Lake Colorado City State Park – Sweltering Temps and Sunsets
/Leaving Blanche’s ardent Don Juan cardinal behind at Abilene State Park, we headed off to Lake Colorado City State Park on a bright, sunny morning with a planned stop in Sweetwater, Texas along the way. Sweetwater is a little city with a declining population of about 10,000 people. Vacant store windows and rundown empty shops emphasize the area’s lassitude. A sign proclaimed it the Wind Turbine Capital of Texas, but it’s really not… Buffalo Gap and Roscoe have taken the lead in that department though the highway is definitely lined with wind turbines.
Main Street - Sweetwater, Texas
The Charlie Daniels Band wrote a song about ‘Sweetwater, Texas’ and J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame refers to the Sweetwater All-Stars quidditch team in Texas. It is the home of the world’s largest rattlesnake round-up where an annual Miss Snake Charmer is named each year… a dubious honor, but that’s just my opinion, of course. Seems we missed this year’s round-up… there’s always another year.
More importantly, however, we stopped to visit the WASP museum which fascinated both of us. If you haven’t had a chance to read David’s blog about it yet, read it here.
After the museum visit, we were off to our campsite at Lake Colorado City State Park, a man-made lake on Morgan Creek, a tributary of Texas’ Colorado River, created in 1949 to provide cooling water for the Morgan Creek Power Plant, a water supply for Colorado City, and for recreation. We passed through the little unincorporated community of Lake Colorado City on our way to view its branding wall, a collection of all the brands used by the local county ranches.
It was sweltering hot, near 100F, at the park and there was no respite. There were no trees in the campsite and hence, no shade for Blanche. Though the picnic table was covered, it was too hot to sit outside. The ground is brown and parched. The drought has taken its toll. A jungle of prickly pear and mesquite backed our campsite and the ubiquitous burn-ban was still in effect… not that we needed a fire.
We hid inside Blanche with the fans whirring till near sundown, then took a walk on the Cactus Cut Trail. It was so hot, we hid inside Blanche with the fans whirring till near sundown, then took a walk on the Cactus Cut Trail. It was hot walking, too, and even too hot to eat dinner when we returned. We munched on rice cakes and ice tea (sans ice). The sunset, however, was spectacular. It appeared as if the sky was on fire.
A sky on fire… what a sunset!
The wind howled throughout the night and Blanche shivered and rocked with the gusts and blasts. We slept poorly in the heat, but by morning, the temp had fallen to 50F and we grabbed sweatshirts for our walk to the restrooms. We opted for breakfast in town at Mary’s Cafe, a small, homey place, well-patronized by the locals. We set out trying to find a free wifi spot in town. The park’s wifi was so weak, we couldn’t connect well enough to download emails. There’s no McD’s in town, the library was closed and as a last resort, we parked at the county hospital and finally got a signal.
Mary’s Cafe was a small, homey restaurant well-patronized by the locals.
Back at the campground, the day remained cool and windy We worked on blogs and David, having downloaded his new CAD app and associated tutorials, began his new app education. By midday, we were antsy for some exercise, so headed out on the 2-mile Roadrunner Loop. The walk was pleasant enough with some overlooks of the lake. The trail led over Rock Ridge which separates the lake from a small inland pond where a couple of coots were paddling around. Other than coots and a couple of desert cottontails, wildlife and bird life was scarce, but the walk did limber us up a bit.
Dinner was cooked on the little Coleman propane stove and as the sun sank in the western sky, a definite chill accompanied it. We finished our evening chores and climbed back into Blanche. It seems every time we remove the blanket and comforter from our bed because it’s so hot, the temps plunge and we need them again. The forecast portended another heatwave with temps back in the 90s tomorrow. Tonight, however, was definitely blanket weather. Not sure we want to wait around for another round of sweltering temps. We’ll decide in the morning.
Join us next time as we rethink our route and divert to the east… Devil’s Rope? What the heck is that?