Tuesday February 27th 2024

The great weather continued today. It was a little windier and a little warmer. The temperature peaked in the upper seventies near eighty. They are now forecasting the weekend to be the beginning of a rainy period.

My mission today was to walk the Cones Dike trail out on to Paynes Prairie. Shortly after the noon hour I drove deeper into the park to the visitors center. The crowds were down today. I had a few minutes on the observation tower to my self. The horses were in a new location. My luck was strong. They were a close to the trail I was going to walk.

Getting to the start of the Cones Dike trail either requires you to back track toward the parking lot from the observation tower, or test your luck with the water and mud in front of the visitors center. Since it has been four days since it rained, I tried my luck in front of the visitors center. I almost made it. Getting across the last section of muddy ground walking from stick to branch to clump of grass I started to loose my balance. To steady myself I put my left foot down in the muck. It only went to the top of my hiking shoe, but my foot was squeaky for a while after that.

The Cones Dike trail follows the park boundary and prairie edge for the first part of the trail. It is a gravel path suitable for trucks with a couple of square corners. The wild horses were near the first right turn. The second turn is to the left about a half a mile away I’d guess. Between the two turns the area on both sides of the path is filled with water. I spotted five small to medium alligators near the culvert that connects the two sides.

Just as I was approaching the second turn, a deer stepped out of the brush about fifty feet in front of me. I stopped and waited for her to move along, but she was soon joined by two other deer. They knew I was there, but didn’t really care. I stood and took pictures for about ten minutes. If I moved on they would probably run, but it is there home. I turned around and headed back toward the trail head. On my way back another deer came crashing down the prairie splashing up all kinds of water. This deer was bigger and alone. It was probably a buck. I’ll try the hike another day.

At sunset I took my second hike of the day to the day use area. There were still quite a few cars in the parking lot. The only people I saw were gathered for the sunset across the lake. The park clearly seems to be getting more traffic than previous years.