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Dude, where's the food?

As part of my son's birthday yesterday, he decided that we should go on safari. We visited the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch near San Antonio, a trip that's always guaranteed to delight and sometimes alarm visitors.

Considered a sanctuary for many endangered animals, the wildlife ranch allows native and exotic herbivores to roam freely around the park, and visitors get to drive through and feed the animals, which include Aoudad (shown above), Wildebeest, Cape Buffalo, Zebra, Barasingha, American Bison, Gemsbok, Ostrich and other flightless birds, Blackbuck, Giraffe, and many more species.

There were numerous babies around, as well -- here's a baby Aoudad.

Gemsbok:

Watusi:

Below is a highly endangered Blackbuck -- according to the program, there are more Blackbuck in Texas than in their native homeland, India and Pakistan.

The animals are quite at home in the native Texas hill country, which provides a scenic habitat not too unlike the homelands of most of the deer and goat species.

For the most part, they get to roam freely, making it a habitat instead of a traditional zoo. There are some areas where animals are kept under closer supervision, including the rhinos and giraffes, most likely for safety and breeding purposes, and there's also a walk-a-bout with caged lemurs and parrots, but the majority of the park is open hill country.

 What they say is to drop the food on the ground and let the animals pick it up. And that works for the most part. But realistically what happens is that some animals get in your face and car to get as much food as they can before the next group does.

The zebras were the most aggressive of the trip. They fight with each other to be the possessor of the car, and they'll shove a sideview mirror aside for easier access, no problem.

And then they actively try to get the whole bag of food, not content to be fed a bit at a time, and forget about their willingness to pick up the food from the ground. Keep a close hand on the window controls, that's all I'm saying!

Well, I'll say this too, I got nipped twice by zebras in their zealous drive to obtain food -- mostly my arm was in the way of their reaching the bag of food -- my failed tug of war with one zebra meant that he got to eat the whole amount of food, bag included. We learned fast to keep our bags of food out of sight and not in our laps!

 

You have to watch out for these guys, too -- the ostriches -- if you value your bags of food and your eyeballs.

  And with their long necks, they can reach all the way across the car to the person sitting opposite you.

Now isn't this a cutie -- a tiny Sicilian donkey.

He couldn't reach the window, so apparently he and his buddies have trained visitors to just toss food into their mouths. How about a kiss?

 Back at the walk-a-bout, we were delighted to watch a mama lemur and her nursing twins, and the fun antics of the neighboring lemurs. All lemur species are considered endangered or vulnerable, so the wildlife ranch is very proud of their successful breeding program.

A fun place to visit. Just take care of your fingers!

Down in southeast Austin along Onion Creek lies a somewhat tucked away state park called McKinney Falls State Park. The wealthy Thomas F. McKinney was one of the "Old 300" original settlers who received land grants in Stephen F. Austin's colony back in the 1820s (McKinney actually moved there around 1850), so this park definitely has its history. Now, some of that history sadly includes McKinney's use of slaves, the clearing of acres and acres of precious woodland, the racing of horses, and aid to the Confederacy -- but this post isn't about all that! What it is today is a state park filled with walking and biking trails, with waterfalls, creeks, and historical buildings mixed in. And that's what this post is about.

The main areas of McKinney Falls State Park are divided into the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. We visited the Upper Falls first. When rain is plentiful, the falls are much more substantial, but at least water was flowing. What I was particularly drawn to, and you'll see this in many of my pictures, is the erosion power of the water, shaping beautiful curves and channels into the rock.

Below the falls is a larger pool in which people sometimes enjoy swimming. However, often the pool is closed to swimming because of high fecal counts due to runoff from upstream areas and flooding. During our visit, the pool was open for swimming, but given that it was December, it wasn't so surprising that no one cared to swim in the cold water. Bald cypress trees, complete with twisted roots, line the pool's edges. 

Dogs are not permitted to swim at the state park, but the headquarters said it was ok to let them take drinks. Of course, leashes are also required at all times. 

