Camping at Bastrop State Park

We spent a few days camping at Bastrop State Park this week. The weather was perfect and by the end of the first day, we nearly had the place to ourselves. It looks a little better and greener than the last time we were there in mid-May. We got set up and Alan and Aaron made a fire...

Both boys were pretty excited about the pine needles. Aaron went right to work trying to make things. This was his first creation... a nest, with an egg (rock) in it.

Adam was too feisty to take a nap so he came out to play as well and started with his favorite thing to do, collect rocks. He walked around saying "Look at what me how do," (his current favorite phrase), in his deep raspy voice.

 ...while being a goober....

 Then they made a miniature shelter...

Later we went on a walk to do our best to tire the boys out. We found some big mushrooms in the forest that were worth discussing... 

And we checked out the little picnic pavilion up by the bath house and tent sites. It was constructed in the early 1930's by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), who worked for thirty dollars a month, twenty-five of which was sent home to their families. There are several state parks in Texas where their signature rock-brick construction can be found. Alan and I get into historic things and outdoorsy stuff, so naturally, we think these structures are really neat.

All of the historic buildings inside the park survived the fire, including the awesome cabins up by the lake. Most everything has a new roof, but that's all. 

One of the tent site areas got a new bridge and is currently being cleaned up. We took the liberty of checking it out.... 

A couple of the recently chopped-down trees were still lying in the middle of the tent area, so we hoisted the boys up for a photo-moment. I've included all of the these to show the array of silly faces that we go through when attempting a staged picture....

There was a bit of a melt down shortly after that in which Adam insisted he could no longer walk and let us know at his maximum volume, with tears and yelling. So we went the hard-knocks route and let him cry and yell for a bit, but I'm certain had we let him, he would have sat in that campsite all night... so sometimes you've got to cave.... 

And oh why not, we were in the accommodating mood... 

The next day was a bit warmer and all but one of the other campers had already left or were packing up. Alan and Aaron waited outside for us to finish breakfast so we could go on a ride.

That morning we drove over to Buescher State Park and looked around. We had been there once, via the ten mile park road that connects the two parks, but we had not seen much and did not stay long. It is much nicer, larger, and interesting than either of us thought. Neat place. It too has a few really neat CCC buildings. The boys played on a playground and we walked around a bit to check out the beautiful little park residence and the recreation hall, both of which looked like they belonged in a rolling European countryside.

Later that afternoon we took a hike. This time with the giant baby boy comfortably tucked (more like squeezed) in his backpack, so that we could make it a little further.

This is his serious strut.

And every now and then he breaks out in a sprint to catch up with Alan.

We took a new trail that was cut to replace a closed one. This trail led us right through the middle of the burned pine forest in the middle of the park.  

Adam was the first to spot a deer off in the distance.

They are big rock fans, especially ones that look like eggs.

Alan heard at least two trees break and fall during our stay there, and given their condition, I'm guessing that's a pretty regular thing. This fresh break we encountered on the trail and documented... 

There are a few newly and highly over-engineered bridges on this trail... 

Then we made it out of the forest and up near the group barracks and the pool area. We've always admired the Refectory Building, for its classic CCC, historic look, so we decided to go peek in the windows. 

Aaron pushed open a screen door to find the place was unlocked, so naturally, we had to follow him in. The Refectory was built in the early thirties as well and has a full service kitchen and bathrooms, so it is set up for group events. The lighting was difficult, but I attempted to document... 

An archival photo I found on the above linked CCC site. The bones look fairly similar.

Outside front view.

 We took the road back and stopped to check out the golf course...

...quite thoroughly...

One of my favorite views...

A little video documentation of our hike and the forest condition... 

The campground was nearly empty on our last day there... you can only see one camper back behind ours. Aside from our occasionally noisy children, it was very peaceful and serene.

An attempt to document the sunset that night. At night you only see the silhouette of the pines in the distance, so one could imagine that they were still alive.