Not every adventure will be the best adventure ever, but if you're with the right people it can still be fun.
Spring break was extended, Kaylee and I were fresh off of going to Lake Mineral Wells, and we were still in Flower Mound. After we got back from Lake Mineral Wells, still on the high of the unexpected discovery that was Lake Mineral Wells, we couldn’t wait to plan our next state park visit! As previously mentioned in the last blog entry, the Dallas area is surrounded by ‘lake parks’ meaning there are state parks, but they all pretty much are for a lake. Not much to do without a boat. That wasn’t going to stop us, we were going to find one to hike. Enter Ray Roberts.
Two days after Lake Mineral Wells, Kaylee and I planned a very similar trip. To drive up to the park in the afternoon and come home later in the day. We headed north on I-35 to see what kind of pleasant shock Ray Roberts Lake State Park would bring. After all, Lake Mineral Wells had just over delivered, why not Ray Roberts? Remember what I said in the last blog about keeping expectations low? Well, this mindset we had unknowingly set a higher bar. Big mistake.
Ray Roberts Lake State Park is actually split into three different sections around the lake. We only visited two of them and you will find out later why that is. We arrived at Isle du Bois, the first section of the park we visited. Flashback: After Lake Mineral Wells, and us deciding we wanted to go to all of the Texas State Parks, Kaylee and I decided to buy a State Parks Pass which grants anyone in the vehicle with a parks pass holder free day entry into a state park! It’s only $75. Needless to say, Kaylee and I have received the value of this investment back and then some already. This was the first time getting to use this State Parks Pass, and, not gonna lie, we felt like real high rollers.
We set off using the trails map to the first ‘Point of Interest’ which was a chimney from a house that stood back in the late 1800s. We technically weren’t supposed to cross a wooden fence surrounding the chimney, but Kaylee had to get a closer look for shooting it. Oops. We continued down a trail that had thick towering pines and led down to the lakeshore. Honestly, kind of uninteresting. I love water (see my nature section in the ‘About Us’ tab), but even I was underwhelmed by where this trail endcapped into the lake. So we snapped a few photos and carried on. The best part in my opinion was this next spot in Isle du Bois. It was a picnic and recreation area residing on a small peninsula that had a slight incline in elevation to look out across the lake. On the far side of the hill, the lakeshore was beset with rocks that rolled down to the water’s edge. I thought it was a nice accent to the water since the water was quite clear. Kaylee (being the city girl she is) still hasn’t fully developed her landlegs yet and always takes her sweet time trying to navigate some different ground other than smooth and flat. These rocks were a good challenge for her. Kaylee got a few good pictures of our Aggie Rings and we decided to leave Isle du Bois for the next section of Ray Roberts Lake State Park in which is titled, the Greenbelt. I’ll let Kaylee take it from here and tell you the misery that was the Greenbelt.
Now, the Greenbelt portion of the Ray Roberts wasn’t entirely terrible, even though Bryce may disagree. There were a couple “interesting” attractions in this portion of the park. One of them was the Old McKinney Bridge and the Wildflower Wonderland (about half of this section had been shut down due to rain and flooding so we decided to just visit these two points). The Wildflower Wonderland was a few miles down the trail, but we assumed it would be worth it so off we went!
It took quite a bit of walking and a bit of asking “how much further do you think it is?” on my part until we came up on the Old McKinney Bridge. Now, I love bridges, so I was super excited to see it. This bridge was originally built around 1911 to connect the communities of Green Valley and Belew. I may have built up expectations a little too high because this sight was going to be super majestic, and I thought that we would get to walk out on it despite how old it is. Boy was I wrong. We walked along a short little path to get to the bridge and saw a sign that said, “do not climb on the bridge.” Okay, that part of my plan was ruined. Upon further exploring, we found that this would’ve been impossible anyways due to the fact that the entire bottom portion of the bridge was missing. The only thing that remains of the Old McKinney Bridge is a few steel posts hanging from the top extensions. However, this slight disappointment didn't stop Bryce from hopping up on a wood post so I could snap a photo of him with the bridge and also getting a couple of ring pictures (of course).
Once we felt satisfied with the bridge (and heard people coming up behind us), we set out for the Wildflower Wonderland. At the time, we read on the website that the wildflowers are really only abundant in their peak season (which was coming up). So, we figured there would be a decent amount of flowers to look at. We walked down the trail some more with our feet getting soaked in the process so we just decided to embrace the puddles. I kept having Bryce check the map because I’m challenged when it comes to reading them (but I am getting better) and thought maybe we had walked far enough. He looked and said it should be right around the corner. However, to our dismay, there was no “wildflower wonderland.” There were scattered patches of a few Indian paintbrushes. Maybe there were more just a little up ahead? No, there were not. We circled back, and I did the best I could to make my pictures look like there more wildflowers than there actually were.
With this defeat behind us, we trekked back to the car with our soaking shoes. Driving south back to my home in Flower Mound, we decided Ray Roberts Lake wasn’t the best, but it also might not be the worst state park we would visit. We knew there would be a few duds. We had looked through multiple park maps and realized not everyone was going to be a Pedernales Falls or Lake Mineral Wells. But we were going to bring the fun to every park because we get to go on these adventures together.
Comments