The day began on February 7th. It was a cold breezy Saturday morning; 51 degrees Fahrenheit is what I woke up to, but after more than an hours journey from Austin to Inks Lake State Park the weather was in the 70’s and the sun was shining. The drive was beautiful and scenic. The elevation constantly changed as I drove through the Hill Country heading down the Edward’s Plateau. Ink’s Lake State Park is located between Marble Falls and Burnett, which are north east from Austin. I went for a couple of hours and explored some of the hiking trails.
Upon entry, I realized that Ink’s Lake was a lot different than the other nature places I have been too and been blogging about. Ink’s Lake was so populated — it was more of a family-friendly camping destination than what I had in mind. It was hard to actually be alone and take in the environment. As well, I really wanted this trip to be serene and quiet; my school life has really taken over this month and I needed a trip to take my mind off of people. My stress level every week this month has been well above a 6. This past week my stress was at an 8. With so many obligations as well as the mercurial Central-Texas weather, it has been exponentially harder to spend quality time in the environment.
Getting back to Ink’s Lake, I did feel it was overpopulated, but it didn’t stop me from going on the longer trails people were avoiding. I decided to go to the Devil’s Water Hole first, but I went off trail in order to get a more personal view. I climbed over rocks and scaled some fairly steep rocks with deep falls in order to get these views of the lake. It was so beautiful seeing the lake from both of these angles. What was interesting was that the lake had different colors from the different perspectives I was looking at it from. I’m not sure why this is, but looking with the flow of the water the water looked more green.
Now that I was on the other side of the valley, if I may call it that, I scaled up to the tip top in order to get a good view from the highest point. It was fun climbing around and just being able to explore. I could feel my stress level lowering as I focused on what was around me: the water rushing, the cool air hitting my hot back, the Anax imperator — dragon fly — quickly zip past. I have no idea how much time passed because I decided to take advantage of my environment by just sitting back and finally taking a break while reading a book that I really love: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
At this point it had gotten too late in the day and I had to depart. Although my first impression of the park was not that high, I really actually enjoyed the time I got to spend in nature.