Lake Corpus Christi State Park

Lake Corpus Christi State Park is outside of Mathis, TX. It is a large park on Lake Corpus Christi. The park has great camping a boating facilities. Judging from the number of people fishing, the fishing is good as well. All kinds of information is available on the Texas State Parks web site including a map of the park.

I used AAA Texas TripTik to generate driving directions from San Antonio. This works well. I called ahead to the ranger station to find out if they had been affected by flooding from all the rain that fell the previous weekend. They said that they were fine but suggested I not take Park Road 25 all the way in from the highway. It turns out that the AAA software routed me along the same route the park ranger suggested.

On a walk through the park with the dogs. There are a number of picnic areas. Many of the picnic sites have barbecue pits or grills.

On holiday weekends these areas may very well be full of people. However, the weekend we were here, there was more than enough room for everyone.

Many of the picnic tables are covered. That is handy given how strong the sun is here in South Texas.

The dogs are happy. I'm happy. Linda is happy.

Strolling through the park in the evening along the water is real nice. A word of caution, there are burs or stickers everywhere. You can see all the picnic sites along the lake shore.

After 6:00 PM on a Friday evening, all is quiet and calm.

Much of the shoreline has deep water. They put these signs in along the shoreline to tell folks that the water is either deep or shallow.

The web site for the park shows the Refectory Building. However, the Refectory isn't listed on the map. The map shows the Old Pavilion. That is the Refectory.
Here is the Refectory building - from the front.

The tower above makes a nice vantage point. You can see the tower from the back. Here is the Refectory Building from the back.

The vantage points around the Refectory Building provide a nice view. Note the water tower in the background. Some of the other pictures have the water tower in the background as well.

Inside the pavilion area of the Refectory Building. The ceiling beams are quite rustic. This is really a cool building.

The refectory from across the water. You can see the tower part of the building.

Mystery building to the right and down hill from the refectory. This building's roof is one of the vantage points behind the Refectory building. However, when you are walking around the roof you have no idea that there is a building or structure below.

Javelina - See Peccary from Encyclopedia.Com

(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.

A pack of javelinas came by the wooded side of campsites 45 and 46 around 5:30 to 6:00 PM on both Friday and Saturday evenings. I assume it was the same pack. They had babies with them. The big question is one of safety. According to Javelina University, javelinas will actively attack dogs. We have dogs. Bad mix.

Roadrunners are so hard to get pictures of. They are elusive. They are the same color as the woods. They are fast. They are small.

I think this is an Egret. It was mucking around the marshy area of the lake shore Saturday afternoon.

We saw a bunch of rabbits. I like rabbits. They are cute and cuddly.

We were standing over by this tree near the shore line. I looked down and couldn't figure out why these cut up leaves were bobbing and weaving along the ground. On closer inspection, they were large ants carrying leaves. I've read about this but have never seen it in person.

This bug is particularly common near the water's edge. There were a couple of mini-pavilions whose upright poles were literally covered with these little buggers. It was really buggy Friday night. There wasn't a breeze. Saturday night was real nice until it started thundering and raining.

The Texas Sage below is blooming. These plants are often used in landscaping in South Texas. They bloom after it rains. You can water these in your yard all you want and they won't bloom. They got to have rain to bloom. Blooming generally occurs within a week of rainfall. This area did get lots of rain from Tropical Depression Fay just as we did last weekend. In fact, Park Road 25 into the park was closed below the dam. We had to come in the other way through beautiful down town Mathis.

Just before sundown, this fellow is casting a net to Catch bait from the boat ramp dock. I should have asked him what kind of bait he was getting and how well it worked for catching other fish.

Some other folks doing the same thing Saturday morning.

Oddly enough, there folks were casting a net to catch bait fish. There is a sign adjacent to the boat dock that specifically says casting nets are prohibited. So either I didn't understand what these folks were doing with the nets or I didn't understand the sign. This is the boat ramp closest to our camp site.

Same boat ramp from across the water.

Jet Ski in front of the boat ramp. Yee Hah!

Just once - I would like to ride one of these things.

These look like a cross between a motor cycle and a canoe.

I like this guys setup. He is sitting under an umbrella on the dock that is in lots of my pictures. I took this picture from across the water. Click on the image to get the full view.

Fish cleaning station from across the water. You can see the above dock touch the shoreline at the right of the picture.

Saturday morning there was a scout group doing the fishing thing. The older lads are helping the younger lads fish.

Boys will be boys.

I couldn't figure out why the kids were bent over looking at the dock. Surely they aren't sea-sick?

Another deep water sign.

What we have here is a hook, pole, and bait. Any questions?

Everyone has a line going. The short time I was watching, I didn't see them land a fish.

Friday evening close to sundown, a couple of guys sought solitude in fishing. The guy on the left has his dog with him. Nice dog. Had a cool looking bandana. Unusual for a man to have a dog dressed up like that.

The view from the dock looking back toward shore. Dogs really like the smell of the dock. They were zigzagging back and forth, jerking on their leashes.

Fish cleaning station. Crude but effective. There are a bunch of these stations around the park. The fishing must be really good here.

Park Host spot 47. We never saw them on duty.

We are in spot 48. This is the spot closest to the restrooms/showers and to the shoreline.

The one problem with this spot is the hitching. When the trailer is square on the pad, the truck is pointed down hill. That makes the rear of the truck bed touch the trailer. We ended up with the trailer pushed backward in the parking spot a ways. Also, I got to practice my backing. It took me a while to get the trailer to the right spot behind the pad.

Here are the neighbors up the road a pace.

Going out for a site survey - We plan to come back to this park in the winter. Some of the sites are better than others. We want to have a list of the best and worst sites. While we were going through the sites Saturday evening it started to rain. Our work in incomplete.

After walking, the pups are pooped. We had a problem with burs/stickers. I'm thinking that the type of boots people buy for dogs in cold climates might help keep the burs from hurting their feet. Also, I'm thinking that burs are very common in both public and private campgrounds.

Dagwood

Blondie

This is the bath house (complete with showers) closest to our campsite. These are certainly workable. Not elegant but they do the trick.

Here is one of the two showers in the above building. I thought about showing the urinal but this is a G rated web site.

These cabins are also available at the park. They are rather Spartan. All they have are wooden bunks. This is BYOB - Bring Your Own Bedding!

We got a rain storm late in the night Saturday night. I woke up Sunday morning to the pitter patter of heavy rain drops. The view from inside was very wet. It rained cats and dogs along the route home. At times, the going was rather tough. Nice to be home. I was worn out from the drive so I took a nap when we got home. Later that night and again on the following night, the Weather Channel ran stories about the flooding in Corpus Christi which is 30 miles to the south. They were having severe flooding along the Nueces River.

Lake Corpus Christi State Park

Friday, September 13 through Sunday, September 15, 2002