Sunday 12-14-25 Texas Camping Trip

 

I'm so excited

 

I'm so excited. Why am I excited? Well, were going camping for a week at two Texas states parks. Bastrop for four days and Buescher for three days.  

We had an overcast day with wind out if the north, which made it chilly all day. We started the day in Belton Texas at 38 degrees and ended up in Bastrop with the temperature of 45 degrees. 

I woke up at 7:30 and made cinnamon french toast for breakfast. Then I finished putting things in the Minnie. While I was doing this I stopped and visited with Barb, who lives down the road from us. We met her when we were square dancing before COVID. We don't do a lot of in person square dancing so we don't see her that often. She was walking her dog and she decided to stop and visit for a little while. It was too cold to visit long so I let her finish her walk. It was nice to see her again. While I was finishing getting the Minnie ready Larry got the house ready. He loaded up a computer and our e-readers. He turned off the water to the house as we were leaving. We were on the road by 9:30 am.

We took a two lane highway through some small towns: Academy, Taylor and a few more. We could have taken I35 but we weren't in any hurry and we really didn't want to take a busy freeway and troll road. Bastrop State Park was 83 miles away and it took us two hours. We were at the park by 11:30 am. 

Larry went into the park headquarters to check in. He had made a reservation last night so it was easy to check in. Once we were checked in we found our site, which was #59. It was right by the bathroom. It's a beautiful park with a lot of trees. 

We were here before and had a great time. Bastrop State Park was established in 1933 and has a lot of trees : loblolly pines, post oaks and junipers. It was one of the state's parks that was built by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 30's. Some of the structures are still standing through out the park. In 2011 there was a huge fire that destroyed most of the park and structures. The only structures that remained were the CCC structures because they were made out of stone. The roofs of the structures were destroyed and replaced. During clean up from the fire they discovered a few CCC structures they didn't know existed. A professor from Texas A&M gave the state thousands of loblolly pine seeds to replace some of the loblolly pines that were taken by the fire. Bastrop State Park is beautiful with a lot of easy to moderate hiking trails. The sites are small but have a lot of trees and a paved pad for your RV. Each site has a fire ring, picnic table and lantern hook. You can get a full-hook up or electric and water. Ours is electric and water.

 

Entrance sign

 

Camping at Bastrop State Park

We setup the Minnie for four nights and then had ham sandwiches for lunch. After eating we got ready to go for a hike. It took awhile because Larry had to tape his feet to protect them from blisters. The hike was 2.70 miles for 1 hour 47 minutes. We hiked to the trailhead, which was just down the road. We hiked the purple trail until it met up with the orange trail, which was about a mile. We turned around and headed back if we had continued it would have been farther (5 miles) than we wanted to hike today. We had some how missed the trail we wanted to hike. We hiked back to where the trail Yd off and found a sign, that said Fehr's Overlook Trace (.1 mile). Then we were back on the purple trail to the main road and walked the road to the trails parking area. We thought maybe there was a trail to take up back to the campground. There wasn't so we walked the road back. We had a great hike to get us familiar with the trails in the park.

During the hike we came across one of the structures that was discovered after the fire in 2011. It a CCC water fountain. It was an easy hike through some trees and sand. We walked over a drainage bridge, which was built recently. Fehr's Overlook structure was built by the CCC and survived the fire but the roof was destroyed and replaced. It was a beautiful view of the surrounding area. The only problem was it also was a view of highway 71. We were almost done when we met a gentleman and his dog. He told us they hike about five miles of the trail everyday because they live close by. 

 

CCC Water Fountain

 

Scenic view of the fall colors from the trail

 

Drainage bridge

 

Fehr's Overlook structure built by the CCC

 

CCC Shaded Shelter by the bathroom

In the evening Larry read. I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Free Cell and 5 Tri Peaks). it took me 1 hour, 1 minute and 18 seconds, which put me in 16th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2.

I ended up doing 9.500 steps. I was surprised because I haven't done close to 10,000 steps in a long time.