Saturday, February 26, 2011

A Texas Gem at Colorado Bend









I spent last Thursday and Friday on the Colorado River at Colorado Bend State Park, just west of Lampasas, where the Colorado River forms the border between San Saba and Lampasas counties. It is a beautiful State park in the Colorado River valley bounded by bottom lands and high scenic bluffs. The water runs in long winding pools and shallow, rock-strewn rapids. In places, beautiful waterfalls cascade to the river below. The park is famous for the spring white bass run. The white bass swim up river to spawn out of the depths of Lake Buchanan. Fisherman come from all over the State to fish for the white bass just as we were doing on this trip. We saw lots of wildlife on our trip including a ton of birdlife, feral goats, raccoons, deer, armadillos and a rookery of nesting Great Blue Herons. The purpose of this week’s blog was to tell you about the park and it is really a neat place to go camping, hiking, fishing and exploring. You can hike to Gorman Falls or explore the other trails and caves in the park for days. You can learn more about the park at


What I really saw this last week in the park was a place to enjoy friends and family. I saw people enjoying each other and sharing the experience of Colorado Bend. I was witness to a father taking the time to make memories with his very young daughter. He had the patience of Job and spent much of his fishing time helping his young daughter have a great experience even though I do not think this trip was exactly what she wanted to do. I ran into couples older than my wife and I that were still sharing the outdoor experience with each other. We saw some of the typical jerks you experience in such places as public parks but over and over I witnessed people sharing the outdoors and offering help and advice to those around them. Take time to take someone you care about into the wild and share the experience of making memories. Colorado Bend is a great place to start, Wild Ed