Little Gems

State parks are little gems. We especially recommend Seminole Canyon State Park, our latest discovery. 

A state historical park, Seminole Canyon protects and shares archaeological resources, most notably a series of canyon-wall paintings that are about 4,000 years old. Most of the drawings can only be seen on a $5-per person guided tour of the canyon. We found it to be well worth the hour and half. Our knowledgeable guide told fascinating stories and could answer almost any question. I’d do the tour again just to be able to bird in the canyon.

Speaking of birds, the flora and fauna of the park deserves closer inspection, too. You can do so on about 10 miles of trails, most of which are perfect for fat-tire biking, with no hard-tail experience required. If I was a native flower expert, I would name more than a dozen for you that are blooming now. The lime-green cast of the newly leafed mesquites is exquisite as well. I can tell you that we saw more than a dozen different bird species in just over 28 hours in the park, including lark buntings, black-tailed gnatcatchers, black-throated sparrows, road runners, and wood ducks.  

For those who love desert environments, Seminole offers a smaller, more accessible version of Big Bend National Park. Seminole is two hours closer to Austin, for example. And if you don’t like Seminole, well, you probably shouldn’t waste your time trekking to Big Bend. 

Note that we took I-35 to San Antonio, then drove west on US-90 through Uvalde and Del Rio. We’re heading for the Davis Mountains and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, so taking US-90 rather than I-10 is out of our way. But we have no regrets: We would have missed Seminole Canyon, and US-90 offers no traffic and amazing views. Plus it’s a pretty good road. On the other hand, I don’t have any good advice on getting through San Antonio during rush hour. We took the outer loop—FM 1604—and we would not do that again.  

More photos here.