Well, everyone thought I was crazy, but for our last trip before baby, Charlie and I decided to spend 5 days camping at South Llano State Park in Junction, TX. We had played around with several other ideas for a
Babymoon, but in the end, having longer than a weekend to relax in our camper, fish, walk and play with Cooper, sounded better for us than our other ideas.
South Llano is an exceptional campground. Located in the hill country (one of our favorite places to be), the landscape turned beautiful long before we had even made it to the campground. When you pull into South Llano State Park, you
immediately go over a low river bridge and pass the beautiful South Llano River. This ended up being a great spot for fishing, and the view is breathtaking.
Speaking of views, the whole park offers wonderful views. We hiked daily and saw different parts of the river. There are also bird blinds all over the park where I saw some of the prettiest birds I have ever seen in the wild. We also trucked up to the scenic overlook. It was a BIG hike for the
prego, but it was certainly worth it. Here's a picture of Cooper and I at the scenic overlook.
This park also has a TON of wildlife. Besides the deer, birds, lizards, snakes (
ewww!) and fish we saw tons of wild turkeys. South Llano is actually a protected Turkey Roost and parts of the park close down for months each year to give turkeys some privacy during mating season. It was amazing to see the turkeys just walking by our camp site in the early morning and evening hours. Cooper also loved looking at the turkeys, and I am sure, given the chance, he would have tried to catch one him self.
Unfortunately, we forgot to charge the camera before leaving, and never managed to get a good turkey
picture.
We fished every day as well. Our first few attempts at fishing were nothing short of frustrating. There are a TON of fish in this river, and it's so clear you can literally see the fish swimming right by your lure. Once, while fishing from a small cliff, I watched a fish run into my lure without giving it a second look. Charlie managed to hook a Guadalupe bass, and then nothing after that. I suggested that we run to town for live bait. We got one container of
nightcrawler worms and went back to the river...in retrospect, we should have done this MUCH sooner! The first day with worms we caught probably 30 little perch. They weren't really large enough to keep, but they were so fun to catch on our ultralight rods. Those suckers strike hard and then fight so they were a blast to keep pulling in. It was semi-ridiculous though, we literally
couldn't have our line in the water for more than 5 seconds before another one would strike.
Day 2 with worms proved a bit more
lucrative. We returned to our original spot to catch a few more of the perch (you know, to build our confidence). Charlie managed to pull in a bass there that we were able to keep. Then we moved spots and caught a perch big enough to keep, more bass (I accidentally lost one off my hook when I was trying to pull it in), and then I caught a 16 inch Carp. That was a really big fish to pull in my ultralight rod, lots of fun!
Cooper also got a few opportunities to swim. We slept in some mornings, ate in town at a cute little restaurant that been open for 30 plus years, cooked a ton of great food and relaxed a ton. It was without a doubt one of the most relaxing trips I have ever taken! Here are a few more pictures:
