Pierce Wanderings
Texas Hiking (and elsewhere)
Colorado Bend Overnight 4/9-4/10/22
Saturday, April 9th – Sunday, April 10th, 2022
Colorado Bend State Park – River Trail and River Backpacking Area
Windy, sunny, high 80s in the day, low 60s overnight
Ian, Court, Biff, Finn
About 9 miles
The weather finally cooperated for our April Colorado Bend trip, after raining us out in 2020 and then having stinging caterpillar issues in 2021.
The river backpacking area at Colorado Bend is only .7 miles in from the regular camping area, but it is so much better. Especially the site we reserved, which has its own private beach on the Colorado River.
We hiked in and set up camp by about 1pm and then slack packed (thru hiking term, which means we had our packs, but mostly empty with just what we needed for the day hike) up the River Trail.
I have renamed the River Trail as “Armadillo Alley”. They were EVERYWHERE. We counted 13.5 going one way. Yes, there was half an armadillo. Some animal had gotten to him, but I didn’t take a pic, so you are spared that image, dear reader.
We were going to try and finally hike the Tenaja Trail, but decided it would be a bit too far to push the dogs on a relatively warm day. Courtney thinks that trail is just not meant to be hiked by the pair of us. I hiked it solo in 2020 and it’s a great trail, but Court has never done it.
We stuck to the River Trail and backtracked back to camp after about 4 miles, returning through Armadillo Alley. The dogs, especially Biff, were supremely interested in them. No armadillos were harmed though.
We got back to camp and cooked dinner on the beach. There were some beautiful birds (cranes? herons? both?) in the river at sunset and they were a little ornery with each other, much like flamingos in the zoo. We heard them still squawking as we got into the tent for an early night and fell asleep quickly.
We were up with the sun and packed up and headed out. Successful trip to one of the most underrated state parks. Pups had their usual naptime on the 2 hour ride home.
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Pierce Wanderings 
I enjoyed hiking (in my mind) Colorado Bend with you four. I see those herons often on Lady Bird Lake. Maybe not the exact ones. 🤔
I’m glad you got to spend a night on the trail.
Mom