As mentioned in my last post on our Thanksgiving trip, we had reservations at Inks Lake State Park for the April 2024 total eclipse.
Aneel worked VERY hard to get these reservations because Texas state parks have limited reservations, and they don’t do anything special/raise prices for big nature events like this. So he calculated EXACTLY when they would go on sale, decided we could make reservations for two weeks (so we could book a little earlier), and then was at his computer ready to purchase the second they were made available.
I felt very, very lucky that we ended up with such great reservations for the eclipse (and even more so felt that way after the eclipse: the reason why coming in part 2).
Superbloom
But the surprise was… it was also amazing because of the spectacular superbloom. The spring flowers were in bloom and just… freaking gorgeous.
My apologies for the semi-crappy pictures. Aneel has some on his actual camera that probably turned out way better. These are iPhone camera photos with Seek identification. Please let me know if I got any of the IDs wrong.
Superbluem
We jokingly started referring to this as the “superbluem” because of the spectacular showing of bluebonnets. I love bluebonnets… they’re so lovely, and it makes me feel close to Austin in positive ways (unsurprisingly, I have very complicated feelings about Austin and Texas in general). The bluebonnets were EVERYWHERE.
It was also super super fun to search for variants. The only ones we found were the white variants. Overall, I think we found maaaaaybe two dozen total of individual white variants. We searched high and low on every hike and walk for the pink and maroon variant but no go. I guess that means we have a goal for the future.
Activities
I’ve been fairly stressed because of work and the house renovation drama we’ve been dealing with… so getting out in nature and enjoying some wonderful hiking and relaxing was really good for my mental health.
We went on some truly lovely hikes, and got some really great birding in (including two new on my birding list) and a very good stop at the great bird blind at Inks Lake.
Animals
And the animal spotting was also on point. We saw some really great insects and arachnids.
Some great lizards.
And, of course, some great birds. As mentioned, I added two new to my bird list, although I’m sure I’ve seen them before. They were the greater scaup (pretty sure greater not lesser) and also the gadwall. I didn’t get pictures – too far away (although again – Aneel probably has better pictures). The good pictures I do have are of the Canada Geese that we named because they walked through our campsite a lot-Humphrey and Lauren, so named because our cat Bogart meows/yells at us and sounds 100% like a goose. Hearing their geese noise made us think of him (i.e., Humphrey Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall). We also saw little geeslings. And a truly whoa tufted common mallard.
Check Back in for Part 2
It was a spectacular trip already, and this doesn’t even touch on the total eclipse. Check back in next week for my recap on the eclipse. It was a tense week because it looked like weather and clouds might spoil everything!
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