To the top of Old Baldy
Garner State Park
- 3/20/2009
[View Log Page]
Rating:
Difficulty:
Solitude:
Distance: 2.00 Miles
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Our last day of hiking in Garner, we decided to go to the top of Old Baldy. Old Baldy is one of the iconic images of Garner State Park. Ironically, Old Baldy is not in Garner State Park. The initial climb was very steep and very rocky. Not being a part of the park, we had to look a little to find the trail once we got up the initial climb. We eventually made it to the top of Old Baldy. The kids really enjoy the challenge of climbing to the top of a peak they'd been camping under for several nights.
On the way down, we decided to go to Ice Box Cave. The trail to Ice Box Cave had been pointed out to us two days before by an interpretive guide. The trail follows along the face of Old Baldy. It is very narrow with a few places requiring climbing over rocks to pass.
The cave itself is a very narrow cleft in the rock that goes back about thirty to forty meters before ending and requiring you to sidestep back to the opening.
For those of you climbing Old Baldy. Please be careful about kicking rocks off from the summit. People on the Ice Box Cave trail are very exposed.
Neat trip to highest point in park
Garner State Park
- 3/19/2009
[View Log Page]
Rating:
Difficulty:
Solitude:
Distance: 4.00 Miles
Duration: 3 hours
We went on another guided hike. This one took us on the Green Trail. This took us to the highest poing in not only Garner, but in Uvalde County. The guide, one of the park rangers was very knowledgeable about the geology and history of the area.
We had nine children ranging in age from six to thirteen and they all had a good time.
Beautiful Vistas
Garner State Park
- 3/18/2009
[View Log Page]
Rating:
Difficulty:
Solitude:
Distance: 4.00 Miles
Duration: 3 hours
This was a guided hike with a group of twenty or so people. The hike followed the red trail up beside Old Baldy, along a ridge to the west, down to painted rock and eventually to crystal cave before heading back to the campground. The trail has a little less than 600 feet of net elevation gain mostly done in short fairly intense segments.
Of particular interest were artifacts left from the days when crews of CCC workers created the trails.
It was Memorial Day weekend
Dinosaur Valley State Park
- 5/24/2008
[View Log Page]
Rating:
Difficulty:
Solitude:
Distance: 3.80 Miles
Duration: 3 hours
I took my son on his first backpacking trip to Dinosaur Valley and we hiked portions of the white, Denio Creek, yellow and blue trails.
The trail starts by fording the Paluxey river, which runs a little over knee deep on an adult. My son worried about crossing it again if it rained overnight.
Just before arriving at the campsite, I slipped while trying to cross Denio Creek and spent the rest of the time w/ wet hiking boots. Fortunately, I had my amphibious shoes to run around in.
We camped at primitive site #2 next to Denio creek. The creek had an approximately three foot deep swimming hole right next to our camp site which my son spent most of the afternoon splashing around in. We did leave the swimming hole when a gaggle of kids came up the trail and jumped in the pool and proceeded to pull rocks and logs off the bottom of the pool, stirring up sediment and completely clouding the water.
We looked for the scenic overlook at the end of the blue trail, but failed to find it.
It rained that night, and the tent I had bought for moving into backpacking and out of car camping failed to keep us dry.
The next day we met my wife and daughters and spent the day visiting dinosaur tracks, eating a picnic and playing in the Paluxey river.
Not much water
Pedernales Falls - Falls Trail
- 10/7/2005
[View Log Page]
Rating:
Difficulty:
Solitude:
Distance: 0.75 Mile
Duration: 2 hours
Took the kids on this hike in October. The water level was pretty low, so not much action on the falls, but still plenty of water for them to wade and play in.