Hey folks,

How are you doing?

I made an announcement in my last post and it is time to deliver! So I am delivering right now, fresh and hot like pizza, even though I know you would rather have pizza delivered than my post and trust me I am the same.
I ended my last part of travel story from my traveling around Texas with something in line like, see you soon as I have a lot more to share. That was a lie, but not the last part of it since I really have some of amazing photos still to share and some of the interesting stories and tips as well. But that soon part of the statement can be critical. Well in some cases month or two is soon, so maybe I didn’t tell a lie, there was just missed interpretation :)

Well enough for the intro and lets get straight to it.
After Dallas, Houston, Caddo Lake it is time for a real highlight day on Day 6 of our travel. That was probably the most anticipated day of whole travel. It should be the most intense as well and f you know me, you should know by now that I simply enjoy in intense travelling. Our plan for that day was to wake up early, get to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Reserve at the opening, then after the tour to go to Colorado Bend State Park and go to Hamilton Pool as well, before arriving to San Antonio and go for an evening walk to the famous Riverwalk. There was really a lot of driving scheduled for that day. Even if you would go directly from Dallas to San Antonio, you have quite a lot of driving, but hey having just that much time and wanting to see it all has to have some cost.
The day started on schedule and we came to Fossil Rim at its opening. We were the only ones there and met first other visitors on our way out about two hours later. I don’t remember exactly how I came across that Fossil Rim reserve, but it was a good decision to visit it and I can recommend to pay a visit if you are close by. It is located relatively close to Dallas, but not close to any other attraction that I would know and therefore it is not that popular. It is like a semi-wild safari where you can find animals walking freely without fences and them being very relaxed and used to cars/people. You even get food for them with the entrance fee and that is probably the reason why they are liking people that much. Beside all kind of antelopes, you also get to see giraffes and zebras. They also have cheetah project with a lot of cheetahs, but those cats are in fences and you can not get to them, like to antelopes for examples. Another animal they have is rhino for example which is also caged. I have to admit that I don’t know much about whole cheetah project and their mission with the wildlife center, but it looks genuine and that they are keeping good care of their animals. Our visit was as a self drive tour, but you also have guided tours where I am sure you get to know much more about the animals and the project itself.

Next on schedule was State park! I know it is not national park, but I was really looking forward as Colorado Bend seems like a nice place. I like everything connected with water, so short hike along the river would be awesome experience. I know Texas doesn’t have parks like Utah has for example and I also visited some of the most famous in US including Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc. But I was still thrilled to visit Colorado Bend. Until the entrance. There was a line to get to the gate and that was suspicious from the beginning… When it was our tourn, the lady at the entrance asked us if w have reservation and we said no. Then she said, that we have to turn around and leave since there is no entrance in the park if you didn’t reserve your spot. We said, we are just going there on an hour hike, we don’t intend to sleepover. But she said, doesn’t matter there are reservations needed in any case. Like wow! What? Can you ask the supervisor, since we didn’t know that and we drove all the way from Dallas and actually flew all the way from Slovenia. And she said we can go and ask ourselves at the camp headquarters. So she let us in to try to get permission. Well we came and still were 100% sure we will be able to visit, but they said no as well. Doesn’t matter who, from where, why, how long. Nothing! That is commendable, I have to admit. But I am not used to it. You can always work something out here in Slovenia/Europe. And hey, I was not trying to get into a stadium on a sold out derby game without a ticket. It was a State Park on the open with only few visitors that we saw. We were talking to the rangers there and they said it is bad luck since it was Sunday and start of Spring Break. The also had some fishing event going on that day. I was really amazed as I didn’t know I have to book. I am that type of person who really like to plan everything into details and how the hell did I miss that detail. I am sure, that info wasn’t preannounced when I was planning this trip about one month prior. Probably there are different rules during winter and I admit, I didn’t check it out again closer to my arrival in March. I was really sad because of this as I didn’t see much logic about this ban and as that is not really no.1 World’s attraction, I would anyway expect a bit more of flexibility for international tourists. Still, I have to say respect to them all saying no from the very beginning and no backing down. Well, as I am how I am, I visited or tried to visit at least a part of the park. I was inside, so hey why not try. There was a plan for us to do Gorman Falls trail if I am not mistaken which should take us about an hour and a half. So we just decided to park our vehicle and let it be what is meant to be. We started the hike and meet only two parties of people on our way, but my father didn’t feel comfortable with us being in the park when we shouldn’t be and we turned around after about half an hour walk. It really wasn’t a relaxed hike like it should be, so that was probably the best decision. We just get an impression of the park and it was nice, I would love to go on a walk there, but on the other side it was nothing unforgettable that we would be missing if we would skip that one… So we returned to the vehicle, there was no ticket on it, everything was OK and we left the park at the end. After that about an hour away if I am not mistaken is another park, or they call it National Preserve named Hamilton Pool. It is an awesome photogenic location. I read about it and I read that hike is closed and that you can not access underneath the rocks, behind the waterfall but still we wanted to check it out. But hey, there was again one thing that I didn’t managed to read… RESERVATION NEEDED! Same here, I can’t believe. We came to the entrance, there was the line as well and I know at the moment that there will be the same case. And that was really it. No was that he wanted to hear that we would really just take a picture (really would be there just 10 minutes) and that we are from Slovenia and bla, bla, bla. No way we are passing today. From most anticipated day, to most shitty day! But hey lesson learned and I am sure, I will check it out again closer to the arrival date when I will go to some similar places. But it is kind of unfair as they could have it published on their webpage through the whole year so that we could plan/reserve accordingly. So only thing we get from that day was extra 4 hours of driving as instead of 4, we were on the road for 8.
Day started well with wildlife reserve and it closed nice at the end as well. We finally arrived at San Antonio and that city meet the expectations which were quite high due to being named as the nicest city in Texas. Probably I like it as it is closer to what I am used to. It even kind of reminds me a bit of Ljubljana with its Riverwalk. It is also not only modern and only high skyscrapers, but mixture with history adds this special charm to it. It was also very lively and I really enjoyed the evening walk. It was also perfect opportunity to take a few photos, but I was tired that day mostly from all the unfortunate events that happened to us.
So I should have thousand of photos from that day, but have only about a hundred, I would say.
Anyway, you always have to find something good in bad and this time it could clearly be: I have to return to the parks, since I didn’t visit them :)

Hope you enjoyed my adventure in write up and now to relax a bit, please do enjoy photography part as well. Feel free to ask questions and leave all kind of comments.

Until next time folks!