Balmorhea Texas State Park

Saturday, November 29

We had a great visit with my 2nd Mom in Midland yesterday.  Today we are headed to Balmorhea State Park.  We can get 50 amp electric, water and cable for $17 per night.  They do have a dump station also. 

This picture has a drawing of the grounds showing the pool, canals & ponds.

There are not many people at the park.  There we are back there.  Look at the magnificent coverings over all the tables.  

Here is another view of our site.  State parks on the whole seem to have larger sites which makes it really nice.

This is our fire pit.  The building at the top right is the showers.  There are several showers located throughout the park.  

We decided to walk through the park. We want to see the big spring fed pool here. There are canals everywhere.

There are canals throughout the park.  This cabins that can be rented have been built along this canal.  There water is extremely clear in all the canals and ponds.

See the minnows swimming all around the turtle.  This water was probably 18-24 inches deep.

This is another view of the cabins that can be rented.  They are more like individual buildings.

 This plaque was on the building you entered getting to the pool

Here is some information on the San Solomon Springs.  We were told the springs are currently producing 15-20 MILLION gallons of water a day.  These springs supply water to the whole county for both drinking and irrigation.

This is the part of the pool we saw as we walked in.

The pool is all natural bottom.  The waters contain fish and turtles.  As you can see the depth varies from 3ft shelf around the edges to 25 feet deep. 

We walked to the opposite side and the pool is a V shape.  Tic took this panoramic view.

This canal is running from one section of the pool.  Look at the 3 locks.  They determine how much water goes out and which direction it goes. With this picture we are trying to show how fast the water flow is.  You can tell the water is clear but the ripples are too strong to see clearly.  The ripples are caused by the water flow.

Next to a pond along the canals, we saw these large water turtles.  They looked like big brown rocks until we got closer. There were 3 turtles but one of the turtles already went into the water by the time we got a picture.

Below is a link about this park.  Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ONL3XibuM 

The temperature was about 70 degrees this afternoon.  We spent the afternoon outside visiting with our neighbors.  They are from Midland.  They hope to be able to travel full time before long so we shared lots of things to think about and stories of our travels. Great fun!
We are now parked just North of the Davis Mountains and Marfa.

This is a panoramic of the Davis Mountains as seen from our campground.