The Upper Falls trail is actually paved and seems a great place if you have young kids who like to ride their bikes while parents walk along. For adults on bikes, the distance is probably on the short side.

We visited in winter, and there were few leaves left on the trees, except for the annoying occasional invasive ligustrum which just thrived; its dark-green foliage really stood out when we ran across it.

The path travels along Onion Creek, which Austinites know is the area most prone to serious and dangerous flooding during heavy rains. You can see evidence of flooding in the images below, though the results seemed to be to the basking turtles' favor.

To get to the Lower Falls, you have to drive to a separate parking area, then walk for awhile across exposed rock. I imagine during floods that this whole area gets quickly covered in water. Again you can see the result of water erosion -- broken limestone slabs and large pools carved out in the open rock, as seen below.

The Lower Falls look different from what I remember from years ago -- presumably this is a combination of water erosion at work and current flow of the creek. To cross to the other side, where the old homestead is, one has to jump across a channel just large enough to be risky for an adult and way too dangerous for children to safely cross.

 

So we, the ever-adventuring gang, decided to take advantage of the fact that this was an ON swimming time for MFSP, and we crossed the creek higher up. Yep, in our tennis shoes. Well, except for me, who was clever enough to wear my Keens. Though the water was plenty shallow, the carved channels in the creek bed (the always-occurring water erosion still at work) were hidden by long strings of algae, so we still had to be careful in our endeavour.

But we wanted to see the homestead and grist mill, and crossing the falls was simply too hazardous for my youngster. It would be nice to have a bridge built someday, one safe from the effects of flooding, if that's even possible.

Yeah, I think the boys will be getting new shoes for when they go back to school.

On the other side of the park, we could really envision the McKinney ranch of old. The McKinney homestead was built around 1850 and stayed relatively intact until a fire in 1943.

It's easy to picture horses pulling a wagon under the trees along this wide road.

  The trails were lined with yellow flowers and a variety of shrubs and grasses.

Little remains of the grist mill, once used to grind flour. It was destroyed by a flood in 1869.

There are other remnants to be found along the Lower Falls trails, but we had to get home. So we followed the trail back to the creek for another adventure in crossing. We enjoyed a different view of the falls from the other side, but the muck we found in the creek was pretty much the same!

While waiting for the kids to cross, I snapped a close-up of our husky. He's a handsome brute, isn't he?

McKinney Falls is a lovely state park, but it's difficult to see all of it, especially the historical structures on the Lower Falls side, unless you are agile and have good balance, or are otherwise determined, and large enough to safely cross. Parents would have to carry their children across, or wade the way we had to. The Upper Falls trails are pleasant, though paved. In other words, it's a pleasant place to visit, but not a park for everyone.

Imagine it's just before Christmas Eve again, for that is when my boys and I took our dogs to McKinney Falls State Park for a little nature excursion before the holidays. Having recently enjoyed autumn colors at Lost Maples, Westcave Preserve, and Hamilton Pool, we found that McKinney Fall seemed appropriately devoid of leaves and color -- we had found winter in Texas at last.

But it didn't really bother us, and it certainly didn't upset the dogs one bit. Instead of delighting in vibrant colors and active wildlife, as there wasn't much around, we enjoyed themes in nature and the unusual that caught our eye, noticing things that might have escaped observation at another time of year.

For one, we discovered that nature provided hints of Christmas all around us. From ornaments...

to red and green colors.

Sometimes we found unexpected shapes that brought our thoughts to ordinary objects or otherwise sparked our imagination, such as hearts...

  Bigfoot tracks...

and even a longhorn. Hook 'em Horns!

We enjoyed "Wildlife Words of the Day" including "snag," "hollow," and even "scat" (I declined to post of picture of scat, however).

And we enjoyed a variety of textures, from the soft to the rough to the bristly.

  The cactus kept our attention, through color, shape, and spines. Sometimes it was pests, like cochineals...

but sometimes it was beauty in age and decline. Have you ever wondered about the interior structure of a cactus, its vascular system that supports its water conservation? When dry, it leaves behind a beautifully intricate skeleton.

