Saturday was nice, it was quite warm for the first of February. I got out of the house and went to Colorado Bend State Park for some hiking. I lugged my camera down the trails in case I saw some wildlife. I did see a lot of armadillos.
Armadillos are not very stealthy. You hear them in the brush before you can see them, then they run right out in front of you and don’t even know you’re there. You can just about walk right up to one before they notice you and scurry away. I guess they could be considered cute. It’s lucky for them that most people wouldn’t consider eating them.
At the end of the day, the sun sets opposite some cliffs on the far side of the Colorado river. So, I went down on the bank to see if I could get a nice shot or two. I got down on the bank about 50 minutes before sunset and the river was amazingly calm and it seemed to be barely flowing. My first location was behind a dead tree laying along the shore. Not sure how well that works.
This was a 20 second exposure through a 10-stop ND filter. I was kind of worried that the ND filter would mess up the colors a bit, but I think I matched the not filtered photos that I took well enough. There is also a slight hint of lens flare to the lower left because I didn’t put the hood on the lens.
I kind of thought that the dead tree was ugly and kept you from seeing around the eponymous bend in the river, so I moved down to the other side of the tree. Though I am not sure that I found a better spot.
The photo below is of the granite cliffs mirrored in the water, shot during official golden hour at 5:51PM (the sun was scheduled to set at 6:09PM)
This captured the cliffs mirrored in the water, which I thought quite beautiful when I was there, but I am not sure that it made a terrific photo.
Below is the last photo that I took as the last of the light was on the far shore. The shade line was quickly creeping up the cliff-side leaving the shoreline in shadow.
There weren’t many clouds to speak of and there isn’t much of a view west from here anyway. I was interested in how the cliffs would look as the afternoon sun transitioned into golden hour. I wasn’t expecting the river to be so smooth. In hindsight, I should have worked harder for a foreground.
Jason Frels 
They are cute in their own way. 🙂 Not exactly cute snd cuddly though.
I like your last picture the best. I think the tree adds to the picture. You make me want to go out and hike again, but the weather isn’t quite hiking weather here!
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It is cute the way the armadillos run around and chase each other, but I wouldn’t say they are cute like bunnies or something. I saw a lot of white tailed deer after the sun had set, but it was too dark to shoot photos of them. I think that they mostly get active after sunset.
We have had a very mild January as usual. This is the nicest time of year to go hiking except so many plants look dead. This is probably my favorite hiking park, but it does take me over an hour to drive there. It is quite away from things. Another nice thing about the place is that there is generally no phone reception.
Oh, and that is the same river that I photographed in Austin as well, except there are several dams before it gets into Austin, so you could float down.
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There is a photo challenge for you. Snap a picture of white tailed deer in the dark. 🙂 Deer silhouetted by the sunset, that would be cool!
Well I guess you were ready to stretch your legs and walk, after the hour long car ride.
Have you floated on the river?
Since you talked about floating, made me think of a news headline that I saw. I am not sure what part of Texas, but it said that there were swimming tarantulas! Thats a way to keep me out of the river!! LOL! Do you see many tarantulas? They are totally NOT cuddly or cute! Direct opposite!
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I usually only see deer in my headlights when I am driving, They don’t seem to have an appreciation for physics.
I tried kayaking here, but it is very rocky. And when you kayak a river, someone has to pick you up.
I have seen tarantulas, but mostly farther out west. I guess they float, but I don’t know for certain. As far as staying out of the river, there are probably many more tarantulas on the land. You only have to worry about venomous snakes down by the river.
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LOL at the deer, not too cooperative.
I have never been kayaking, pretty sure I would probably end up in the water!
Oh gosh! You make Texas sound so inviting! Spiders freak me out. I can assuee you there will never be a pet soider in any of my stories. 🙂 I can’t say that I am real fond of venomous snakes, though I will say that they can have pretty colors on them.
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Not even one eensy weensy spider?
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Nope, not even one itty bitty spider!
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Nope, because chipminks are sooo much cuter than spiders! 😀
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The “reflection” photos look better with nothing in the foreground IMHO
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Really nice images.
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Thanks
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Great way to spend Saturday. We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park yesterday for a hike and picnic. It was beautiful, but a little too crowded.
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I went up there once with the kids to see the dinosaur tracks. My kids didn’t seem impressed, but I thought it was interesting. My kids do not care about dinosaurs or history even a tiny bit.
Colorado Bend is the least crowded state park near me, but there are still plenty of people. I am going to have to make time to go camping out there.
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Gotta admit, I’m a sucker for armadillos. Those were my favorite shots. Almost makes me want to move to Texas.
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You can run over as many as you want!
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I’d probably start an armadillo petting zoo. Or at least, my soft-hearted wife would.
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I don’t think you’d get a lot of customers
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Armadillos dig holes all over our yard in the countryside here in Arkansas. Love to capture pictures of reflections in the water. You captured some Beautiful photos. We seldom see an armadillo in the day time.
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Out at this state park, the armadillos are always running around in the shaded areas. The usually don’t even notice me even when I am just a few feet away. These guys ran out right behind me chasing each other around. I don’t think that they even noticed me.
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I don’t think Armadillos let anything bother them. I have seen them run and they are fast. They could run into trouble due to unconcern about their whereabouts. Have lots of them dead on the highways here.
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