Camping – Inks lake state park – Longhorn Cavern State Park

Breaking the mundane schedule of office to home and back to work, I decided to go on a weekend camping along with my friends in Austin.  This was my second camping after Huntsville trip.  After I came to Houston, this was the first time I went to College Station to pick up my friends, on a trip to Austin.  Also, this was the first trip that I drove a lot in highways.  I believe I have improved my driving skills with little quirks once in a while.  Once I reached College Station, I felt that I returned HOME after a very long time and while passing through University drive, A&M Libraries etc., I felt very nostalgic.  I had food at one of my favorite restaurant in College station – Chef chaos and also at Jin’s Asian restaurant.

Once we  reached Austin, we went to Cholas Indian restaurant along with my friends.  After a wholesome meal, we started towards HWY 29  to Burnet.   From Burnet took the Hwy 29 West and then left on Park Road 4 towards Park Headquarters.   We reached Inks Lake State Park before 5.00 pm and parked our cars at our camp site.  Later, we decided to go on some trails as some of my friends wished to jump into the lake from the cliff.  But the water was too freezing that only one guy managed to do so and others came back after some hullabaloo.  We took a few snaps near the rocks while enjoying the cool breeze and a wonderful sunset.

The camp site had excellent restroom facilities with showers, electric outlets where we could charge our mobile phones and is situated amidst beautiful lake and granite cliffs.

We rented out tents and other stuffs for barbeque from Texas A&M Outdoor Adventures facilities.  We had sufficient food and drinks for everybody.  Unlike Huntsville trip, this trip was well planned by my friends rather adhoc.   Successfully, we were able to build the campfire and I spent most of the time sitting around it.

I believe we were the only group in the entire camping site who were making hell a lot of noise, dancing and enjoying a lot.  I should really appreciate our neighboring campers who patiently accepted our presence without complaints.  I thought of sleeping in the tent and finally decided to sleep in the car itself.  It was bit uncomfortable, but I felt I made a good decision only after my friends knocked the car door in the early morning when the temperature dropped to 29 °F suddenly. We slept for some time switching on the heater in the car.  In the morning, after refreshing ourselves we spent sometime on the paddle boats in the serene lake filled with ducks.  We would have spent almost an hour in the lake jumping from boat to boat and taking photographs.

Then we went to the nearby Longhorn Cavern State park.  We were taken on a guided tour of the limestone caves which was used as shelter during prehistoric times.  At the entrance of the cave, we saw a cute little girl with a gracious smile towards photographers.  I should have taken a good picture of her.  There used to be a church and consort hall inside the cave.  The tourist guide recounted a story about an outlaw who hid some big loot in those caves.  He also informed us that gun powder was made in these caves during civil war.

I was too tired after we reached my friends’ house in the evening as I am not used to long trips that much.  So my roommate has to drive me back on my car.  We reached Houston around midnight after dropping two of my friends in College Station.