We’ve had a rainy week and it occurred to me that the little waterfall at Inks Lake State Park might be flowing well. This waterfall is on spring creek, named such because it generally only has much water in it in the spring. Also, it was a very cloudy Saturday, which I thought might make for good conditions to shoot the waterfall as the light would be softer. I have shot the waterfall on a clear sunny day, and the strong light makes for too sharp a contrast between the brightly lit rocks and the shadows. So I drove through the rain to Inks Lake State Park and was prepared to hike in the rain. When I got there the rain had been reduced to a mist and the park was quite full of weekend visitors. I had hoped the rain would keep people in and I would be able to shoot the waterfall without people all over it.

The hike to the waterfall involves climbing up and down trails over exposed granite and it can be quite slippery in the rain. So, I carefully made way out to the waterfall and avoided falling. As you get close to the waterfall the granite gets a bit steeper and slipperier, so I carefully negotiated my way down to the creek just below the waterfall. The waterfall was flowing and there wasn’t anyone around. My plan was to shoot some photos, get closer, and repeat until I was at the pool at the base of the waterfall. Below is my early shot getting some wildflowers in the foreground.

As I got closer, the rocks got more and more slippery. I knew that with nothing to hold on to, there was no way I was going to make it out onto the rocks directly in front of the waterfall without slipping and falling. So, I made do with what I could get from farther back. In the image below you can see the slippery rocks at the base of the small waterfall. It may not look like it in the photo, but the granite was coated with water and very slick. The creek bottom is coated with slippery green algae and I knew better than to try to wade out into that. I would have liked to set up on the rock directly opposite the waterfall in the distance, but I didn’t chance it. I also tried my best to shoot without the flat gray sky in the image.

One thing that I noticed when walking out to the waterfall is that the wildflowers were out like crazy and the cactus was in bloom. So, I planned to hike the full trail after seeing the waterfall and see about the wildflowers. Once past the waterfall, the trail is mostly a romp through the tall grasses and woods and I often see deer on this trail.

There were so many wildflowers, butterflies, moths, caterpillars on the trail that I mounted the long-lens and spent quite a bit of time making close-ups of what I saw. Below is my favorite: a full firewheel coated with raindrops. How could a butterfly be expected to resist such a target?

There were also fuzzy looking caterpillars everywhere, on the plants and on the trail. It took effort not to accidentally step on them. I have always thought of these as wooly caterpillars and I think that is basically what they are called, but there are hundreds of different varieties of them across North America. They look soft and fuzzy, but the fuzz is actually spiky to deter birds and other animals from eating them. If you touch one, it is not venomous but it will likely irritate your skin. In the spring they emerge, fatten themselves up, and eventually become moths and central Texas seems to be having a bumper crop of them this year. In one of the images below you can see one heading for the flower tip to eat the green petals, which they seem to prefer. And in the next image you can see the moth that they eventually become.

My hiking continued without deer, but at least I had the wildflowers. On the way out I saw some geese moving through the tall weeds feasting on the grass seeds. Their dark necks and two-color heads stood out but their light brown bodies blend in with the grasses and I thought it made for a funny image. Shot from my vehicle window.

That was my rainy May-opening photo-hike. May generally comes in with rain and leaves with heat. I don’t expect this year to be any different. Thanks for reading.