Flour Bluff, Texas
A nature trail that is very enjoyable to old fools like me that like sand dunes is located at Padre Island Natural Seashore. The trail was enjoyed many months ago. Since then a fire ravaged a lot of the area including the nature trail. With the high winds messing up the alternatives, it seemed a nice exercise to walk the trail again.
At the parking lot was this flower looking a little worse for wear and definitely wind tattered. However like all good flowers it is hanging in there with all it’s might.
The trail is ADA designed and one of the best ADA trails my travels have taken me to see. From the parking area the damage from the fire is evident. The three to four foot high grasses are all black stumps now, but new growth is doing well. Perhaps a little rain soon would also help. As you leave the parking lot, the trail invites you to a pleasant experience.
It is important to take your time and look at the smaller details. There are many. For instance there are deer and coyote tracks interspersed among the dunes. Many small rodents and reptiles have left their tracks for us to enjoy. So meander slowly and left the peacefulness soak into your body. The whole trail is only three quarters of a mile long, but it is so well laid out that in the back half you feel like you are in another world.
Soon after passing the first rest bench, the paved trail takes you deeper into the dunes for a special experience. The trail is so artfully laid out that just past the first bench you seem to disappear into a separate world.
As the trail gently winds around, you get glimpses of more larger dunes across the prairie.
Those distant dunes received my foot prints last January. They are about a mile and a half away through some nasty brush that may contain large rattlesnakes. However they are accessible in the winter from Bird Island Basin parking by following the dried out in the winter waterway up to the dunes. That is a safe but still long walk.
Along the way was some pretty flowers. The brilliant yellow compact group of blooms did not photographic well to show off the color.
Farther along was a large cluster of very dainty purple flowers that were almost fuzzy. Again the harsh sun washed out a lot of the beautiful purple of these blossoms.
The trail finished with many other small but interesting events to see. They will be left for you to see for your self when you visit PINS.
In another section of dunes was one wind sculpture. The sun was strong from the wrong direction, but a picture still had to be taken. This was near the top of a dune about five feet high. The sculpture is about a foot in height itself.
On a windy day like today a lot of the sand is getting relocated. This next picture is an attempt to catch the loosened sand being blown across the landscape.
Even parking lots had a cloud of loose sand about six inches high being rapidly blown across the surface. When a vehicle door was opened, sand quickly entered the vehicle. Too bad opening the opposite side door did not cause the sand go all the way through.
The extremely heavy traffic of the weekend was nearly all gone by five pm today. Even the heavy traffic did not stop an adventurer from trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM
