BJ and I met a little after 10:00 am at the entrance gate at McKinney Falls State Park as she had earlier indicated a desire to go on another walk. I’m always up for a walk and was more than willing to accompany her. This Park is about the same distance to Bastrop as it is from my house, only about 25 minutes so a perfect spot for both of us without having to travel too far. I have walked here many times and was here last week but it was going to be the first for BJ.

We discussed which trail to take and finally opted for the Hike and Bike Trail. I learned from my walk of last week that we should go in the opposite direction from my previous walk as that would cut out having to ascend the steepest of the hills. This trail is all blacktop with the exception of the places down by the river that have washed out with the recent floods. In fact, we passed a couple of men with shovels and a Bobcat dozer and driver who were working on re-patching the path.

The walk was uneventful and I did not take many pictures having already taken quite a few a couple of days before. Nothing much changes in two days but the Spruce were putting on a display. They are really beautiful trees. When we got into the Picnic Area down by the river, there were a large group of teenagers who were with some camp playing what looked to be a very energetic game of beating each other with long poles. The smart ones were tagged early and got to stand in the shade as the other more energetic or maybe it should read competitive ones, kept on playing.

At the start of the hike, I had shown BJ the Upper Falls pictured above, which she found to be a wonderful place vowing to bring her friend for them to go swimming. She wanted to see the Lower Falls and we jumped into our respective cars and drove the mile or so to where they are located. We parked our cars and walked the short distance and the Lower Falls opened up in front of us. We had to cross a large granite expanse to get to it which was all pockmarked with the actions of water for the past thousands of years. Water is such a powerful thing.

I mentioned that there was a long hike on the other side of the Lower Falls requiring some acrobatics jumping from rock to rock to gain access to those trails. While we were there we reconnoitered what difficulty’s there may be in us older folks trying to cross and it looked passable. The young kids were leaping it without any trouble. Oh, the joy of being young. It looks like we have our next hike ready to go in front of us.

While  at the Lower Falls which has another stream that joins it at this point, I spotted a Great White Egret fishing in the river. They really are beautiful birds.

As we watched, it moved positions to a different part of the river and we could see it chasing a fish as it splashed around in the water.

We walked back to our cars passing the warning and educational signs outlining the do’s and dont’s of this part of the Park.

As we stood by our cars, both of which are almost identical, BJ asked me if I knew about starting the car from the a distance with the key. I did not and she proceeded to show me. So I learned something new today. Like the car advertisement, I was waiting for a bear to come out of the woods and give me a hug. No such luck, thank goodness, maybe because I did not use voice commands.

Another great day on the Texas trails.