Davis Mountains State Park, Texas

Davis Mountains State Park and Indian Lodge State Park
We are here!  We are happy!  Life is good!

Davis Mountains and Texas grassland

Igneous rock layer from one of the lava flows--36 million years ago

OUR NEW HOME in bloom--

The area had more than 30" of precipitation in September, and the flowers have been amazing!  Everything is so green and lush...

I love the landscape!

Goldeneye flowers blanket the area between yuccas 

Originally, these were identified as annual goldeneye flowers;
that id is currently being debated!  Whatever their name, they are gorgeous!

DAVIS MOUNTAINS STATE PARK and our place in it--

This is camp host site #1

This is the view from our van...

Our neighbor--mule deer

Our site is next to headquarters

 OUR RESPONSIBILITIES/JOYS as park hosts--

As you can easily imagine,
Matt loves to drive the Ranger!

One of the two bird feeding areas 

The beautiful western scrub jay
(Matt and I were thrilled to see our first summer tanager) 

A few of the camp sites and the interpretive center in the background

Our jobs include--
*raising and lowering the flags at headquarters (By the way, the red stripe on the Texan flag is the LOWER stripe.)
*feeding the birds at both bird blinds
*making suet  (The birds love this particular recipe--1 C lard, 1 C peanut butter, 1 C flour, and 4 C cornmeal.)
*monitoring campsites--Have people registered?  Are they in the correct site?  Have they extinguished their campfire? Do they have questions?  Do we need to clean the site?
*stocking bathrooms
*cleaning the interpretive center
*recycling
*gardening
*trail maintenance
*opening and locking buildings
*talking with visitors--suggesting programs, area opportunities, hiking trails, etc.
*attending and helping with the excellent programs given by the interpretive ranger, Tara.
(Matt especially loves walking dogs on Thursday mornings!  The park and the humane society have this wonderful collaborative program--the dogs get exercise while socializing, and the people participants get to hike with dogs on a beautiful state park trail!)
AND
Matt and I do whatever else is needed to support this wonderful state park!

I will have another entry that includes more about the GREAT staff with whom we are lucky enough to work!
Until next time--

Yeah, we are DEFINITELY in the south!