An Autumn outing in the city

We were getting stuck in a rut, the dogs and I, that is. We've been walking our same lil' old country road several times a week forever. I had been thinking about exploring some places down in town, so while Steve is in California visiting his mom I decided to take the dogs and go exploring. It's only a short drive in to town, and as soon as I picked up my fanny pack and the leashes the dogs started bouncing around. They had no idea where we were going, but since I was loading both dogs up, we probably weren't going to the vet!

I had printed out a map of the small "wildscape" arboretum at the Discovery Center in San Marcos. It seemed like a good place to start our exploration. The Discovery Center is on the I-35 frontage road, just to the right of the Visitor's Center, and it sits right on the San Marcos River. Between the two buildings, between two flag poles, is one of my favorites of all the mermaids we have around town.

This one is cuddling a mer-piglet! It's a long story (see here for more detail) In short, many years ago there was a theme park here that featured girls dressed as mermaids. They performed underwater shows which also featured Ralph, the diving pig. The University now owns the area around Aquarena Springs, where the park was, and the area is now an education oriented project called The Meadows. Though they've been gone from the spring for years, the mermaids have remained a popular city theme. 

The dogs haven't been anywhere "civilized" for a while so it took them a few minutes to settle down once we reached the park.  Though the map said they opened the gate to the arboretum area at 8 a.m. and it was 9 a.m. when we arrived it was still locked, so we walked around the fence until we came to the back gate, which was open. Yea! 

We wandered around in the several beds of native and adapted flowers, trees and shrubs. While I admired the plants the dogs busied themselves with sniffing. There are posts with QR codes on the tops at several of the specimen  plants, but I didn't find the feature particularly useful as it sends you directly to a large database of native plants, but there wasn't much useful info available on the few I looked up.  

Still, it was nice to see some of the plants in their mature form. Good info as I plan to purchase a few things at their annual plant sale, coming up in a week or so.  I like to know what I'm getting myself into when I buy a shrub that will require pruning or other upkeep. The beds are rather overgrown, to be expected in a "wildscape" I suppose, but the paths are sort of disappearing in places, so I chalked it up to a probably shortage of volunteers/covid pandemic. 

It didn't take us very long to explore the fenced area, so we ventured outside the fence, on the northeast, toward the river, and worked our way up-river. We could look down on the river, and I noticed a nice, flat green area on the other bank, which was lower than where we stood. 

Working our way northeast we came to a cement path which took us across the river and back along the other shore - to the area I had been looking at. 

We passed few other people along our route, which took us back toward the freeway frontage road and another large section of the park. We saw a couple of paddlers and fisherman, and one older lady walking her morning route.  

It seems it was a good time of day to be out on this trail, with few people and a beautiful cloud-dappled blue sky that clear river water looks especially inviting. 

There are some very nice views of the river, some offering a glimpse of the clear water it has been famous for, and I'm sure in the spring the wildflowers along the trail would be nice too. As it is, autumn is beginning to creep in and though we don't get much in the way of "fall color" around here, there is a little yellow creeping into the dense greenery, and the seeds and fruits on some of the plants along the trail are beginning to ripen. 

This trail is actually a part of the 16 acre William and Eleanor Crook Park. I had seen the park on the map, but wasn't clear on how it all connected, or where to park to access it, so our exploration paid off! 

By the time we had reached this point in the trail the dogs were looking a little tired, so we started back toward the car, leaving plenty of trail to explore next time. 

If you happen to be on the trail here any time after 11 a.m., and you aren't being towed by two huge dogs as I was, you could pop across the road at this point and have a cold one at Ivar's River Pub. They have a great view of the river!

When we reached the far side of the bridge I noticed a bit of machinery displayed off to the side so we stopped to check that out. It is a portion of the historic Rio Vista Dam.  

The dam, built in 1904, was pretty much destroyed in a flood in 1998. Following the flood the area was developed to incorporate a variety of recreation activities, and this park and trail are a part of that project.      

 

Out on the road, near the parking area, one of the many mermaids featured around the city gazes peacefully toward the river. 

This one is covered with bits of mirror and colored tile. 

By this time we were only a few yards from our parking space, so we were soon loaded up and headed home. 

As I write this, both dogs are tucked under the dining room chairs and snoring. It seems they had enough excitement for one day!