Camping at Cooper Lake State Park

In addition to the usual camping activities, hiking, kayaking, BBQ, Camp fire, stargazing, we added two new focused activities this time  - fishing and bird watching. We had two new members to our camping group, Sophie and Daniel. Daniel is a seasoned angler, and a few of us in the group were eager to learn from him. On the other hand I usually have some bird watching on any camping trip, I emphasized bird watching because the park claims a long list of birds on its territory.

Camping, Fishing, and Camp Fire

We were surprised that the new members had no prior experience with camping. So they were lent a tent, an air mattress with pump. They bought sleeping bags for themselves. They love outdoor, enjoy hiking, and like fishing. A very important trait they have is that they have no problem sleeping outdoor. They are an excellent addition to the group. 

While we were hiking on Lonesome Dove trail, the rest of the group went fishing. Daniel caught a big bass, and we got a new item on our dinner BBQ menu  - roasted fish!

We started camp fire when it's getting dark. We sat around the fire ring, putting firewood one piece after another, chatting randomly from topic to topic, and looking up to the half-moon lit night sky. Milky way was not obvious, but plenty of stars in the sky. The fire flames have some mythical power, we sat around the fire until the last piece of firewood was turned into charcoal.

Kayaking 

After our kayaking at Lake Texoma, we attracted two families of the group into buying a kayak and a small motor boat. Kayaking has been a major activity of our camping group. This time we kayaked at the west side of the park along its shoreline. The main reason was that a wild life management area is right next to the park from west. Unfortunately we started kayaking too early, 3:30 pm or so, we saw no water fowl while paddling along the shoreline within the park boundary. Once we got into the wild life management area, we spotted some water fowls. The handful of birds that flew back and forth ahead of our kayak were  double crested cormorants. Three white birds, pelicans I believed, flew over. We spotted a big heron as well.

Pelicans

A Heron

double crested cormorant

We paddled all the way to the line of dead trees in the lake that run across the lake at that location. We paddled more than 4 miles for the afternoon. An interesting episode of the kayaking happened at the end of the kayaking trip. We paddled back to the cove we launched our kayak, but we could not see the big  boat ramp. We checked and double checked the map, we were in the right cove, but the boat ramp was nowhere to be seen. We cross checked our memory. We were in the right place, so we paddled forward along the yellow path, and then we saw the boat ramp. The large turn of the shoreline blocked the boat ramp from our view. Something so obvious from the sky is not obvious at all when we are on the water.

Bird Watching

When we retuned to the camping site, it was past 6pm already. Birds were flying and chirping all around the camping sites. Cardinals stood out, especially the male cardinals, with its bright red plumage and sweet whistles. 

I saw two cardinals, one male, one female on a tree. The male made bird calls, loud and clear, and perched closer to the female after a round of  calls. The female seemed to be indifferent, when the male got too close, it just moved to another branch, trying to keep some distance, but did not fly away. After a few rounds of calling, the male gave up and flew to another tree. 

When I was ready to leave the scene, another male cardinal flew in, the first cardinal returned almost instantly, drove away the 3rd party! 

There were many other birds, mostly smaller, and blended into the surroundings well. I could hear their chirping but hardly could have a good sighting.

a female cardinal

a male cardinal

The courting cardinals

The next morning, I got up early, the first in the group, around 6:30am. I took my camera, and walked around this camping area, following bird calls from tree to tree. 

Again the most visible birds were cardinal, from their sights and their sound. The second easy to identify birds were woodpeckers by the sound of their pecking. But sighting is much harder though. This morning I also witnessed another courting between a different type of birds, right behind our tent. Three birds with dark plumage (presumably males) were standing around a light colored smaller size bird ( female). The largest of male bird was the primary suitor. As the male got too close, the female took flight, all three males followed.

this female cardinal was making calls

A male cardinal

Three birds were tying to court one female bird (the light color one in the front)

likely a waxwing

Can you see the tiny bird in the center of the photo?

There are many bird at the Cooper Lake State Park. It will be really hard to see all of them in one trip. For the birds that are around, it takes patience and knowledge to spot them. It takes a good camera to capture them on photos.

One shortcut for bird watching is to visit a bird feeder, one can easily catch the sights of the birds that visit the feeder. Next to our sites was camp host site, there is a bird feeder there. Many birds came and went, taking pictures was relatively easy, at least there are no tree branches, leaves to block the views. 

Bird watching at feeders is easy, but deprives half of the fun from bird watching, that is to look for the birds!

a pair of cardinals

a pair of cardinals

Brown head cowbird: feasting on easy food

flying away (near lower right corner)

We enjoyed the camping trip, so did the rest of the group. Everyone is already on board for our next camping trip. 

Lonesome Dove Trail at Cooper Lake State Park

We went to Cooper Lake State Park in east Texas camping with a group of friends on Spring Equinox. 

On the Spring Equinox Saturday, we arrived the first at the park. Since the rest of the group planned to go fishing we went hiking on Lonesome dove trail at the west side of the park by ourselves. 

Lonesome trail is the longest loop trail in the park. But one has to use a connecting trail from the end of the road parking lot to get there. So the full round trip is about 6 miles, instead of 4.6 miles of the loop itself.

The connecting trail to the Lonesome dove trail is not well marked, we got to check the map on the phone frequently to make sure we walked toward the loop trail. The lonesome dove trail itself is well marked.

our trail

 The trail is moderately challenging according to the park website, mostly because it transverses some deep gullies. It is in densely wooded area, trees all around the trail most of the time. However most trees were still budding, so the Sun shone through.

Budding leaves on the still barren trees , white Mexican plums, pink eastern redbuds and green fully grown leaves scattered here and there. Birds were chirping, but they camouflaged so well we could rarely see them. I saw a couple in transient as we were close to the source of the sounds. I did catch a beautiful woodpecker and another bird on the same tree on my camera. There were also butterflies, grasshoppers and insects - a blue bug caught our eyes! 

Signs of the spring were everywhere.

the flat portion of the lonesome dove trail

One  gully

budding leaves of an unknown tree

Along the way, we heard some sounds from under the thick fallen leaves by the trail. Initially we thought the noise might come from snakes. At one time, I paused to look at the direction of the sound, and eventually I saw a shell emerged from the thick leaves and then a head with ears - it was a armadillo! I could not focus my camera on it since it was behind low bushes.

Eastern Redbuds

Mexican plums

A woodpecker

A bright blue bug

A very small portion of the trail is along the lake shore. The lake water looked muddy, not sure if it was due to heavy rains earlier in the week at the shallow lake. It is interesting to note that even though the park is named Cooper lake state park, the lake itself is named Jim Chapman Lake

We only encountered one couple on lonesome dove trail the whole time. The rest of time we had the trail all to ourselves, immersed in nature in solitude.

It was very pleasant to hike on this trail. 

Jim Chapman Lake - where Cooper Lake park is

A large Mexican plum tree

A large Eastern Redbud away from the woods

Note: We felt the Lonesome Dove trail is better than the Coyote Run trail on the east side of the park, which we hiked the next day with our friends, because Lonesome Dove trail has more variations, and wildlife diversity.

Budding Leaves, Blooming Flowers and Chirping Birds

The bitter cold in February had its toll: some perennial bushes withered, some trees stunned. But circle of life goes on, some trees started budding, pear tree flowers and peach tree flowers started to bloom, and birds are flying around, chirping and calling. Even though it starts today on calendar, I knew spring came already.

Budding trees in front yards

Trees start their new cycle on their own schedules, many trees in the neighborhood are still bare, some just start to bud, a few have new young leaves formed already. Interesting I saw flocks of Wax Wings again - mostly small/young wax wing, compared to the ones we saw in February in the coldest days here this year.

just budding

young leaves formed

Despite being chopped from top, this tree show a lot of life

Blooming Flowers

the vigorous dandelion

it is ready reproduce already when others are still emerging from winter

peach flowers are most eye catching in early spring

wild flower 

tulip in the garden

Blooming prickly pear flowers

Chirping Birds

I have mocking birds, blue jay, house finches, northern cardinals, robins frequent my front yards. This spring, I noticed the first woodpecker outside my home office window, pecking on the branches of the big tree in the front yard.

 

cardinal

blue bird

robin

wax wing

The Fourth Wolf Creek Ski Trip

Due to covid-19, we went to the Wolf Creek ski area for the fourth time at the end of February, this time only two of us, giving up opportunity to explore other big mountains.

The original plan was 1) drive to Raton, NM on the first day, which is only 3 hours from Wolf Creek, 2) visit Zapata falls - which is frozen in winter, the second day, and get to Wolf Creek during the day, pickup pre-purchased lift ticket, rent skis, boots and poles, 3) ski for two days, leave Wolf Creek at the end of 2nd ski, drive to Raton, NM, 4) Return home on the 5th day.

On the road

Audio book

It is a very long drive, and good portion of the journey has poor reception of radio. We borrowed an audio book "The smartest guys in the room". We started playing the audio when we felt the need to pause conversations. We listened to extended time, an hour or two at a time, but we did pause the audio from time to time when we wanted to have a discussion or to make some comments. We finished listening the 20 hour audio book on the return trip. 

Mountains, Lake and river

Landscape in Colorado is really beautiful - snow caped mountains and peaks under blue sky always enchant me. We saw many of them, including a few more well known ones along the road - Spanish Peaks, Blanca Peak and Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Spanish Peaks

The plan to visit Zapata falls was derailed by the real rough road from paved high way to the trail head to Zapata Fall. Instead we went to visit San Luis lake and wildlife area - a very nice picnic area and the lake is open for boating during summer. We looked at Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Blanca peak from different angle. Yellow withered grass added accent to the black/grey/white landscape

Sangre de Cristo Mountains

We noticed the Rio Grande was frozen, first time we ever saw this happen during our dozen time road trip to Taos or Wolf Creek. Along this route, the river is not too close to the highway. So we purposely got off the main road to get to the river banks to take some pictures of the frozen, snow covered river.

Frozen Rio Grande

Frozen San Luis Lake

Cooks Cabin at Spruce Lodge

Cooks Cabin was a nice standalone log cabin, Rustic look and feel. electronic controlled gas fireplace is the heater for the cabin, tankless water heater, gas stove... we loved it. We brought some food with us: fruits, breads, instant noodles, snacks, primarily for lunch and breakfast because restaurants at the ski area were for to go only, to sit-down meals, or warm hubs.

cozy bedroom

electronic controlled fire place acts as a heater

Ski Wolf Creek

Prep

We picked up lift tickets and made reservation on rental skis/boots the day before we started ski, near closing time (~ 3pm). It is really a good arrangement  - no line at the ticket window, no crowd at the rental shop. The days of ski, we had everything, no linens for us to wait for. When we arrived at the slops, we got our stored equipment and go to the lift right away. Stress free!!

Skiing

We left our cabin at 8am for Wolf Creek ski area on our skiing days, and got to the parking lot at 8:20am or so, great parking spots for both days, less than 50 yards from slops! We were the first group of skiers at the lift, no line, no crowd in the mountains. We frequently were the only people on the trails. 

There were strong winds the first morning, and one lift temporarily stopped operation. The trail conditions, however, were excellent - powdery snow, not too many pile-ups, except at the top of lifts - there were occasionally white out conditions.

Clouds over Alberta Peak

A near white out at the top of lift

Fortunately the sky cleared up near noon, it was gorgeous out there in the mountains, in addition to the thrill of downhill speed and the feeling of control. We attempted a short moguls black trail successfully.

blue sky makes the trail beautiful

Texans are abundant at Wolf Creek

moguls

on the moguls 

The second day was mostly cloudy but the wind was calm. We enjoyed the ski and took less time take pictures :) 

Memories of the previous three trips

Our first trip to Wolf Creek was at the end of 2011, after 7 consequtive trips to Taos. In addition to skiing, the most notable thing happened was that I attempted to climb Albert peak!

The second trip to Wolf Creek was with a church bible study group, including 11 families, we joined as the friend of one of the family. This was the first time we skied during spring break (2013). We saw the most beautiful snow scenes during our ski trips thus far.

We went to Wolf  creek again in 2017, breaking the streaks to go to Denver area for skiing. The unique happening this time was that I skied on black trails on purpose for a few times including the intimidating Albert Face. I did not try Alberta Face this time :(

During these three trips, we took side trips to visit great sand dune national park twice, Alamosa national wild life refuge once.

Note: Facemask was required in the ski area, the restaurants for take out only, no warming huts, and the trails were sparsely occupied. Despite some inconveniences, it was great to go to skiing.