Excursion to Eisenhower State Park at Lake Texoma

After two camping trips to Eisenhower State Park, which is by Lake Texoma, a big man made lake near Dallas,  I decided that it is a good alternate to our default short trip destination Lake Ray Roberts State Park. Eisenhower SP is a smaller park, and a little bit further away from Metroplex. It is 60 miles away, only an hour drive. The trails at ESP is hilly, instead of flat, the lake shore is rocky instead of plain, and the sky at night is darker since it is  further away from Metroplex.

There are four main activities there: hiking, kayaking/boating, Star gazing and trail running

Here is a sample trip itinerary for a one night camping trip

0. Book camping site at least two weeks ahead of time

1. Leave DFW around 10 am or earlier

2. Arrive at Campsite, and take a  quick hike on Ike's trail - hilly, lake view, beautiful
          we camped at Deer field screened shelter area during a trip this month, we took the Ike's trail north to Lover's Leap and back (~ 2 mile round trip in 1 hour due to frequent stops to take pictures)

Cook lunch, set up tent and rest a bit before water sports

Ike's trail has a good portion along the lake shore

Matching T-shirts

3. Kayaking in early afternoon (before 3pm - the dock close at 5pm - need 1 ~ 2 hours to enjoy the rocky shorelines

    Rent kayak or motor boat at Eisenhower Yacht club
    Two routes - 1) turn left out of the dock to Love's leap direction - we took this route; 2) turn right out of the dock to water spill way. Both routes have a few coves along the shore.

the water can be choppy even light breeze on the land 

Water in the coves are calm

 4. Night activities
      BBQ/Roast Yam or Marshmallow
      Watch sunset
      Reading book or listening music
      Star gazing before go to sleep - need to go to open area  - can see Milky Way - not as Milky as you would see at Big Bend though!

cooking by the tent

roasted yam

dusk viewed from campsite

reading in the screened, lighted shelter

5. Early morning trail run (round trip 4 miles)

listening to sound of insects and bird chirping
start from middle of Ike's trail - trail marker 8 - ruining south to the trail head of armadillo hill trail and return

6. Return ~ 11 am, back to metroplex at noon

The tent at Dawn

Sun rise at camp site

running on Ike's trail 

matching long sleeve running cloth - "too cold to hold"

the trail

Foliage 2019 N Texas

 One cold front after another in late October finally changed the color of leaves in North Texas. This weekend, the weather has been really pleasant, high in 60s F to low 70s F.  Yesterday afternoon,  we walked to the community park. This morning we went to Chisholm trail to run instead of in our community for a change in routes; it was colder this morning, 50sF, but perfect for a long distance run

I saw brighter and more vibrant foliage around the pound and on the trail at home than in Calgary, Canada or at Lake Texoma 1 hour north from home. Of course these are not fair comparison - I was in Calgary in September, and Lake Texoma  a week ago. The foliage depends temperature and weather greatly. What I meant is that one can see beauty of nature everywhere if one looks for it!

A tree in the neighbor

Woods at Community Park

An egret by the pound

A tree in the dusk

Add caption

Our 12km run on Chisholm trail

Kayak on Lake Texoma

On the shore of Lake Texoma, Eisenhower State Park is famous for its rocky lake shorelines. The best way to explore the shorelines and coves of the lake is kayaking! People do not have to bring their own kayak, the Eisenhower Yacht Club, which is located inside the park, rent kayaks, canoes, paddle boards and motor boats. The first time we went to the park was 7 years ago with family and friends, and we did not kayak due to strong wind. 

Lily and I went to the park this Saturday for a weekend getaway and the weather was almost perfect for kayaking - cool temperature, clear blue sky and light breeze. 

We rent a sit-on-top tandem kayak. Lily sat in the front, I sat in the back, we paddled out of the dock in unison. The wind on the lake was stronger than that on the land, and the water was choppy. 

We set the lover's leap at Elm point (the northern tip in the following map at south side of the lake) as our turn-around point. We turned left, paddled north along the shoreline, against the wind and waves.  The good thing about the tandem is that we could paddle really fast, even against the wind.

Due to the wave, we stayed some distance from the shore, and paddled at a steady pace. A fisherman on a big boulder greeted us. 

Map of the park and shoreline

The water on lake Texoma was choppy when we left the dock

We turned into every cove we passed along the way. The water in the coves was much calmer, and we could stay close to the shore.  We slowed down in the coves to appreciate emerging autumn colors,  to look at big boulders closely. 

We took many photos of the lake, the foliage, the rocky shore. 

Tandem kayak is not so good for us to take picture of our paddling :). Lily could not turn around to take picture of me or let me take picture of her. She got innovative, she took picture of me paddling using selfie.

The water in a cove was much calmer

We paddled a tandem kayak - Lily in the front, I was at the back 

Kayaking is the best way to explore shorelines

As we exited from the third cove, a grey heron suddenly flapped into the air from the grey rocks in front us. Despite that we were looking for waterfowls, shore birds, we did not see the big grey heron. It was so well camouflaged, we did not see it even when it was right in front of our eyes!

The heron turned right out of the cove, and we followed. It landed on a big rock, we inched forward to try to get a good picture, and before Lily could get a good photo, it took off again, flew toward the center of the lake and turned left, and back into the cove. We did not follow this time, and paddled toward Elm's point instead.

The cove right after the Elm's point is deep, like a river. Instead of turning around as previously planned, we paddled inward to see more foliage and rocky shore. As we were exiting from the cove, we startled another big grey heron!  It flew forward 100 yards or so landed on a big rock, we saw it but we could not take good pictures of it. It took off when we got close. It landed right at the mouth of the cove, on a rock near water level. This time, we could take good pictures when it soared because the blue sky was the background now.

One hour had passed by now. We turned around, paddling toward dock straight without sidetracking any more. It took us about 30 minutes to get back. 

We thoroughly enjoyed kayaking on Lake Texoma, in this cool sunny autumn afternoon . 

 

foliage was everywhere

selfie in the tandem

A grey heron soaring over the shoreline