Seminole Canyon day trip

Wednesday, November 4

High 83/low 54

The plan for the day was a Jeep trip over to Seminole Canyon, so we pretty much just hung out at camp until time to leave. The drive took us almost due west until we were close to the Mexico border and we could see mountains--but what were they?  Were they the northern end of the Sierra Madre Oriental, in Mexico, or the southern end of the Rockies, in America? Will we ever get to go there?

No matter, it was amazing to see mountains again. Far off in the distance, just a smudge, but mountains!

Here is the Amistad Reservoir, on the US-Mexico border.  Great-looking place but there are no campgrounds with water/electric along the edges. Maybe someday we'll get up the courage to boondock.

The park at Seminole Canyon was lovely. It was very windy--flags were flapping hard and continuously. Does the wind always blow in the desert? It hadn't been blowing like that when we left in the morning.

And yes, we were very much in the desert. All the plants were desert plants--sage, ocotillo, sotol, agave, yucca, prickly pear cactus and several other low cacti hiding in the underbrush. They've built an excellent little interpretive trail with tons of interesting plants labeled. The resurrection plant was in its "dead" phase, we guessed--it looked like a dead Christmas cactus. Okay, I said tons of plants, but it was more like 25 or so. Still, I enjoyed it greatly. Lots of Black-throated Sparrows were hanging out by the headquarters. Common as heck, but another new life bird for me!

I wish I'd taken the time to get a picture, but by the time I was ready the sparrows had hidden themselves.  We didn't get to take the tour because I'd brought the dogs and leaving them unattended in the car was forbidden in State Parks. Oh, well--another time. We took the little trail instead.
 

We returned to a shrimp dinner--courtesy of dear friends Bob and Theresa. From their home near San Antonio, this park was only a couple hours drive for them, and they'd volunteered to fix supper. Grilled shrimp and vegetables, yum. The only thing keeping it from being a fine restaurant meal was a lack of crusty bread and a garlic dipping sauce. (Hmmm...would that be a fun dinner for us to fix, someday? Shrimp, crab legs, bread and sauce?)  We provided cookies for dessert and then we had a good chat by their fire.