Choke Canyon State Park

Friday, October 24 through Sunday, October 26, 2003

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More Choke Canyon pictures can be found here!

Choke Canyon State Park is in two sections - South Shore Unit and the Calliham Unit.   We stayed in the Calliham Unit.  The advantage of the Calliham Unit is that you can (with a trailer) setup your camp at the lake's edge as we did.  The South Shore Unit has fewer campsites but is also very nice.  It is very hot and humid here.   I would imagine that it would be almost unbearable in the summer time.

Winters in this part of Texas are very mild.  This is an excellent park to visit during the cooler months.  Bring your bicycle, boat, kayak, canoe, or bass boat.

The dogs really like this park.  That is because they can smell all of the animals here.  There are lots of deer and javelinas here.  We also saw turkeys, rabbits, road runners,  and birds!    There are lots of javelinas roaming the park.  I would estimate between 50 and 100.  We saw three distinct groups of five to 15 and a number of separate individuals.  Also, there are alligator warnings.    We have heard from friends whose families camp in this park regularly that the alligators were a real problem here.  Having never seen an alligator in the wild, I sort of wanted to see one.   Well none showed up.

In summary, this park is a very great place to watch your dogs get eaten by the wildlife.

(pek´ere) , small wild pig, genus Tayassu, the only pig native to the Americas. Although similar in appearance to Old World pigs, peccaries are classified in a family of their own because of anatomical differences. Peccaries have downward-curved tusks with which they fight ferociously when threatened. They have large heads and long snouts; both sexes have scent glands on the rump. There are two peccary species. The collared peccary, or javelina, Tayassu tajacu, is the more common, ranging from the SW United States to Argentina and inhabiting many types of country, from tropical swamps to dry scrub regions. It is about 20 in. (50 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs about 50 LB (23 kg); it has grizzled gray-black hair marked with a white neck band and an erectile mane on the neck. Collared peccaries move about in small family groups, eating roots, fruits, insects, worms, and reptiles. The white-lipped peccary, T. albirostris, is found in smaller numbers in forests from S Mexico to N Argentina. Reddish brown to black, with white lips and cheeks, it is somewhat larger than the collared peccary and more predacious in its habits. White-lipped peccaries move about in large herds foraging for food and hunting small mammals. Peccaries are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Tayassuidae.

The best information on javelinas can be found at Javelina Hunter's Javelina University.    According to these guys, javelinas are not pigs!    There is lots of good information on javelinas at this site.

By the way, Nolan Ryan's really isn't on the waterfront.

The pictures below are from the South Shore Unit.  You can see parts of the spill way and the Frio River.  The water is exceptionally high.  There was flooding here last week.  The lake is still unusually high.