My July Calendar Takes Me To Guadalupe Mountains National Park In Texas & Yosemite

This year's wall calendar's theme is America's National Parks. I have been to many of America's National Parks, but not to the one for July, which I first saw this morning after flipping the calendar to the new month.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

I have driven by this National Park a time or two, but have never entered the park.

Texas only has two National Parks, Guadalupe Mountains National Park and Big Bend National Park.

I have visited neither. Would like to experience Big Bend National Park. Guadalupe Mountains, not so much.

June's National Park was Yosemite National Park, in California. Seeing Yosemite on my wall every day last month had me regularly lamenting whether or not I would ever see Yosemite again during the years I have remaining on the planet.

My first time to Yosemite National Park was an October day way back in the 1970s. I was not impressed. The foliage had all gone brown. The waterfalls all dried up. The visit only lasted a couple hours.

And then, back in May of 1993, myself and three friends rented a Cadillac to drive on a long road trip, the highlight of which was staying a few days at Camp Curry in Yosemite National Park.

The second day in Yosemite was May 20, 1993. How do I know the date so precisely? Well, on that second day in Yosemite we went to the restaurant/bar/outdoor patio area of Camp Curry. The bar zone was packed full, due to people watching the series finale of the Cheers sit-com on that date in May of 1993.

We arrived at Yosemite, the night before, after dark. Got checked in, warned about bears, given wool blankets due to the cold temperature. All night long I heard a strange roaring noise. In the morning I opened the tent cabin door to see a big waterfall a short distance away, falling water in copious amounts.

That was to be the first of many waterfalls falling a lot of water, including the iconic Yosemite Falls. Some of the waterfalls you could not get too close to due to the volume of water creating such a thick spray of water.

We did a lot of hiking those few days in Yosemite. I would love to go back there, one more time. Also, to Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks...

Last Winter's Snow Long Melted From Texas High Country

Saw that which you see here, this morning, on Facebook, via the Skagit Breaking page.

A couple days ago, on this blog, I lamented Looking Back At North Cascades National Park and the fact that I used to live in a scenic wonderland, and that I currently live where it is not a scenic wonderland.

The caption on this Skagit Breaking post is "The snow is finally melting in the high country and the trails are opening. These are images from Copper Ridge in North Cascades National Park from this week".

That caption contains several bits of info that could never be applicable at my current location.

All the snow which hit the ground in Texas last winter has long been melted.

There is no high country for hundreds of miles in any direction on which snow accumulates.

And the only Texas national park with mountains is Guadalupe Mountains National Park way out in far west Texas.

The closest thing to a mountain I have in my vicinity is the big mound of dried mud in Lake Wichita Park which I call Mount Wichita.

If it weren't so HOT I would drive to Lake Wichita Park this final Sunday of the 2022 version of July and hike to the summit of Mount Wichita for a 360 degree view of mostly nothing...

A HOT High Of 105 Sunday In My Zone Of North Texas

As you can see, it is 102 at a little after 5 this Sunday afternoon. The Heat Index is 108. We have chilled down from today's high of 105.

I've been doing some virtual roadtripping today. I did not feel like baking so I have stayed inside, except for this morning's long swim.

I virtually drove out to check out Pine Springs and Guadalupe Mountains National Park way out in far West Texas. Guadalupe Peak is the tallest mountain in Texas.

Next I went to Pecos. I wanted to checked out the place that grows the famous Pecos cantaloupes.

It is a short distance to Wink from Pecos. It crossed my mind to see if I could fit in a virtual visit with the Queen of Wink, but my cell phone had gone dead.

So, I continued on to Poteet. Poteet is about 30 miles south of San Antonio. Poteet is the Strawberry Capital of Texas. I have never had a Poteet Strawberry. I read somewhere that Poteet commits the sacrilege of importing strawberries from California due to running low on the local fruit during the humongous Poteet Strawberry Festival.