Trails are Finally Open

The riding trails at the State Park have been closed for about a month! I was itching to go ride. I had off Friday July 3rd so I had decided I was going to ride. I called the park and the trails were actually open! Woohoo! I saddle up Fancy and Diamond and head to the park.

This is the trail head. As you can see it was cloudy that day but it made for comfortable temperatures!

 I began the ride on Fancy.

There is no prettier view than between the ears of a horse!

We come to our first low water crossing. My goodness I haven't seen water across this part of the trail in a few years! There was LOTS of water running through here when we had all the rain in May as is evidenced by all the sand piled high!

This is looking back the way we came. See how high the sand is?!

You can tell by the sand that there was water everywhere and it knocked down some trees.

Halfway through the ride I switch horses.

This is my favorite part of the trail. I love the shade. It makes me feel like we're in a jungle!

One of my favorite spots along the trail is the HUGE tree! I began riding at the State Park in 1995 and the tree was there WAY before then!

The main trail makes an 8 mile loop so there are two places where the trail crosses the creek. This is the second crossing. It had even more sand than the first. It appears that the park had to grade the sand to find the trail!

View just as we are crossing the creek.

coming up the other side. I just couldn't get over how much sand was deposited from the water going through here. It was as tall as I was on the horse!

There was also still some water standing on the trails.

There were lots of these little yellow beauties throughout the park.

It was a great day and a great ride but the icing on the cake was what I saw as I was leaving!

I saw a doe cross the road in front of me. When I looked to see if I could still see her I saw this! I was astonished! I stopped the truck and grabbed my camera out of the bag to get this. Then as quick as I could I changed lens to hopefully get a close picture before they got too uncomfortable with me parked in the road.

Of course just as I get the lens changed they decide I'm too close for comfort.

I was thrilled at what I got to see. A little bummed I couldn't get a better close up shot. Still a darn good day!


Have a good one!