Third Day Of Fall Hiking Wichita Bluffs

The night of the third day of Fall, saw the temperature at my north Texas location plummet to a chilly 59 degrees. 

59 degrees was not enough of a chill to return cold tap water to being cold, hence a warm-cold shower this morning.

What with those 59 overnight degrees I figured it would still be a bit chilly by the time I made it to the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area.

I figured wrong. The temperature was one degree shy of 80 when I did my bluff hiking. 79 degrees was still a pleasant respite from being fried at over 100 degrees.

The photo documentation above was taken at the high point on the Bluffs. I got off the paved trail to get close to the purple stick looking plants you see above.

A pointy plant managed to poke me whilst I was squatting down in photo taking position. That pointy plant was quite a stinger, causing a loud 'ouch' utterance.

I think I am going to enjoy amping up the endorphin acquisitioning, enabled by the end of the overheating time of year...

Wind Chilly Wichita Bluffs Nature Area High Speed Hill Hiking

With the wind blowing blustery powerful gusts, resulting in a wind chill causing this morning's temperature of 52 to feel too cool for what I chose to wear to the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area to commune with nature via some high-speed hill walking.

The Wichita Bluffs Hoodoo Cairn installation, today, was the tallest, most precarious I have seen at this location.

One would think this type of natural construction would not survive the high-speed gusting winds.

So far, I have not found the 20 pounds I lost last month. Not carrying those 20 pounds seemed to make the high-speed hill hiking much easier.

Shrinking to a new size should make stuffing myself into an airplane seat much more comfortable than the last time I subjected myself to that particular torture.

Hiking the Wichita Bluffs today had me thinking it sure would be fun to hike a real mountain trail. Maybe if I make it to Washington this summer I can find myself a real mountain to hike on...

Warm Wichita Bluff Hiking With Record Breaking Hoodoo

Monday arrived warm, as promised by the weather gurus.

By the time I arrived at the west entry to the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area, an hour before noon, the outer world was heated into the mid 70s.

Google Fit, on my phone, calculated that during my walk on the bluffs I had 37 Move Minutes, covering a little over two miles.

I have no clue how accurate this Google Fit thing is, but it seems nice to get feedback of this sort, even though no clue as to the accuracy level.

The main Wichita Bluff's Hoodoo Cairn location was sporting the tallest Hoodoo I have yet seen in Wichita Falls. This erection must have sprung up after the gale force winds blew in over the weekend.

I walked til I reached the highest bluff elevation, where one first is able to look out to the east.

And so, in the above photo documentation, we are looking east, across the Wichita River, at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls. 

I enjoyed doing the hill hiking today for the first time since I had an unfortunate slip on ice which left me battered and bruised. And sore.

Tomorrow the weather gurus predict another HOT day, followed by Wednesday's Arctic Blast blowing into town, with snow possible.

Wichita Bluffs Nature Area Wildflowers

This is the time of year when Texas is at its most scenic. Well, more accurately, this is the only time of year when the Texas landscape is naturally scenic.

As you can see, the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area is alive with a little color, and a lush jungle of green. 

Til today it had been awhile since I went hiking on the Wichita Bluffs. I do not remember last spring, or the spring before that, the Wichita Bluffs being this green, with so many wildflowers.

Conditions this year must be optimum for wildflowers to bloom. Even so, I have only seen the State Wildflower of Texas where people have planted it in their landscaping at their house. I've not seen a single bluebonnet blooming naturally anywhere on the landscape at my location in North Texas.

The last time I visited the Wichita Bluffs, the area where Hoodoos arise, the area had no Hoodoos. Today there was the Hoodoo you see above. There were no wildflowers blooming by the Hoodoo.

I think the orange wildflower you see above is known as an Indian Paintbrush. I could easily be wrong about that. I have no idea what the purplish/blue wildflower's name is.

As you can see, via the photo at the top, it is cloudy here today. A slight drizzle drizzled whilst I was hiking.

Yesterday the outer world heated to nearly 90. Today a big chill has cooled the outer world down into the 50s. Thunderstorms are on the weather menu for later today...

Hunting The Wichita Bluffs For Santa But Finding The Roadrunner

 A couple minutes before leaving my abode this morning to go to the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area to do some communing with nature, along with getting some aerobically induced endorphins, my phone made its incoming text message noise.

It was my favorite nephew Theo texting, he being one of my Tacoma Trio of nephews and a niece. 

I texted Theo back that I wish he were here to go hiking with me. I told Theo that I learned yesterday someone had spotted a Santa on the Wichita Bluffs. The photo documenting this looked familiar. I told Theo I was going to go Santa hunting.

Theo texted back "Cool. I wish I could go..."

Well. I did not find Santa. Perhaps he has already moved on to his next location.

I did see something which I recently mentioned I had not seen for quite some time.

The Wichita Bluffs Roadrunner.

Well, today when I neared the high point on the Bluffs I saw something moving along a side trail. I quickly realized it was the Roadrunner. I gingerly reached in my pocket for the phone, quickly got the phone in camera mode and snapped the photo you see above. 

Can you find the Roadrunner through all that brush?

Continuing on...

The last time I was at the Wichita Bluffs Nature Area's designated Hoodoo construction area there were no Hoodoos. Just piles of rocks.

Today, as you can see above, a tall Hoodoo has risen.

If Theo had been hiking with me today my guess is we would have taken time out from hiking to assemble the rocks which had not already been Hoodoo-ed into a new Hoodoo.

Way back in August of 2017 I had myself a mighty fine time building sand castles with Theo at Birch Bay, up near the border with Canada in my old home state of Washington.

Since then Theo and his siblings, David and Ruby, have taken sand castle building classes at a sand castle building school in San Diego.

Next summer, if the plans do not once again go awry, I am looking forward to building sand castles at Birch Bay again, following Theo's engineering directions...