Crazy to admit, but I have been visiting the area a couple miles away from this state park for 35 years and NEVER made it to this park until June of this year! I guess I was just waiting to do it with my own little family 🙂

The Devil’s Sinkhole Society volunteers maintain the park and headquarters and run access tours by reservation only Wednesday through Sunday. Peak bat emergence season is May-October and evening tour times vary based off the sunset. Our tour for June 20th met at 7pm at the headquarters on the town square of Rocksprings where we paid our admission fee and watched a short film on the history of the area and some safety tips.

After everyone had checked in, the tour guide had us all caravan in personal vehicles from the headquarters out to the sinkhole area a couple miles away. The road in was a fun paved drive that ended at a parking lot and picnic area with bathrooms. Our guide gave some brief information on the flora and fauna of the area and some cool eyewitness stories of the wildlife. Then each group took turns peering down the 140 ft drop down to the cave that spanned 320 ft in diameter.

Archer was selected to pull up the basketball the guide had lowered down at the beginning of the tour so everyone could feel its cool surface temp from being down in the cave. We then all settled into the seating around the sinkhole as bat flight time approached. Expectations had already been tempered previously when the guide was describing this year’s activity compared to other years, but we were hopeful to see something.

So we saw about 15 bats, but the way they emerged was such a cool swirl before shooting off to the south. Apparently there’s no solid explanation for the smaller population at this sight while areas further east are packed this year. Regardless, I was just happy to have finally witnessed this amazing Texas marvel.

-Lindsay