A Rainy Climb at Garner State Park

As I mentioned previously, I took some time off to go hiking at some state parks in south Texas. I did this in November for the milder weather as some of these parks are too brutal for me in the summer months. I had visions of beautiful, mild partly cloudy days hiking along the ridges and evening with glorious sunsets.

Basically what I had in mind

What I managed to schedule is multiple days of thick over-cast skies and rain. Not one to be easily dissuaded by a little bad weather, I made sure I had my rain coat and stayed with the plan. My park for the first full day was Garner State Park, a beautiful park along the Frio River just south of Leakey Texas. Garner is Texas’ most visited state park each year, but on this rainy Thursday I didn’t see many other people about.

This was my first time at Garner and it is a large park, so I wouldn’t get to see it all. So I started off hiking one of the parks main hiking attractions, The Old Baldy Summit hike. This would be a slippery hike and climb up to an overlook with a gain of about 500 feet in elevation to the top. With all the wet exposed rock on the trail, I had to take a lot of time picking my route up to the summit, but I eventually made it without incident and was the only fool on the rainy summit. The photo below is taken from the top looking to the east.

Looking back north, you can see the campgrounds and day use area along the Frio, as well as the fall color along the river banks. I sat on the wet rocks of a cliff trying to frame the river between a pair of Ashe Juniper trees, hoping to distract the viewer from the gray sky as much as possible. I used a polarizer to knock down the gray reflections in the river and to cut through some of the haze.

View from Old Baldy

There was such beautiful fall color along the river that I would have loved to see it in late afternoon sunlight. I imagine on a nice day, people pack a little picnic up here and enjoy the view while having lunch, though I didn’t see garbage laying about so it’s nice that people keep it clean. I hiked around the wet summit for a while, generally disgusted with the weather, but I enjoyed the hike all the same. It is always good to feel the rocky hiking trail beneath my boots, even if it was a bit slippery.

Rain drops on leaves with a prickly-pear cactus in the background

After hiking back down without breaking an ankle, I had a quick lunch and went down by the river to see what I could shoot. As I began to shoot, it began to sprinkle a bit more heavily. I wanted to try to get the fall foliage across the river with the tree trunks and roots along the shore in the foreground. The photo below is an HDR merge and may have a bit too much tree in the foreground in the lower right. What do you think?

Looking the other direction, you can see the base of Old Baldy, the peak I had climbed earlier, with some beautiful trees across the river in the distance. I worked on framing this shot with different trees in different places and settled on the frame below including the colorful park paddle boats on the shore to the right. This is my favorite photo of the day even with the sad gray sky above. The park on a rainy day, with paddle boats waiting for people to enjoy with nicer weather.

Paddle boats wait along the shore on a rainy day at Garner State Park

There was a beautiful heron fishing along the opposite shore in front of the colorful trees, so I went back the truck to get the long lens. But, alas when I returned the heron was gone. I tried a few close-ups of the distant trees, but the rain was getting heavier and I returned to the truck to wait it out for a while. But it continue to rain until it got dark and that was it for my day of photography. Maybe Seminole Canyon State Park would be better the next day.

Thanks for reading.

18 thoughts on “A Rainy Climb at Garner State Park”

  1. Nice pics Jason. I am going to Garner in about three weeks to camp and hike. You will enjoy Seminole Canyon. Very unique canyon. take the Rim trail down to the Rio Grande. If you take the main trail, you won’t see as much of the canyon. Rim trail is lengthy in comparison but well worth it for the canyon views. I think the trip to the Rio Grande and back using the main trail as the return leg was about 7 miles.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thanks. I was able to hike about every trail in Seminole canyon in an afternoon. It was a nice park. I have a few decent photos, but more grays skies.

      Garner is lovely. I can see why it is the most visited state park. It isn’t all that far from Lost Maples too, which I also love.

      Like

  2. Nice pix, but my favorite is the one with the tree trunk. In fact, I think the tree trunk is what makes the photo so good. It adds an unusual and elegant character to what would otherwise be a fairly ordinary photo. In my opinion.

    Looks like that heron got wise to you. But I’m sure there will be more opportunities, heron there.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thanks. I like the tree trunk as well, I just wondered if it was too overbearing in the photo. That’s the problem with shooting wide-objects close to the camera become a bit exaggerated.

      This state is full of herons. I will find plenty more. I just loved it against the autumnal color.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Down by the river, there are a lot of beautiful trees. The land gets a bit more arid and the vegetation a bit more low and scrubby as you move away from the water.

      Texas landscapes vary from marsh along the coasts, to thick piney forests in the east to deserts and canyons in the west. In central Texas, where I live, there is a large semi-arid plateau with rocky soil and lower vegetation; sort of a transition between the forests and the deserts. My favorite is out west in the Big Bend National Park area.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Sorry about the rain, but at least you didn’t have to worry about crowds of people. And you still managed to get wonderful photos. Texas appears to have so many picturesque places. I think the tree trunk one and the paddle boats tied for first. Hopefully the sun came out for you at Canyon State Park.

    Liked by 2 people

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