Go West old man!: San Angelo State Park, San Angelo, TX

It was a rare near-300 mile day today, we don’t have many of these. It was due to the dust storm delay, threw off the sequence of days. Mostly the interval of places to stay. It’s a bit like the timing of hiking camps along the trail.

It was fairly clear today, enough visibility to see cars on the road at 5 miles away. West Texas has good long viewing distances! But it was still hazy with dust at long range. We watched the changes in vegetation along the way, as we often do it here. Going from sparse clumps of desert grass to thicker growth of creosote & mesquite to more sparse and then finally to having some trees. Even some green grass! A few miles west of here there was a town where I noticed grass growing on the sides of the road! And when we crossed the Pecor River it may only be 5’ wide but it had WATER in it! Back in Las Cruces the Rio Grande was dry as a bone. This may be the first river with liquid water that we have seen in a while.

This state park is a little different from most. No staff in this campground, the gate is locked all the time, you get a code for the padlock with you registration and go find your site. I think we’re supposed to sign in; we’ll check that out tomorrow and get some maps of the park and the hiking trails.

We had to stop and talk with a fellow camper to get oriented. When we came in we saw site numbers 1,2,3,20, 19…8. Dorothy was in 8 and gave us the rundown. But she didn’t know where 5 was (our site), but I saw it behind hers. This was after we found the campground. My GPS told me to go north on TX2288, I did, came to SASP South Entrance and went in, but the GPS told me to go farther up 2288. The online maps did not mention our campground name. I eventually found it on the Topo + trail map app. It was in the direction my GPS wanted but 7 miles farther north. This stature park is in several unconnected locations.

After setting up we relaxed with some beverages and then took a walk around. Found a short trail, found the equestrian camp and a park boundary. Skye was not out long enough to find a deer bone.