We found animal tracks...

a lone butterfly...

a flower staring back at us (you can really have a conversation with this flower if you choose to)...

nifty things plants and fungus do...

and vicious man-eating fire ants.

The winter season can keep some people indoors, but there is still so much to see, even when the leaves are on the ground instead of in the trees. Sometimes it's noticing the little things that really open up the wonders of nature. And when you do it with your kids, you feel like you're helping the whole world open up in their eyes.

 
I'll give an actual tour of McKinney Falls State Park in the next post, to complete our nature walks. I'm almost caught up!

After our trip to Westcave Preserve, the boys and I enjoyed a picnic lunch with our friends, then headed to nearby Hamilton Pool for an afternoon trek. The park is about 232 acres located near Pedernales River, and it's famous for its natural swimming hole formed from a collapsed grotto. We followed the main trail down to the creek below, enjoying a slow pace along the water's edge until we reached the large pool and steadily flowing waterfalls.

Along the way, we enjoyed turtles, fish, and the occasional butterfly.

The walk seemed short, and before we knew it, we had reached Hamilton Pool itself, where 50-foot waterfalls pour over limestone cliffs into the chilly pool below. The large cavern allows visitors to walk and relax along the cool rocks and boulders behind the falls.

  And from the back, the autumn colors seem all the more vibrant.

The sound of the waterfall is loud but not deafening, though my children sure couldn't hear me when I tried to call to them from a few feet away. Or could they...?

    Though the waters were chilly (luckily this was still in November), the boys were tempted to take advantage of the open swimming hole and swam across to the waterfalls. Ok, maybe mom challenged them. And maybe they turned a little blue. But they had fun, even if it meant they were soaking wet on the ride home.

Add this one to your "where to take visitors to the Austin area" list. It's a treasure.

The holidays really played a toll on my keeping my posts up-to-date. We took some lovely hiking trips in November-December that I never had a chance to share photos of, so with it being New Year's Day today, I want to get caught up to start 2010 out right, even if it means backtracking. I'll start with our trip to Westcave Preserve back in mid-November. This Hill Country wonder is situated near Pedernales River, not too far from Hamilton Pool (which we visited later the same afternoon).

Westcave Preserve is lesser known than the popular Hamilton Pool, though they are only about 5 minutes apart from one another. Perhaps it is because tours are required to hike through Westcave. However, the tour guides are quite knowledgeable and dedicated.

The Environmental Learning Center is impressive, with its solar-tracking exhibit built into its ceiling and floor, its sustainable energy, its exhibits relating the Fibonnacci Series numbers to nature, and more.

Along the upper trails, visitors delight in native woods and beautiful views overlooking the river below. Though it wasn't the right season to see one, endangered golden-cheeked warblers sometimes nest in the preserve, using strips of ashe juniper trees and spider webs to build their nests.

Descending down the steep trails along the cable-only handrail, we began to see large slabs of limestone rock, evidence of the geologic changes in the area over many, many thousands of years.

Down in the ravine, a variety of ferns, wildflowers, shrubs, grasses, and trees such as oaks and bald cypress set the peaceful scene along the creek.

Before arriving at the trail's end, we could already hear the tranquil sounds of the 40-foot waterfall, but the beauty of the waterfall backed by caves and fern-covered travertine walls drew our breath away. The water wasn't a massive flow, as it was still affected by the area's drought, but happily it still dropped into the pool below.

  Sunlight streamed into the cave, providing backlighting for glistening water drops and shining upon the moistened moss and ferns. The almost fantastical scene seemed perfect for little gnomes, fairies, or elves.

Just outside, a water moccasin basked in the sun at the base of a giant bald cypress. Can you spot it below?

Near the larger cave was a smaller one, and inside we could see geological formations in the making. Though human visitors had wreaked havoc on the caves stalactites and stalagmites in the past, we could see new ones that had formed slowly over more recent decades.

It amazes me that I've lived in the Austin area since 1987, and this year is the first year I'd ever even heard of Westcave Preserve. But I'll definitely be taking friends and family to visit it for years to come.