San Angelo State Park, San Angelo, TX

 

Along our 100 mile drive from Junction to San Angelo yesterday, we watched the trees get smaller and the hills disappear as we went farther west away from the Hill Country and closer to the desert. San Angelo State Park is located just a few miles from the city of San Angelo, population over 100,000, a good stopover to do a little shopping.

This is a nice park on the shores of O.C. Fisher Reservoir, although with the drought in Texas there is very little water in the lake. And there are only a handful of people in the campground, nobody but us in our section. If the lake were full, we would have a beautiful view of it.

There is a little water in it this year following some good rains, but not enough for boating or fishing. The ranger told us it’s been a couple years since the water levels were up, and last summer it went completely dry. He said they were letting people just grab fish with their hands to take home and eat rather than let them die.

It got into the low 90’s yesterday, so late yesterday afternoon we took a ride into downtown San Angelo to take a little walk along the Concho River, which flows through town. Unfortunately we were destined not to see water, as there is work going on along the river and they have drained much of the water. There is a nice 4 mile trail and some lovely homes along the river.

The ducks and geese were still hanging out even though the water is low.

The trail also crosses the river to the impressive Visitor Center.

Because of their huge sheep market, San Angelo was known for many years as the 'wool capital of the world'. The city had a “paint the sheep” contest several years ago and they are still on display throughout downtown.

This is the “Welcoming Ewe” next to the Visitor Center.

About 4 this morning we were awakened to rolling thunder, so I got up to turn on the weather radio and check the radar on the computer. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning, but fortunately we only got some wind and small hail for about 5 minutes. Couldn’t get back to sleep for a good while so we got off to a slow start today. Ended up heading to town around noon for a haircut for me, lunch at Quizno’s, and some shopping at Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Not a very exciting day but it only got to 80 with humidity around 30 percent or less. How nice!

This evening we hiked a few miles of the 50 miles of hiking and mountain bike trails in the park. It was like walking through a prickly pear garden, very pretty.

 

We would definitely come back here again and stay a bit longer, but tomorrow we’re off to Monahans Sandhills State Park.