2-10-18

And, Garner is a beautiful park. In spite of no wifi or cell service (still!), we plan to stay at least several days. We arrived early enough for a short hike so we tried out a trail designated as easy to get a feel for the park. The easy trails seemed more like moderate with rocks and roots to climb over and steep hills. We’ll try some moderate trails tomorrow. I’m not sure we will attempt any of the challenging ones!

Easy-peasy, just don’t fall off the edge and into the water as you are scrambling around roots and rocks!

 Some rapids on the Frio river, and yes it was frio!

Denny and a giant tree (sycamore?)

There are many structures in this park also, that were built by the CCC .

The next day we went for a morning hike and combined an easy trail and a moderate trail. It is quite hilly here so even the easy trail was steep in spots. We did get quite high up with some nice views.
 

After lunch and a small nap 😜, we decided to tackle a tougher trail to go see Crystal Cave. Since it was rated as challenging, with the map designating many spots as steep with loose rocks, we made a pact that if either of us wanted to turn back we would. We made it! Unfortunately, all of the crystals had long ago been stripped. However, there was a young woman that went in the cave at the same time as we did whose name was Crystal!
 

Being successful, we decide to tackle another cave. This one was also challenging…but a shorter, steeper hike, getting us quickly to 1800 feet. We are debating whether we want to attempt Old Baldy, one of the most challenging hikes in the park.

 A view of Old Baldy from the campground.

A view of Old Baldy from the cave hike.

The ultimate hike is to the top.
 

Back at the RV, we realized that we had walked just  ¾ of a mile less than 10 miles today, so we went for a short walk to take some pictures of the trees reflecting in the river. It’s always nice to end in even numbers!