Everything about this camping trip went wrong.
That made the trip awesome.
First we started late due to some last min hold up in the lab and finally got there at about 7 PM without knowing when the park might close. We got a primitive campsite as the regular sites were filled up for the 4th of July weekend. After parking the car we took our tent and bedding stuff and began our hike.
Hike - The first bummer was it was uphill and we had to cross a river that was running dry. Secondly we had to carry our bedding pack in a box which was uncomfortable and heavy.
So we quickly returned back to the car and repacked the stuff in my hiking bag (the bag that I very thoughtfully bought in Singapore) and began our hike up. The hike to campsite #6 was about 0.6 miles with hike through thick forested and hilly terrain. Worse it was hot as hell (about 38 degrees maybe?) and I was sweating like a sausage out of the oven. We finally reached the campsite and pitched our tent at about 8.45 PM when we realised we had not had dinner yet and it was getting dark. To not play spoilsport and eat out we took our stuff to the picnic site and started the grill to cook some food. The food was ready at about 10 PM which was the quiet time of the park and we were chased out by the rangers. It was pitch dark and that when we realized we did not have good flashlight and the only one that I had luckily packed was a 2 LED manual charge light. The good thing was that we did not have to carry a lot and so we started our hike uphill.
Now there is a difference between hiking in daylight versus at night. The night creatures are very active and I believe I saw a furry animal about a foot in height running around. Add to this snakes (copperheads I was told) and spiders spinning webs on the path, the hike gets a bit spooky. Fortunately it was a full moonlit night and the light from the flashlight was just enough to navigate to our site. Since primitive sites are only accessible by hiking, there was no human presence around and only 2 of the 6 sites were filled that night. We reached our site at around 11, had food and crashed. The night was warm with heat from the earth radiating through the bedding and no wind to cool it. Tired from the hiking, we slept peacefully through it anyway.
The next morning (4th of July) we woke up at around 9, packed up the tent and began our descent back to parking and to the picnic area. We cooked some scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast, reserved our grill and explored the park.
The Dinosaur valley state park was one of many places in Texas where fossilized dino footprints were found early this century. The glenrose formations were apparently filled by the sea (We saw seashells along the Paluxi river valley) during prehistoric times. When the dino walked, they crushed the soil under them, the soil that was mushy with lime from the seashells. This then hardened to form limestone preserving the footprint and later filled with multiple layers of soil. Now as the Paluxi river flooded, it erodes the top soil and the underlying hard limestone containing the footprints is exposed. This was discovered and further unearthing revealed the presence of Dinos in this region, some of which were similar to the ones found in Europe.
It was interesting to follow dino tracks and hike around the place. Some parts of the river was not completely dry and had one o two feel deep water where we could swim. We got into the water and played some frizbee and then got back to exploring the park. Finally at about 5 PM we decided to get back to Dallas, a 85 mile trip north.
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