Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Wandering up to Huntsville State Park

My wife and I took the Jeep and the youngest dog and drove up to Huntsville State Park yesterday afternoon.  I needed to renew my pass.  Don’t know if it is my memory, but I thought that it was $50.00 last time, but this time it was $70.00.  Oh well, the State Park System can use the money.  We then drove in and parked at the northwest end of the road system and took a walk on one of the trails.  This one, if we had the time and energy, would take have taken us around Raven Lake, a lot further than we planned to go.  While driving to where we planned to park, I noticed what looked like signs of past fire.  Our walk confirmed I was correct, but the first thing we noticed was how low the lake was.  Here are a few pictures:
The sight of water lilies growing where there was no water and standing up without the aid of water amazed me.  Have you ever seen anything like this:
This is the beginning of the well maintained trail:
And signs of fire on the trees:
I kept seeing these holes in the ground with the tell-tell signs that something had burned in them.
At first I thought that someone had dug something out, but this next picture shows I was wrong:
It was stumps that had burned up and left holes.

I also spotted a lumpy tree:



The weather was great and we enjoyed our short visit back to the park. To see what it looked like the last couple of times we were there, you can click on the following links to some of my older blogs.
http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2011/04/wandering-to-huntsville-state-park.html
or
http://dizzydick.blogspot.com/2010/10/wandering-to-huntsville-state-park.html#comments

You all have a great day now, you hear?
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7 comments:

  1. Ben in TexasOctober 4, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    Shame about the condition of your favorite park. But don't you feel that a lot of the fire damage will come back? Seems to me that since they have changed the way they "maintain" the parks, cutting out undergrowth and other conversation methods have contributed to the damage when we do get these fires? Used to they left the forest alone and on occasion a big natural fire would come along and burn out the undergrowth and new growth would pop up afterward. Doesn't happen that way any more, because "they" are "helping" the forest. Let Mother Nature take care of it. It worked fine that way for centuries.

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  2. Andolphus GreyOctober 4, 2011 at 12:19 PM

    Looking dry.

    Never saw lilly pads like that before.

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  3. Dizzy-DickOctober 4, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    Ben, it is hard to pick a "favorite" but this one is definitely the closest. I found out later that they had a "controled" burn back in the first of March.

    6bears, I was astounded. Thought that they would be laying over all wilted. I have been known to be wrong one or two times before. . .

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  4. HoboJoeOctober 4, 2011 at 3:22 PM

    Never seen lily pads do that before, must be just enough water down there to keep em hanging on. Talk about killin' 2 birds with 1 stone Dizzy... wondering while you're wandering :)

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  5. Dizzy-DickOctober 4, 2011 at 6:34 PM

    Hobo, in this fascinating world in which we live, one can’t help but wonder when he wanders.

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  6. MsBelindaOctober 4, 2011 at 9:49 PM

    You can certainly tell the difference in the lake levels and vegetation in your prior posts.

    I have always wanted to go there since it is so close to Houston but for some reason or another I have never made it.

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  7. Dizzy-DickOctober 4, 2011 at 10:26 PM

    MsB, It is close. I live east of Conroe just off route 105 and I can get up there just for a few hours in the afternoon. If you have an RV, they have a lot of new sites and of course a lot of old ones. If not, there is plenty of parking and lots to do.

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