We spent the night at
the RV camp at Caverns of Sonora. The facility was fine and there
were minimal other campers so it was quiet. When we finished at
the caverns, we headed to the town of Sonora to stock up on supplies at
the local supermarket. From there, we headed toward Garner State
park on the Rio Frio. We did not know much about our chosen
destination, but were pleasantly surprised when we got there.
After Garner, we headed into San Antonio and visited another cave
complex.
The photos below are what we saw.
At the caverns, there were several peacocks. They strutted around like they owned the place, which, of course, they did.
Along the road we passed
this fellow; clearly road kill. The hole in the belly was due to
the vultures who were actively working on the corpse when we arrived.
One of the vultures who was "on the job" cleaning up carrion. These fellows are nasty, I don't even want to consider what is crusted around his eyes.
We went to Garner State
Park and since it was Sunday afternoon, there were minimal visitors and
we got a great camp site right next to the Rio Frio. Above is the
view out of our back door. The fellow in the water must have been
pretty hardy as the air temperature was not that high and the water was
cold (yes, I checked).
A view down river on the
Rio Frio from our camp site.
Next morning, we packed
and headed toward San Antonio and passed through the little town of
Utopia, TX. As we all know, no trip is complete until one sees a
Unimog. This U500 belongs to the Utopia Fire Department and was
parked along the road next to a real estate office. I knocked at
the door, but nobody answered. This unit is configured for brush
fire control: note the remote control nozzle on the front bumper and
the hose reel on the back.
I pulled in front of the
U500 to allow a size comparison because everyone knows that size
matters.
Kathleen was working her
PDA while we were driving and located a nice RV park to stay for the
night. The area was shaded and clean, so we raised the top and
set up for the night. The night was uneventful and we did
important chores like laundry and showers. Next morning, we broke
camp and headed to Natural Bridge Caverns on the north side of San
Antonio.
At the entrance to the
caverns there were several sets of nice flowers that were in
bloom. These were not wild flowers, but they were nice anyway.
The sink hole that is the
entrance to the caverns has a natural bridge of limestone that is the
namesake of the cave.
Nice drapes near the
entrance passage.
Some of the formations
near the entrance passage were quite large. This cave was not as
dramatic as Caverns of Sonora, but it was still a worthwhile exercise.
Once past the entrance
area, the trail steeply descends to the main area of the cave.
One of the chambers had a
large pool of standing water with some nice stalagmites growing from
them.
One of the larger
formations in the cave.
This structure was a
crazy mixture of various formation types.
This formation was
massive and was in a large room. Note the chandelier on the right.
More nice drapery in the
main hall.
The tour took us into
another large room with a small pool. Note that the water level
has changed over time.
A nice flow stone
formation.
This room is called the
"Hall of the Mountain King". Who comes up with these names?
One of many "fried egg"
formations. Note the variety of colors.
This room was huge and
had both stalactite and flow stone formations.
The path out from the
largest room passed some huge formations. Note the people on the
walkway for a sense of scale.
Another view of some of
the large formations.
A rather odd asymmetrical
formation.
More fried eggs combined
with chocolate pudding. Ever notice that formation names in caves
are food names?
More eggs with a side of
cave bacon. From the caverns we headed into San Antonio for a
short shopping stop. When my laptop died after 7 years, there
were some extra items that were needed to recover from the failure.
Our path took us through
the downtown area of San Antonio. Above is the skyline as seen
from I-10.
From San Antonio, we
headed east toward Gonzales, TX where we would do our hog hunt.
The roadsides were ablaze with wild flowers that were just starting to
bloom.
Kathleen worked her magic
and found us a nice RV place to camp reasonably close to the hunt
site. The Hill Shade RV Park was nice and just what the
doctor ordered. The folks there were very nice and the ENTIRE
place poured out to check out the mog. At one point there were a
dozen folks inspecting the hardware. Above is the view out
the back door of the camper. The park was next to a working ranch
and the cattle were working their way around the pasture.
When the cattle came my way, I attempted to strike up a conversation with (ear tag) Number 2, but she was having none of it.
We had a couple of great days and found
some nice places to camp. Everybody was so friendly and I must
say that Texans know their trucks. The mog got respect everywhere
we went. The Natural Bridge caverns were pretty cool, but not as
dramatic as Caverns of Sonora. Since we did not have to choose
only one, we did them both.
Tomorrow, we start our hunt and I am
sure that there will be interesting stories to tell from that
experience.
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Photos
and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2010, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.