Guadalupe River State Park, Spring Branch, Texas
And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. ~ Genesis 41:45b-46 After spending too much time trying to find out how large an area that was, I gave up. It’s hard for me to image how Joseph, or Pharaoh for that matter, could rule a country that seems to be pretty large from what I could tell. He must have spent a lot of time on the road. Wonder what each area thought of him when he arrived?
Did you know there was such a thing as a Master Naturalist?
We didn’t either, but two of them (Larry and Will) led us on a hike this morning. And they told us anyone can take the course and get certified or a degree or whatever they call it. Takes a few years though. Plus, I think these men are naturally brilliant people. There’s no way I could ever remember even those few things they shared today – not even when I was younger and all my brain cells were still alive and well.
Before I begin, I must confess our duplicity. I’m sharing this in confidence, so don’t repeat it, okay?
There’s a sign along the main road in the Park that says “Rust House Guided Tours Saturday 10am”. We noticed it when we first drove in. The gate across the dirt road is always locked. One day, I popped into the check-in desk and asked about it and was told you had to pre-register, but the group limit had already been reached. Bummer!
By the time Friday night rolled around, we’d decided to show up and see what happens. After all, the worst they could do was turn us away, right? So we showed up, and I played the part of the ignorant female when they asked if we’d pre-registered. “Oh! We saw on the sign there’s a guided tour on Saturdays.” “Well, it’s our discretion if we want to take on more, so come on.” Hey. I didn’t lie. If he’d asked us if we knew we had to pre-register, we’d’ve told the truth.😊
Our two hour hike turned into at least three hours, and us with no water or tic-tacs. Oh! Didn’t you know that you can suck on tic-tacs in the event of thirst crisis? You can! It works! You can even ask our grandkids. In fact, that’s how it was first discovered. Thirsty kids in the car, “Here, try this”. Works like a charm, except then they suddenly became thirsty all the time. Lol
Anyway, they led us on a mile long hike, stopping every few minutes to allow us glimpses into their abundance of knowledge – very impressive – culminating at a preserved place that’s currently undergoing a battle. There are signs up in people’s yards that say, “Save Honey Creek”. Called Honey Creek because there used to be an abundance of bees here, and also because of the look of those rocks we’ve shown you previously; there’s a nearby ranch that’s been sold and is now preparing for development. The issue isn’t that they want to build expensive homes on it, the issue is the gray water dispersal. Currently, the water (or at least some of it) would run off into Honey Creek, which would destroy the pristine area that’s currently under Texas Parks purview. We certainly hope and pray those Savers win!
They’re explaining why this grass isn’t native, but it’s so ingrained now, no one can get rid of it.
Ranchers brought it from (I can’t remember where) because they thought their cows would like it,
but they didn’t. Plus it had little nutritional value.
It’s a bird trap. Seems there are too many cow birds in the area. Cow birds lay their eggs in smaller birds’ nests. When the babies hatch, the cow bird is bigger and taller, so it gets all the food the parents bring and the other babies die of starvation. Nice, huh? Well, they don’t want to make the cow birds extinct, but they do need to control the population, so they catch ’em in here, then someone comes along and snaps their little necks. Nature can be really cruel . . . .
When we arrived, I think everyone agreed it was a stunningly beautiful place! There’s something primitive about it that took us back to another time when so much of our country resembled places like this. How thankful we were to be included in this group!
Wanna know about the “official” Texas State stuff – you know bird, tree, etc.? One of our guides quizzed the group on about half of those I’ve listed below (the one’s with the *). I went looking for the tree because neither Blaine nor I could remember it, and discovered the rest. There was actually a list that included about 75 items! Doesn’t their government have better things to do? 😊
Texas officials:
*Tree: Pecan
*Small mammal: armadillo
*Large mammal: Texas longhorn
*Bird: mocking bird
*Flower: bluebonnet
*Dinosaur: Paluxysaurus Jonesi
Sport: rodeo
Food: chili con carne
Insect: monarch butterfly
Reptile: horned lizard
Cobbler: peach (weird. We have yet to see any peaches in Texas)
Vehicle: chuck wagon
Once we were released, we walked back to the Rust house to look more inside, since we didn’t have a chance to before we left.
You can tell the front from the back because of the location of the outhouse – not shown. : )
One of the other things Larry mentioned was a place called Canyon Lake. We talked to him for a minute about it, and decided to check it out. That’s tomorrow’s post. Very cool place! Beautiful too!