McKinney Falls State Park

We finally made it down to McKinney Falls State Park yesterday. We've been interested for some time, but were hesitant because it's pretty much in the middle of a non-attractive area of Austin that one only travels to if going to the airport. It was an interesting place that still has portions closed off from the latest Onion Creek floods. 

It's hard to describe the main area of the park that runs next to the creek. It was similar to Enchanted Rock but substitute the granite for concrete colored limestone. Unfortunately the flooding took out all signs of life so it's a bit barren, compared to what we're used to. Adam said it looked like the surface of the moon. We'll have to check back in spring and maybe it will be a bit greener.

There were some very curious rock formations in and around the creek...

 The "Lower Falls..."

Autumn was having a rough day. The drive down there was much faster than I anticipated so she never got into her sleepy mode in the car and skipped that nap. There was some time before her next feeding, where she's usually sleeping, so we hiked around a bit and she was silently grumpy about the whole thing. She nodded off a few times, but we never got into a hiking rhythm so she didn't go to sleep.

Giant root ball. There was debris and trees all over the place along with giant piles of gravel and rocks - all from the past few floods.

Walking down the creek further, the landscape gets a little prettier and less desolate.

"Mama, can you take my picture?"

I call this one, "My Family on the Rocks."

We went back to the car to collect a few things for lunch and found a great spot on the rocks at the edge of the creek to eat and relax and feed the baby.

Eating outside suits her just fine. Eating in general... she's not too picky.

After lunch we hiked around a bit more to see if we could find a few of the token sights, plus I thought we'd wait until Autumn was peak-tired before driving back home (in hopes she'd take a nap). 

The trail system was willy-nilly so it's more of a "lets head that way" kind of thing and you pick the nearest path and see where it leads. We found the place the refer to as the "Rock Shelter," by accident. It was almost directly under where we parked and very close to where we ate lunch. 

A documentation video taken at the bottom of the creek, by the Rock Shelter...

Alan and Autumn waiting for the boys to climb back up.

Alan said he heard Autumn yawn three times in a row and then she was out. When we made it back to the car she was in a deep, deep sleep. Poor thing, she finally succumbed...