Mammoth in the Swamp

 Caddo Lake State Park
Tuesday 5/31/2022

This is going to be an itty-bitty trip, just three hours (although we made it closer to four) and three nights. It is a filler, in between the big trip to Petit Jean and the bigger trip to Palo Duro Canyon and the Badlands. Still, the empty space around it is making it seem bigger than it is.

We had almost two weeks at home before this trip and a solid two weeks after, so we were both getting antsy to be moving again. And it will be worse next time. Not my fault--I'm sticking to Ed's request that he have only one Sunday off from church per month. More or less. Looking back at the first six months of the calendar, there's only been four Sundays off so far.

He may back off on that request now. He seems to spend most of his time buying things for the motorhome, fixing things on the motorhome, and cleaning things on the motorhome. So a little less waiting around and a little more using of the fruits of his labor would probably please him better.

Caddo Lake was formed by a log jam in the early 1800s, so large that horses could be driven across without knowing there was water underneath.  For reasons unknown to me, other than human being's desire to change things, they wanted to remove the log jam and restore the free-flowing river. Maybe it was considered navigable?  Or maybe they just wanted to be able to float logs down.

Eventually they succeeded in blasting out the log jam, and the lake drained out.  Oddly enough, it was restored in the 1920s because oil was found, and the oil companies wanted to drill from platforms in the lake rather than navigating the swampy marsh,. So they got the COE to build a dam.

It is surprising to me that so many huge trees remain in the park--I'd have expected man's demand for lumber would have wiped them out. The cypress is especially valuable, and I saw massive pine trees all over. Why are these trees still standing?

I'm happy that they are--it's a very nice park. Very small, as I knew. A prothonotary warbler came through camp and gave me an exciting picture, but when I went to get the camera he vanished. Typical.

After getting settled in, we took a walk down to the Sawmill Pond, a gorgeous swamp full of turtles and cypress trees. One great blue heron and one little blue heron (they're different species.)  .

We continued our walk down to the boat ramp...very nice.  Not large but functional with a parking lot big enough for maybe twenty trailers. There were only a few there.  But we're a good ways upstream from the lake and there are plenty of other boat ramps in and around the lake, so no matter. Actually, this would be an excellent park to bring our boat (our real boat) to. A few campsites down from us, there's an overflow parking area with room for six or so boats and an electrical hookup with four outlets. That would be perfect--except we need to be sure not to come on a holiday weekend. The ranger at the gate said the park was completely full last weekend (Memorial Day).

That's a reminder to us--summer camping season has begun. Even on weekdays we can expect crowded campgrounds with kids on bikes everywhere. And so it goes.