We will do just about anything for the perfect shot, from jumping to tippie toes to piggy back rides.
Kaylee and I had parted ways for almost 2 weeks in the middle of June. Back to our respective houses with our respective families. I am sure our parents are happy with the time they get to spend with their children without having the other person there with them (am I right mom and Mrs. Cogbill?). But nonetheless, we were given the opportunity to go out to East Texas and spend a weekend with my sister in Longview, TX, so we jumped and ended up having a very memorable and Texas-State-Park-packed weekend out in East Texas.
I drove up to the Dallas-Fort Worth area on a Thursday afternoon, it was June 25. After spending a night up there, we drove down to Purtis Creek State Park on our way to Longview the following day. It was a short trip due to the size of the state park itself. Purtis Creek State Park surrounds a small lake and virtually only half of the land owned by the parks and wildlife is in use for the park. All of the trails are located on one side of the park, the longest of them being 2 miles in length.
The walk through the park was very peaceful and quite nice. The series of trails that we walked are nice for something like a Sunday stroll. The trails were flat and windy through an oak forest. Sometimes while experiencing a new park, Kaylee and I like to find a close match to a park we have already been to, and for this park we chose Stephen F. Austin State Park. The trails at Purtis Creek compared to Stephen F. Austin in the sense that both parks sent you through a hardwood forest full of lots of greenery and big hardwood trees. There was never anything special in the park, no overlook, no water feature, just the nice natural surroundings of the oaks.
The mainstays at Purtis Creek are all things that have naturally occurred. At the park headquarters is a large bluestem grass prairie and along the banks of the small lake is an ongoing aquatic restoration project. On the trails, nature yielded some interesting trees including a tree with stress marks and another tree that had 2 90⁰ bends. At the tree that had a little trunk scoliosis, we went above and beyond with our effort to get some cool pictures. There was some jumping, tree climbing, piggy back rides, and tippy-toeing to try to take some ring pictures.
On the final trail, the walkway ran along the water and through some primitive camping grounds. I forgot to mention that Kaylee got me a super cool Camelbak backpack for hiking that has a water pouch and storage room. So after a lot of walking we were both working up a sweat. By the time the trail ended we were ready to get back to the car and finish the drive out to Longview. The weekend would have three more park adventures with a doubleheader on Saturday (which was the day after the day we were here at Purtis Creek).
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