The spouse and I drove out US 290 for some wildflower viewing. As usual, the area around Brenham was very scenic. We stopped overnight in College Station, as the spouse had business the next morning.
While she was tending to business, I drove to the Birch Creek Unit of Lake Somerville State Park just off of Hwy 60. (Be careful traveling through Snook. The police motto seems to be Not Serve And Protect but Stop And Collect.)
After paying my day use fee, I proceeded to the west side of the park where I saw a trailhead sign across from a restroom. When I opened the car door, my ears came alive with the sound of cardinals calling from what seemd like every direction. What a delight as this is one of my favorite birds. As I walked down the trail there were many more species of birds whose calls I couldn't identify. (I need to get me a tape or CD of woodland bird calls.) I stopped several times and looked to see if I could spot them. But they remained hidden in the canopy.
What really surprised me was the amount of wildflowers along the trail. I had left the wildflower guide back in the car, so I made an extra effort to study the detail of each specie with the intent of looking them up later. There were not many bluebonnets or paintbrush but the predominant specie was the very pretty blue, tri-pedaled spiderwort.
I was so impressed with the one mile loop trail that when I drove back to retrieve my co pilot, I mentioned it to her. Since the main objective of this trip was to view flowers, she wanted to do the trail also. :cool: After we bought a picnic lunch, we drove back and did it all over again.