I know, I know.... one of these days I will make posting more frequently a priority. But until then, deal with the once-every-two-month posts!
The first week of February was the State Parks Conference. I'll write a whole post about that later. It was held in San Marcos this year, which was convenient and close-by to my parents! We headed up to San Antonio the weekend before so we could spend some time at home and see some folks. Kim & I had a lovely reunion and overdue hiking adventure. We decided to try out Lockhart State Park this time. It was close by (only a little over an hour away from San Antonio), had some good hiking according the map we scoped out online, and.... barbecue. Lockhart is famous for the barbecue (in fact, it is the official Barbecue Capital of Texas!) and we like to eat barbecue so it seemed like a match made in heaven!
We hit the road early in the morning and made the easy drive. We listened to music that brought us back to many years ago and we sang along with the windows down and enjoyed the cool air. We made good time and pulled into the park before we knew it. We got a map and, since their trail system is largely made up of lots of shorter trails, we settled on a few different trails to combine to get us to hit just under three miles (and, of course, taking us up to the overlook).
Lockhart State Park is one of many CCC parks in the system. It also is unique because it has a golf course and a swimming pool! Pretty neat, but I sure as shit would not want to manage a park with those things! The amount of mowing that probably happens makes my head want to explode. It really is a beautiful, small park. Everything was very green and the campsites that ran along the creek looked very nice and peaceful.
We hiked along the various trails and made our way up to the overlook, where the CCC pavilion is. It was closed for renovations but it was a neat little building and there were some pretty views from the top. It wasn't epic...but still pretty!
The weather was perfect and the ground was covered in crispy, fallen leaves. The sun was shining and we soaked it up, along with the fresh air. Lily just hung out, going along for the ride. We would pick up sticks and rocks for her to carry around. Eventually, of course, she began attacking me with the sticks. Go figure. But it was a small price to pay for her enjoyment of nature.
After the hike, we headed to the most important part of this day trip: lunch. There are many barbecue options in Lockhart, but we decided to try Black's BBQ. It was good. Not great. Good, though. We all split some brisket and drank unsweetened tea (not Lily, though - the last thing that kid needs is caffeine).
Lily napped as we drove back home and bid farewell to Kim until our next adventure.
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