Kenneth E. Harker
2003 Colorado Bend State Park

Colorado Bend State Park is located in San Saba county, Texas, about a two hour drive from Austin. The park was once the Gorman and Lemon Ranches, which were situated on the inside of a large bend in the Colorado River, above Lake Buchanan. Jen and I camped overnight at the park, did some light trail walking, enjoyed a camp fire, and took the Gorman Falls Tour. While we were in the area, we also took the opportunity to visit Alamosa Wine Cellars and try some of their 2001 "El Guapo."

These photos are copyright © 2003 Kenneth E. Harker. All rights reserved.

	Jen, in front of our camp site.
	We hiked a good ways down a trail that followed the Colorado River shoreline. This was pretty typical of the scenery.
	There were some dramatic cliffs, mostly of granite, on both sides of the river. This cliff was directly by our trail and would have been forty to fifty feet high.
	Jen, on the trail. This trail is well-maintained and clearly popular with mountain bikers as well as hikers.
	We think this is a Texas Sumac tree.
	This part of the Colorado is about ten miles upstream from Lake Buchanan, the highest dam in the Highland Lakes chain of Lower Colorado River Authority reservoirs. The water is slow and deep here.
	I believe these vines are wild Mustang grapes. They were all over the place, in some cases completely covering small cedar trees.
	The Live Oak trees in the river basin were some of the tallest trees I've seen in the hill country. These were at least fifty feet tall.
	A heron (I think) perched on a rock in the river.
	Jen, back at our camp site. The tall pole in the right of the frame was used to hang a lantern.
	We pitched our big tent this outing. We have a lighter, smaller one that we use when we're hiking into a campsite. There was no threat of rain, so we didn't bother with the rain fly.
	At 7:00 PM, Ken spent an hour or so on his ham radio in the car in a radio contest called the North American Sprint. It was a CW (Morse code) event, and he only made a few contacts.
	Right in front of the camp site (to the west) was a granite cliff about thirty feet high. The tall whip antenna on the trunk of the car was the antenna Ken used on 20 meters.
	Inside the car, the front panel for the radio, an Icom IC-706MkIIG, a Logikey Super CMOS 4 keyer (kind of sitting awkwardly in the cup holder,) and a pair of Bencher BY-1 paddles. The paddles suffered a little damage when they were accidentally dropped, but a common twist tie fixed things. Ken logged the contacts by hand in a paper log book.
	Almost two dozen deer came out to this field between the camp sites and some picnic areas closer to the river at dusk. I took several photos, but this is the only one that really came out. The deer were exceedingly tame.
	After dinner, Jen started a campfire with some logs we purchased at the camp store. We made dessert out of bananas, marshmallows, and chocolate toasted in aluminum foil on the hot coals.
	The next morning, we signed up for the Gorman Falls Tour. The falls are ecologically fragile, so the only way you can see them is on a guided tour with a park ranger. This is looking at the top of the falls, and isn't really that good a view.
	A view over the valley with the Colorado River below.
	Gorman Creek just above the falls goes through a series of mini dams built up out of calcium deposits.
	To get to the observation deck at the bottom of the falls, the ranger took us on a half mile long trail hike. The Texas Hill Country is full of prickly pear cactus like this bunch.
	Our first view of the falls, this was actually just a trickle compared to the falling water around the corner. This was as close as we could get to the falls themselves.
	Gorman Falls were just beautiful!
	The falls were covered in ferns and other plants that like damp places.
	The sunlight was perfect that morning.
	At the base of the falls, the water cascades down the rocks toward the Colorado River.
	Near the bottom of the falls, you can see how shiny and slick the rocks are.
	Ken and Jen, as photographed by the friendly park ranger.
	A dramatic cliff on the far side of the Colorado River from Gorman Falls.
	The Colorado River never runs dry, even in September, normally one of the hottest, driest months of the year.
	A big catfish in the river.
	Another view of the typical canyonland topography of the upper Colorado River.
	One of the many streamlets at the base of the falls.
	This big rock intrigued me. It was very cubical and perched in a way that made me wonder how it got there.
	You could easily sit for hours watching and listening to the falls.
	Our park ranger explained that these vines were all very old wild Mustang grape vines. They like to climb into the Live Oak trees.
	Jen, on the hike back up to the top. The big trees in this photo are mountain cedar, also known as scrub juniper, and their annual pollination every January makes allergy sufferers quite unhappy.
	A gully that the trail passed through. It's clear that water flows through here whenever it rains, but it's not a creek that's full of water all the time.
	Jen, on the trail. The green trees to the right of her are mountain cedars.
	Back at our car, we came across this armadillo rooting around in the tall grass next to the parking lot. It was the third one we had seen that weekend.