South Llano

Our next stop on the Texas tour was South Llano River State Park. South Llano is in what is called ‘Hill Country’ in Texas. I suppose it’s an apt description as far as it goes. It’s largely rolling savannah dotted with Pin and Live oak, juniper, and pecan, and it is semi-arid. The little I have read indicates it’s not the hill country it was 150 years ago. It’s been overgrazed to the point the ‘long’ grasses are nearly gone and have been replaced by the ‘short’ grasses and juniper (ash cedar). But if you’re asking me what that means in the great scope of things, “I don’t have a clue”? I did read that Llano County is known has a ‘deer factory’. In fact it has the densest population of white tail deer in the U.S. That’s one deer for every two to three acres. That’s too many deer and also not healthy for the eco-system. But it seems fine to me and I’m not going to chain myself to a stump until changes are made. I rather like it the way it is! Land for the park was donated by a Walter Buck who was apparently quite the animal guy. He had some exotics imported and a few still roam the park area. I saw an African Black Buck antelope and two doe on one occasion. They were impressive! The park also happens to be a major nesting ground for Rio Grande wild turkey. We were regularly treated to herds of deer and gangs of turkeys. (OK it escapes me. Gaggle, covey, herd, swarm, clutch, flock, pod; crap I give up? Bunches of turkeys! And Jade loved watching the turkeys!

‘Hill Country’ is also home to a variety of birds. The park has several blinds built for observation. They have made glass fronted enclosures in rather secluded areas for bird watching. They have benches and even some old theater seats in a couple of instances. And all the blinds had bird books and pictures posted to help identify bird varieties. Being the bird watchers we are we really enjoyed it

So South Llano has now become one of our favorites. I didn’t mention that there was trout fishing in the Llano River and I had some luck there. Texas offers free fishing in their state parks. So the fishing and catching has influenced my rating. We liked it to the point of getting a Texas park volunteer application form. I haven’t filled it out completely yet. But I will.