South Llano River State Park 9/30/08

I left El Paso monday afternoon after spending a couple of hours with the grandparents. I really wanted to do some bouldering at Hueco Tanks but you can't really appreciate rock climbing with only a few hours to spare. I also wanted to split the 13 hour trip into 2 days. This almost changed when I was contemplating turning back when I was 70 miles outside El Paso at Sierra Blanca when I heard The Mars Volta was going to be performing at Club 101. Its crazy stuff like this that I miss about living in El Paso. Just the other day I found out Beck strolled into the Black Market and played an un-announced set on borrowed instruments!

So I pushed along I-10 and after about 6.5 hours of driving I made it into the town of Junction around 10pm. Junction really is a junction. Its where I-10 meets Hwy 83. For me its where my old life (I-10) and new life (Hwy 83) intersects.

I knew I wanted to make it to Junction that nite. I had never stayed in Junction before but had been wanting to check out the South Llano River State Park for a while now. Not to mention Coopers BBQ right next to the Chevron station where I always fill up.

That next morning I woke up and headed over to the park. The drive there was really nice. The park is about 3 miles outside of town nestled in the hill valley alongside the South Llano River. I checked into the park and got a map of the park along with a map of the adjacent wildlife management area which is open to the public. I also got a river map. My only regret was not having my kayak or mountain bike. The trails I got a glimpse of from the park road looked inviting as well as the river for kayaking. I started going down one of the trails in my road bike but turned around as I envisioned messing something up on the bike.I definetely have to plan a camping trip and bring the kayak next time.