Tuesday October 21, 2014
11:00 AM
McKinney Roughs Nature Park-LCRA
Cedar Creek, Texas
I went to Mckinney Roughs Nature Park this morning. The weather was partly cloudy with the temperature at 68 degrees fahrenheit. It felt like 64 degrees though, because of the fresh autumn air around. It was so fresh and cool now compared to the hot and humid weather I experienced when I went in September. I didn’t sweat this time and I even took my hair down. I took the same trail as last time, the Riverside Trail. However this time, instead of going all the way down the trail towards the river, I turned left towards Valley View Trail. That trail leads you to the most amazing viewing scene of the valley farmlands! The Riverside Trail also has a cool viewing spot of the farmlands but the view is not as big and spacious as the one at the Valley View Trail. It has so many trees covering the view but the Valley View Overlook spot at the Valley View Trail has a sitting bench on it where you can sit down and look at the huge open farmland valley beneath the big blue sky. Floods bring large amounts of sediments into these flat, open farmlands, which are high in organic nutrients. Therefore, raising crops is ideal at these low floodplains. The information box there said that “The Mansfield Dam and Lake Travis upstream on the Colorado help to manage the floodwaters in an attempt to decrease the damages to croplands and residential areas along the river”. As I was reading that, I noticed a spider and a web. I took a picture of it. It was taken right in the perfect place overlooking the valley. I’m definitely visiting this trail next time. The viewing scene there reminded me of the kind of view you get of downtown Austin from the hilltop at St.Edwards. I left the Valley View Trail and went back to the Riverside Trail to make my way back to Headquarters. I noticed a huge tree that had leaves falling every 2 seconds! I took a video and a picture of all the leaves that fell. The fall season is already here and it is beautiful.
Tuesday October 28, 2014
11:00AM
McKinney Roughs Nature Park-LCRA
Cedar Creek, Texas
I went to McKinney Roughs Nature Park this morning at 11 am and the sky was overcast. The weather was at 72 degrees Fahrenheit with a 10% chance of rain. The wind was at 0 mph and humidity was at 83%. It smelled like burned smoke today. It was less fresher and cool outside than the last time I went. I observed that more tree leaves had fallen as well. One thing that I loved about these two times I went was that the trees were greener and more flowers had flourished after the last time I went in September and it had rained. In September I didn’t see any cranberry shrubs and now I saw some and they were beautiful. There were many beautyberry shrubs as well. Last time there were only a few and a small quantity of berries were in separate clusters but now there were many more shrubs around the park and there were many berries in tight clusters. More people should plant this beauty berry shrubs. They are a beauty and they look like candies. The frequent rain from September definitely caused many of the berries to flourish for this fall season.
“To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel ” (Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac).
