TEXAS, AUSTIN: A HAILSTORM AND McKINNEY STATE PARK

 March 25, 2021

On Thursday morning at about 4:15 AM I awoke to some loud banging that I thought was Bob trying to open the window.  When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was watching an incredible hailstorm. He had woken up thinking I was trying to get something out of my suitcase. It sounded like rocks were hitting the hotel. Bob said that when he first looked out the window, the ground was covered with white balls of ice. By the time I pulled myself out of bed to look, it had already melted and a good-sized river was rushing down the road. I checked out the weather app on my phone and saw the following:

Later, we saw photos of the quarter-sized hail:

We were beyond happy that we were staying in a hotel with a parking garage. When we returned our car to the rental agency later that day, we commented on the hailstorm and the agent pointed to a line of cars off to one side that had been damaged by the hail. Apparently the repairs are the renter's responsibility. Yikes.

After our first dine-in buffet breakfast of the trip (due to Covid restrictions), we got on the road at about 7:30 AM on our way to McKinney Falls State Park, a 641-acre preserve located on the confluence of Onion Creek and Williamson Creek and within the Austin city limits.

We could not have had a more perfect day, weather-wise.  The air was crisp and clean from the storm a few hours before, and everything was just a little bit damp. The hail must not have hit the fields of bluebells that we encountered as we drove into the park.

We parked the car and made our way across an area that looked like it had been hit by hailstones a foot or two across, the resulting craters filled with the melted residue.

We emerged from the moonscape to see this, the Lower Falls, where we were the only ones there enjoying the spectacular beauty.

Upper McKinney Falls is a short drive away and is also gorgeous.

It is possible to cross the falls if you are very sure-footed, but we were chicken.

I was trickier than it looks from a distance.

Suddenly, Bob got very excited. What was that crawling up the slanted surface of a rock on the far side of the pond?

Texas river cooters!  Oh Joy!  

I took a few pictures, but Bob sat patiently and took dozens of photos, several new photos every time another cooter climbed on the rock. There were at least eight by the time we quit watching. Here's one of Bob's pictures:

The park has a lot of fun places to walk, including hiking trails and this other-worldly limestone bedrock:

Waterfowl are everywhere, and just a little way upriver we startled a flock of geese:

Such a beautiful place!