Saturday afternoon, we had departed Monahans Sandhills and were on our way back east to our final state park of the trip. We scheduled 2 nights for San Angelo State Park due to it’s size and proximity to a donkey rescue that Ashlyn had her eye on for a few years now. On the way to San Angelo, we stopped at the Odessa Meteor Crater.I had only learned of this site’s existence a week before our trip and we excited to experience something new. The crater is the 2nd largest in the United States and formed 20,000 years ago by a supposed 1,000 ton iron meteorite. Impact created a cone shaped crater 100ft deep and 500ft long. Due to wind and rain silting in over history, the crater is now only 6 feet deep but still appears obvious against the surrounding plains.The kids were amazed and thrilled we were able to walk through it. There were signs set up through out explaining geology and history of the area. The most surprising tid bit that we hadn’t explored before is the theory that the result of meteors came from an Earth like planet situated between Mars and Jupiter that broke apart and formed the asteroids in our solar system. Crazy! The kids had a lot of fun Star Wars references for that.

Back on the road, we arrived at San Angelo by 3:00 to our pull through site with a view of rolling hills and the lake. After another easy pop up, we ran into town and hit up HEB (LOVE these stores) for grocery refills. We ended our day with jiffy pop and a small camp fire.

After another night in the 30s, we woke up to a breezy chilly morning, but enjoyed breakfast outdoors watching deer watch us.This park is really big with 2 units on either side of the lake. We were camped in the larger south unit and opted to spend the morning driving the labyrinth of roads to scope out the even bigger labyrinth of trails for what we would want to tackle that afternoon.

We soon figured out this park is ideal for cycling and equestrian trail riders. Many of the paved roads had gravel roads branching out from them that connected a web of trails to one another. While you couldn’t drive from one unit to another without leaving park boundaries, you could get there via 6ish miles of trails

During lunch back at the camper, we settled on a 2.5 mile round trip trail. Mostly because half of it was named the “Horny Toad Trail” and the boys just knew that meant we would see one lol. Our hike was interesting enough winding up and down through changing landscape. We never saw a horny toad but did get passed by 2 mountain bikers and that got the kids’ attentions! They liked how much faster they covered ground!

The breeze had only turned into stronger wind as the day went on and dinner preparation was an out right battle. Fortunately, at about dusk, the wind died down enough for me to feel comfortable with a fire and we put on quite a blaze that night!Our morning consisted of a quick breakfast and break down of camp. We wanted to leave by 8:30 for our visit to the donkey rescue on our way home. Unfortunately, this was also the morning I got to learn another lesson about my camper! It is a bugger to get the hitch to situate on the ball when I’m backed up at an angle such as when you’re dealing with a semi circle pull through site! I finally broke the rule of pulling into the grass, got a straight backed up approach and it set right down. But it was a lot of back and forth before that decision was reached! At least we weren’t terribly behind and arrived for our short and sweet donkey rescue tour in a timely manner.

Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is a nationally recognized organization headquartered in San Angelo. They have satellite locations all over the country specializing in the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of abused donkeys and mules. Currently their biggest project is relocating the wild burros of California’s Mojave Desert where they are considered a pest so to speak. Ashlyn has had an interest in donkeys for some years now and was looking forward to her first up close encounter. I figured this visit would educate the both us a bit more on what we would be getting ourselves into adding a donkey to the farm one day.Our tour was not as long or extensive in covering the property like we thought it might be, but our guide was a wealth of knowledge and we learned a lot! The kids thoroughly enjoyed all of the animal interaction and were pleasantly surprised by just how friendly a donkey could be! So let’s just say, our visit didn’t deter anyone from having donkeys around one day!

I could see us coming back to San Angelo eventually. We never made it over to the north unit with it’s numerous points of interest and the park is a good midway break location for venturing farther out west. I think it would be especially cool to revisit once the kids all mastered mountain bike riding and really tackle some trails. Our drive home was steady and easy and while we had dearly missed Daddy, the general consensus was we weren’t necessarily homesick just yet. We could’ve gone a few more nights adventuring and been good with it. Which was great for me to hear! I’m already formulating a plan for the spring!

-Lindsay

We woke up Friday morning and departed Garner State Park in a timely fashion taking only an hour to pack up camp. It was Archer’s 6th birthday and we had a 4.5 hour drive, according to GPS, till we reached what appeared to be a Sahara Desert knock off. SIX hours later of driving through some of the crappiest scenery Texas has to offer (I didn’t think that was possible), we arrived at the sandhills of Monahans. And the pictures didn’t lie. Similar to Lost Maples, the dunes of this 3,000+ acre sand deposit appear out of place in the flat, rocky cactus covered landscape that surround them. Here’s an aerial photo I found on Wikipedia.

The park entrance is right off 1-20 across some train tracks and as soon as you enter the gate, you can tell the park was built in the 50’s. 😀 The most Mid Century Modern architecture I’ve seen in a state park to date.

With our rented “sand discs” aka snow toboggans acquired at check in, we started down the mile and a half park road to the camping area. Initially all we were seeing were short sandhills covered in vegetation and the kids were pissed. “How are we supposed to slide on this, Mommy?!” We’ll get stuck by cactus!” “These are small and don’t look like the pictures.” Then, Bam! We rounded a corner and were suddenly in Egypt!

Our campsite was literally an asphalt pad in sand. It was 2:30 and knowing we would be short on daylight, Ashlyn and I busted out another 30 minute pop up while the boys scampered over a nearby hill dying to explore. When I went to fetch them, they were already fully immersed.

For our initial adventure, we left Sally in the camper. I wasn’t sure what was going on over in the dunes or if dogs were even allowed on them. We soon learned that only motor vehicles are restricted and it was basically a free for all. Pick a dune and take a ride! We found ourselves venturing farther back climbing higher and higher until we were convinced we had found the tallest dune there. And no one was out there! The camp sites were plenty full, but no one was playing. The weather was holding a tolerable upper 60s with a little chill in the wind, but the cloudless sky made for a nice balance of heat from the sun. I decided to let the kids stay on our claimed sand mountain and 10 minutes later, being able to view them the entire time, I returned with Sally and they had built 3 sand castles. 😆

We spent the rest of the evening on our mound. Sally ran around like a wild child, the kids went back and forth between sliding down the hill or just tumbling, and I sat enjoying the scenery after one awesome ride down myself. It got exhausting quick trudging through the sand!

About the time we started to take in the sunset, a sudden chill hit and sent us running for the warmth of the camper! Desert life!

We enjoyed hot showers in probably one of the nicest bath houses I’ve seen in a state park and hoped we got all the sand out of the boys’ pores. I cooked birthday boy’s requested Frito Pie dinner on a camp table erected on our asphalt pad and we dined indoors as the temps hit the 40s. We had been very lucky the first 2 nights of this trip with mild temps at night. But knowing winter was going to catch up with us, I had electric heating blankets prepared in addition to our space heater. And instead of sleeping under them, we would be sleeping on them in our slide out beds. I had recently read a blog post from folks that FULL TIME pop up camp (wow) and they had made the suggestion for how deal with your bed being suspended in frigid air. And it worked wonderfully! It got down to 34 degrees that first night and we had a frost on the ceiling of our slide outs, but we were toasty warm! It was just difficult getting up lol! Fortunately the sun came up in another cloudless sky and dried everything up for us to pack up and be on our way by noon. This time we only had a 2 and a half hour drive to our next park, San Angelo State Park.

The kids were dying for another day of play at this park. While our one night there was a noisy one due to the nearby interstate and surrounding mining and oil industry, we could’ve easily handled another night there. I’ve promised them return visits anytime we’re passing by. Apparently the surrounding geology keeps the Sandhills from migrating, but the dunes are ever changing with the seasonal winds and you won’t experince the same park twice. This place was bucket list level for us and I’m so glad we got to experince such a Texas style winter activity.

-Lindsay