Bentsen State Park

Posted by hankster

It was 9am once I got around this morning and I found my water outlet was frozen. The thermometer was showing 34 degrees so it must have gotten colder during the night. I unhooked my water hose last night so nothing was broken and it thawed by 11am.

It was sunny 45 degrees by 1pm so I decided to take a drive to Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park to see what's up with that. They bill themselves as the birding capital of the world. It's just a 3 miles drive down the road. You have to park outside the park as there wasn't any driving within the park. It's a pretty big place so you really wouldn't want to try and walk it. They do have a trolly that will take you to different areas of the park or you can ride your bike if you want. They also have bikes to rent. Admission is $5.00 per person

I just decided to go in and hike to the first trail that was less then a mile down the road. The Resaca Vieja Trail is about 1.4 miles round trip and half of it is handcap accessible. At the end of the trail is a dry lake bed. At one time it had water in it but with the damning of the Rio Grande, it is now dry. I didn't see much wildlife on the trail but it was interesting seeing some of the native vegetation.  One thing I did notice is that the majority of plants have some type of thorn of pricklely on them.

I only spent about 2 hours at the park and I'll go back again to take the trolley further back into the park. You can see some of the pictures I took on my photo album. Not a lot of birds in this area so maybe once I get further back into the park I'll see more.

On the way back I stopped and got a bacon cheese Whataburger with jalapenos. The burger was great but their fries suck. Took Spud for a walk once I got back and he got a thorn or burr in his foot (remember everything has thorns in them). Must not have gone in too far since once I carried him home it had fallen out. He seems none worse for the wear.

The TV commercials are a bit interesting. I seen one for Stryker hip replacements and the blond lady that does the Zeigler commercials also does auto commercials here. Still trying to get used to the hour time difference. Went to the campground music jam tonight.... not my kind of music so headed back to the trailer to rest my weary bones.