We drove south and west today, so we are back in semi-arid territory with short, scrubby trees and drought-tolerant undergrowth. San Angelo State Park has miles of trails to explore. I took a bicycle ride back to the park entrance to check out the Library Box and found The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin. I’ll bring back an exchange tomorrow. The park does have bison here, and I thought the wildflowers growing near some bison art were very pretty.

We hiked the Road Runner trail (3-miles) after we found the trail with help from a camp host who saw us pondering the map. This trail goes by the bison and Texas longhorn paddocks, but we didn’t see any animals. We asked the camp host about the animals on our way back, and he described the best viewing as feeding time on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Both herds recognize their food trucks and come trotting for extra forage. We’ll have to time our visit better in the future.

OC Fisher Lake is really low, and the boat ramp is closed for obvious reasons. Shore birds are still enjoying the water—pelicans, ducks, avocets and a blue heron. I talked with a birding couple from California who had a big scope, like Dad has, trained on the lake to observe the morning action. They are headed to the Corpus Christi area for a month of bird watching.