Galveston Island State Park

Got up this morning with a plan.  We were going to head out to Galveston Island State Park, take a walk on the beach and go on some of the hiking trails.  Dogs are allowed so we figured it would be  great for Charli rather than have her sitting in the trailer for the better part of the day.

I phoned the Park office to get an update on the state of the trails.  Everything is wet around here due to the rain that has been inundating east Texas for the past month or so.  I was advised that the trails were open however they would either have standing water or would be spongy.  We stepped outside and were hit with a wall of humidity which combined with a forecast of 82 was not boding well for a day hiking through what basically amounted to a swamp.

We drove through the park and while I got out a couple of times to take some pictures we never wandered off the side of the road.  The high water levels, flocks of mosquitoes and signage warning of Alligators kept us off the trails.

So while the day wasn't as planned we did have a nice drive, saw some brightly coloured houses built on stilts and saw what Galveston looks like without a few hundred thousand motorcycles roaring around the streets.

One of the campgrounds.  No services.
A few trailers but mostly tents.
Just over the bushes is the Gulf. 

Lots of Great Egrets.
Did see a couple of Great Blue Herons but too far away to get a good picture. 

Great Egret going for a walk

All the houses along the coastline are built on stilts resting on a cement pad.
The island is basically a big sand bar so if piles are used
it would be interesting to know how far down they go.
I'm sure there is no bedrock down there so they must be friction piles. 

The sand is very fine and hard packed.
Easy to walk on but will be hard to keep it out of the truck. 

Endless beaches.

Tuesday is another Galveston day and we will be touring the Strand district, find a good seafood restaurant for lunch and hopefully take a tour of the Bishops Castle.  Wednesday we head to Rockport which is down the coast towards Corpus Christie and after that inland to San Antonio.  The weather is supposed to cool off on Thursday and our hope is that the humidity will drop as well.  If what we have experienced the past week is normal Texas weather I can safely say that any thought we may have had of spending a winter in Texas as opposed to the dry Arizona winters is but a memory.