Spicewood Creek

— After a long and super hot summer, the first sign of cooler weather was all my friends and I needed to get out and enjoy the outdoors more fully, i.e., camping. We did not have to go very far to enjoy camping, biking, and kayaking. Because we did it on weekdays, there were few people at Colorado Bend SP. In fact, when we were biking and hiking on a couple of trails, we never saw any other people around. When we were at the park the last time in December 2018, it was after a major flood in the area. We couldn’t do much back then other than visit Gorman Falls. This time, on the first day, we did some hiking going up the Spicewood Canyon trail and returning via the Spicewood Creek trail. We climbed around 466 ft (142 m) for a roundtrip of 4.6 miles (7.4 km). Most of the trail was shaded and very pleasant, although at times rocky. Canyon views were present from several viewpoints along the way. Then on the way down, via the Spicewood Creek trail, we had several water ponds to admire and swim in. The photo above was taken at the end of this hike. In fact, if you want to enjoy this pond, you don’t have to hike far at all. The pond is just a half-mile from the parking area by the Colorado River. The water was refreshing and crystal clear. Getting in and out of the pond was fun, too. Because it was slippery, I found out that the easiest and safest way to enter and exit the pond was to remain seated on the rocks and just slide in or back out. We swam here a couple of days. It was the perfect ending for a perfect day. Although fall foliage is not really present in full colors, the sunlight was shining so bright that it brought out shades of yellow and reds on some leaves. This is more evident in the video below I made at another pond.