A Little Hiking, A Little Geocaching and Some Boating By Others

We're still in Amarillo, and there really is so very much to see and do here.  Today we decided to hit the Zoo and the Alibates Flint Quarries and do some geocaching while we were out and about.  We made our way to the Zoo, bright and early (about 9 am, which, for us, is pretty early to be out and about!).  We got there so early, as a matter of fact, that some of the animals were still in their bedrooms and keepers were out in their enclosures, cleaning!  Admission to the zoo was only $3 a piece, like the Botanical Gardens, so we were thinking the zoo would be small and limited in their offerings.  True dat.  It was small.  And it was limited.  The largest exhibit was actually the farm animals!  The backdrops for them was really cute though, and you could tell they had put a LOT of work into the building facades.  It was set up like an old Frontier Town, with a hotel, saloon, bank, barber shop, etc.  But the animals were tired, for sure.  There was an old Shetland pony, a vocal donkey and two goats.  Other than that, they had a male lion with 2 ladies, two Bengal tigers, some Spider Monkeys, some Ring Tail Lemurs, a peacock, a Green Winged Macaw, some tortoises, a few turtles and snakes, a big bullfrog, a couple of foxes, and some unseen bison and antelope.  We were through with our tour in about an hour.  No pictures, sorry.

After that, we headed back to the camper to pick up our geopup and GPS.  I had found several geocaches out in the Flint Quarries area.  Did you know it was the first, and remains the ONLY, National Monument in the whole state of Texas??  

The view was amazing and went on for MILES!

There was a geocache on the way to the park, but it was not found by us!  All we found was more view!

We spent quite a bit of time in the Visitors' Center, watching the movie that explained the significance of the rocks and the area.  We *thought* we were going to go visit the actual quarries (you can ONLY go with a Ranger, and they only go twice a day) and the Village, to see the petroglyphs...but NO PETS ALLOWED. And, even tho our pup was wearing her Service Dog vest and her booties to protect her pads, the Rangers thought it would be in her best interests not to go.   You see, there are rattle snakes and other Texas critters in the park, and along the paths out there.  None of us wanted to see how Bailey would react to seeing one of them.  Or being bitten or stung by one of them.  So, even though we WANTED to, we agreed, maybe we shouldn't.  And in case there was any second thoughts, we discovered the quarries are accessed by a set of 178 stone steps down.  And back up.  And it's a 2 hour walking tour.  At this time, I cannot do 17 steps, much less 178!  And I can walk short distances, but certainly not 2 hours' worth.  So, we just took the .3 mile trek around the mesa in front of the Visitors' Center and called it good enough.

We did find a set of prints in the fresh mud.  Not sure who or what made them.  Any ideas?

So, having not found the first cache, we thought we'd try for the next to, down by McBride Canyon.

If you can't read the historical marker, don't feel bad.  I was there and I couldn't read it either!

However, here's how the ranch house looks today, and here is a link to its history.  It really is pretty interesting, so give it a click!

Oh, and the caches?  Nada.  We could SEE them, but doggoned if we wanted to go through the brush stickers and briers to retrieve them!  Off to go see Meredith Lake, which we were told, was farther down the road.  Apparently, you could access by way of a road on the outskirts of Fritch, TX.  Well, cool, we thought....there was a cache at the Aquatic Museum, also in Fritch.  

Sidebar....who named that town, anyway?? And why Fritch?  Here's what the Texas Handbook has to say about it:  It was named for H. C. (Fred) Fritch of Chicago, a vice president of the Rock Island Railroad, who arranged for the purchase of the right-of-way in 1924. After the line was opened, Fritch established a depot at his townsite and in 1933 he laid out the streets parallel with the railroad, which ran from northwest to southeast. In the wake of the 1926 oil boom, five major gas companies located in the vicinity. The growth of Fritch was slow during its first thirty years; in 1940 it had a store, a post office, and an estimated population of seventy-five. However, the construction of Sanford Dam on the Canadian River prompted Fritch to incorporate in 1959. By the time of the dam's completion in 1965 the city had a population of 2,800, two schools, six churches, a bank, and retirement homes. This growth was attributed mainly to the recreation areas at Lake Meredith, in addition to ranching, farming, and the oil and gas industry.

In the late 1960s growth waned due to lagging oil and gas production. The population was 1,778 in 1970. In 1972 the Rock Island abandoned the line through Fritch. However, the energy crisis of the early 1970s fostered increased oil and gas activities. By 1980 Fritch had thirty-one businesses and a population of 2,299. The Lake Meredith Aquarium and Wildlife Museum, opened in 1976, features wildlife exhibits and live fish specimens from the lake. The town is also known for its flatland irrigation system, which uses treated sewer water. The National Park Service headquarters for Lake Meredith National Recreation Area is located in Fritch, and the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, on the southeastern shore of Lake Meredith, is near Fritch in Potter County. In 1990 the population in Fritch was 2,335, and in 2000 it dropped slightly to 2,235.

Well, apparently today was not a good day for geocaching.  Ok, that's not quite true - it was a GREAT day for geocaching...but the geocaches we chose to go after were either missing or unreachable.  Needless to say (but, I'll say it anyway), we didn't log a single successful cache today.  Oh well, there's always next time.

After finding the aquarium closed down, we crossed the street to see if the local DQ was up to par.  Ugh.  Even that didn't pan out as well as we'd hoped.  After what seemed a lifetime, Dick returned to the car with my phone and a single Blizzard.  ???  I had thought we would get 2, since the app was giving me coupons for Buy One, Get One for 99 cents.  Poor guy, after I heard what he had gone through, with them declining the app, then trying to download the special DQ Texas version app, then waiting while they spoke with the area manager....he really earned that Blizzard! 

When the Blizzard was gone, we headed to Lake Meredith.  

It was a lot bigger than we had expected!  But it was also a lot lower level than usual.

We were really surprised to see campers down by the waterside.  There were these 2 trailers, but everyone else was in tents. With further research, we found that there are 10 sites with water and electric, and they were available by reservation.  All other sites (there were lots, but we didn't count them, and most were occupied) are free, and available on a first come, first served basis.  Even with that, I'm not sure I would want to take our camper down that dirt road.  The dirt road part wasn't nearly as bothersome as that steep slope!

Both boat ramps we saw had signs posted that they were closed.  And yet, there was gent thought it was a good idea to use this one and put his boat in.  There's a monster float in the boat, we assumed he would tow that behind and have his two girls ride it.  But then he pulled the truck back up onto the ramp and took a battery charger out of the truck and hooked it up to his boat motor.  So, we have a dude putting in at a closed ramp, with a boat with a known bad battery.  We didn't stick around to see how it all ended.

Back at the Ranch, we fixed our hamburgers for dinner, fed & walked the tired pup and threw a load in the washer.  We had planned to go over to the Event Center and watch the CCR Tribute Band concert, but then the rains came.  And thunder.  And lightning.  The storm passed just in time for the band to kick up (it is an outdoor venue) on time.  But, after some discussion, we decided, we're all cleaned up, and being outdoors, smoking was probably permitted.  Neither of us wanted to go sit in our chairs, in a muddy field, with smokers and mosquitoes.  So, we just enjoyed the concert from the air conditioned comfort of our camper and called it a night.

Till next time!