Palmetto State Park--Camp report

Finally I was able to pry my man away from his work for a long weekend camping with the family! We all needed this SO bad! He has been stressed with work, I have been so over-worked, over-booked and over-taxed for weeks now and the kids, well, a change of scenery is always a good thing! We packed up on a late Friday morn and headed down to Palmetto State Park. This was our first time there and it sounded great. A friend had warned me that this place was infested with snakes, but I'm not freaked out by snakes, they generally would prefer to get the hell out of your way. However, I'm not stupid and we stopped at the sporting goods store for a snake bite kit, just for good measure. What is it they say, "An ounce of prevention..."? I did laugh though as one of the first things we saw was a big sign stating, "WATCH FOR SNAKES!" The Monkey Man and I felt this was a challenge and decided to seek out as many snakes as we could. In a 3 day trip, we saw 10 snakes, here is a photo of snake #10 who is probably a Texas Rat Snake!

The campsite was awesome. Although there were quite a few other campers, it was quiet and nice, the sounds of birds in the air. But in addition to snakes, this park had an ABUNDANCE of mosquitos and poison ivy, or oak, I'm not sure. But there was LOTS and LOTS of it! We're an adaptable bunch and we spoke to the kids about the 3-leafed menace and slathered ourselves in bug repellent! I have to admit, the constant buzzing in my ears did drive me a bit crazy. We finally had to break down and go buy some citronella candles to place around the campsite. Bugs and critters aside, Big Daddy treated us to a most marvelous steak dinner. He grilled, I made a salad of fresh greens left over from the garden and we stuck a can of baked beans onto the fire. That turned out to be a little messy, but I didn't have to wash a pot! This meal would have made even the biggest carnivores happy!

After setting up camp, hiking, playing and cooking, we took a short walk over to the little pier to check out the canoes and just enjoy the outdoors.

We turned in early that night but I was awakened around midnight to the sound of coyotes and owls. I tried to wake the Monkey Man up, but he was in that "dead to the world" sleep stage that only a child can attain, so I let him be and reveled in the night noises alone.

The next day I had promised the kids a canoe ride on the little lake. This was one of the reasons we chose this campground. I had to go to the front office to pay for the canoe only to be told that I could take no more than 3 people in one canoe. I tried to explain that this was impossible with the Piglet. There was no way for me or Big Daddy to manuever that big 'ol canoe alone with a toddler on board. But they held strong, informing me that the "obvious solution" was for me and the Piggy to stay on land and let Monkey and Big Daddy take the canoe. Yeah, because watching Daddy and Bubba go on an adventure while being stuck on land with Mama would have gone over SO well with the mild-mannered, even-tempered toddler! I was so pissed, I asked to call the main Texas Parks and Wildlife office, at which point the snotty lady at the desk got on the phone, called someone and finally said, "Fine, all four of you can go out, but the kids HAVE to wear lifejackets!" Ummm, duh! Like I was gonna take my kids on a body of water without them! Anyway, we finally had permission to take the kids out, so we piled into the canoe and off we went. Check out those sexy orange life vests, oo la la!

The lake was really more of a glorified pond, but we did see awesome things. We counted 7 of our 10 snakes in that little lake. One was a large water moccasin hauled out on a log sunning itself. Impressive. And we saw several diamondback water snakes swimming around the edges of the lake looking for prey. Snakes are AWESOME swimmers!

We took several hikes over the weekend and saw many cool and wonderful things. The area was completely odd for central Texas, it was very swampy, with Palmettos everywhere (henceforth the name of the park I assume). There were odd vines and great tangles of branches, and moss hanging from the trees. I found it strange that an environment that was so perfect for snakes seemed to be snaky in its very essence!

I wonder who lives here?

And I was highly impressed at the fungus among us at this park! Who knew mushrooms could be so lovely? Pretty as any flower I've ever seen! The Monkey Man was beside himself with this discovery, he also had no idea mushrooms could be so cool!

As it so happened, after dinner Saturday night, we decided to go take much needed showers. Oh such a big mistake in so many ways! First off, camp showers suck! And trying to persuade your toddler who is mortified of bugs to come into a shower with dead millipedes all over the floor is damn near impossible. I admit, even I was a little unnerved by the whole experience! Note to self, when camping at Palmetto, just expect to stay funky and bypass the shower! But on our way back to our campsite we came across something that literally took our breath away... hundreds and hundreds of egrets roosting in the trees around the lake!

This photo only shows a portion of them, the trees on one side of the lake were practically covered with these guys! They were gorgeous and noisy as hell and skittish! They reminded me of the pigeons at Zilker Park, something would spook them, they'd take flight and circle around, then settle again only to be spooked again and start the whole process over! I have always loved egrets, and I feel so lucky when I see one here or there in a pond, but I have never in my life seen them flock together like this. It was truly a magnificent sight!

All in all this was a great family trip. I could have lived without the hag at the front desk, but I suppose you have to deal with assholes no matter where you go. I could have also lived without the skeeters, but you really can't get away from them in Texas, so you learn to live with them. The snakes were actually a perk for us, but if you're not into them, probably not the best camping spot for you and your family! The scenery was nice, the campground and facilities were clean and well-maintained (except for the millipede infested shower stall), just be aware of the poison ivy. But it really was an interesting, swampy, viney, snaky place. It was an easy drive from Austin and we had the pleasure of driving through Luling on the way home and getting a great watermelon, the perfect end to a rockin' weekend!