Finding The Long Rumored Lake Wichita Park Elephant

 

The last time I rolled my bike across Lake Wichita Dam, via the Circle Trail, when I neared the swampland one encounters slightly east of Mount Wichita I was startled by a deer leaping across the trail ahead of me.

I mentioned this in Lake Wichita Deer Encounter With No Bears Or Native Americans.

In the past month or two I have heard mention made, a time or two, of elephant sightings in Lake Wichita Park.

I figured this had to be a mirage, or someone seeing a plus sized dog of some sort.

Or maybe an elephant is actually making its home in the jungle-like swampland.

It's not like Wichita Falls has not been home to an elephant in times previous. We learned this last month whilst visiting Scotland Park for the first time, blogging about it in A Desegregated Wichita Falls Scotland Park Walk Without Miss Sugar.

Miss Sugar was the name of the Wichita Falls Municipal Zoo's main elephant attraction. 

I was fairly certain it was not a descendant of Miss Sugar which had been sighted in Lake Wichita Park.

So, today I was rolling along, having myself a mighty fine time, along with all the other rollers of various sorts, and mountain climbers working their way to the summit of Mount Wichita, when I rolled off on a side spur off the Circle Trail which leads to a lookout looking out over the marshy swampland.

Atop that lookout I looked left and right, looking for an elephant, to no avail.

And then when I rolled back down from that lookout, by the bench adjacent to that Circle Trail spur I saw the long rumored elephant and photo documented that which I saw.

Which is what you see at the top, with the bench shading the back third of the elephant.

And that has been my excitement for today in these excitement challenged times...