s well worth the visit.  There is a lake in which you can fish, though this time the fish were super stealthy and ate all the worms off our hooks.  The lake is also a sublime means of cooling down in the heat of the afternoon. So effective that we wondered how water could feel *too* cold in that heat.

The Honea Flats campground is one of three camping areas, and the only one with water and electrical hookups.  The sites are large and feel pretty private.  Prairie dogs have a well established town just next to the playground, and are just so dang cute I could watch them for hours.There are naturalist taught classes for children on the weekends, we caught one about bats! The park is home to a large population of mexican free tailed bats which you can visit on a prearranged ranger-lead trip.  There are many hiking trails and it’s just a short walk along the southern end of the eagle point trail to a natural bridge.  The seams of gypsum that course through the canyons are lovely and it’s fun to look at the crystals closely and watch as the light twinkles off the fracture lines, “just like jewels” say our girls.  At night we were treated to an unforgettable show of cloud to cloud lightning as thunderstorms rolled by to the north and south and heard the calls of coyotes in the dark.  Lovely place to glamp!

Hope you get out there no matter how hot it is!

Happy glamping,

Laura