Kenneth E. Harker
2003 Inks Lake State Park

Inks Lake State Park is adjacent to the Inks Lake reservoir on the Colorado River in central Texas. It is a little over an hour drive from Austin. Most visitors do not realize that the park has 12 miles of hiking trails that meander through the granite hills south of the campgrounds. The trails on the south side of the Park Road, away from the campgrounds and lake, are even pretty well marked. This is a fun place for a short day hike in the Texas Hill Country. These photos are from a five-mile loop that we hiked in late April, 2003.

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

	Jen, near the trail head by the parking lot. We should have brought hats with us, but we had forgotten them at home.
	The local rock is this red granite. When it is not actually above the surface of the soil, it's not very far below it.
	A meadow on the north side of the Park Road.
	A prickly pear cactus, just beginning to bloom. This particular type of cactus usually has yellow flowers that bloom any time from late April to early July.
	The trail sometimes goes over rocky spots where the trail is marked either by cairns or loose stone borders like you see here. Otherwise, the trail was distinct enough that markers were only needed at trail junctions.
	An interesting red granite boulder pile.
	Late April is toward the end of the wildflower season in central Texas. These are bluebonnets, firewheels, and some white and yellow flowers. At the lower right, you can see some bluebonnets that have recently dried up.
	This is a flowering succulent of some variety. We saw many of these from the trail, but never grouped together - they always seemed to grow separately from one another.
	A slightly hazy view to the north. The haze is from the smoke of agricultural fires burning in central America. The smoke reaches south and central Texas almost every year in April and May. 2003 was worse than average, but most of the smoke arrived in early May, so it wasn't too bad when we were hiking.
	A nice grassy meadow south of the Park Road.
	A view of a rocky hillside adjacent to the meadow. At one point in time, cattle were probably ranched on this land, but it has been a state park for over 50 years.
	A red granite boulder, as seen from the trail.
	At one point, the trail passes through a stand of mountain cedar trees and goes between these two large boulders.
	It was probably ten degrees cooler in this shade than anywhere else on the trail. Unfortunately, there were a lot of flies and several thousand spiders hanging out in the gap, so we didn't stay long.
	A view to the west, as the trail dips down into a little gully. Before European settlement, there would not have been nearly as many mountain cedar trees in the park. They thrive only because wild grass fires in the area have been kept under control.