Up Not So Early To Do Turner Falls

I had not gotten to bed before 3:30AM, Friday night and well, slept in a bit late Saturday morning. I was disappointed with myself, considering I'd waited months to be in Dallas and had major plans to do major stuff. I was finally on my way around 9AM to road trip out to Turner Falls. This adventure was suggested to me by a dear friend from the Fort Worth area.


I've lived in Wink, Texas now for 8 years, 2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days. Before coming to the itty bitty town of Wink, I resided in Denver, Colorado. The terrain and atmosphere of the two places contrasts vastly, but each has their own charming qualities. Driving though Dallas on my way to Turner Falls, brought back some memories of big town driving and big town shopping. I prefer mom and pop establishments, where the ambiance is not forced, but brought on by the wonderful people in the establishment. One of my favorite places in East Denver was the Tattered Cover. Since, I didn't know where these types of places were in Dallas, I opted for a Super Target Center and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I come across all sorts of wonderful, beautiful tempting fruits...I also came upon a Starbucks in the store. M'm, M'm...

Turner Falls was extremely easy to find, and I found myself arriving at the park around 12:30PM. Boy, there were lots of people there. I didn't bother wading around in the entrance pool area, but paid my admission and drove all the up to the main camp site. My goal was simple...find the big water fall, and I did. I wasn't disappointed by the sight, but was a little sad about the sound. I guess I was hoping for rushing sounds so loud that I'd have to yell to talk to anyone. It was a rather quiet water fall, but well worth the trip. I got as close as I could and rested on a large boulder under the trees and ate my fruit and spinach salad.










I met several people. Jeremy, from Terrell, was there with a bunch of other guys and their sons doing the roughing it camping thing. I met Stacy and Jennifer, a couple of teeny boppers in bikinis wanting gorgeous shots for their Myspace profiles. I met Jose, a grandpa that brought several of
his grandchildren to the park, but they came in flip flops which made it extremely difficult to get down some of them steep grades, so I assisted one of the girls, she may have been my daughter's age of about 8 or 9. I met tattoo guy (didn't catch his name) he was running around with no shirt on sporting his many tats. I was introduced to a whole gaggle of families, and for the life of me, couldn't keep up with all the names, but we shared where we lived and exchanged pleasantries.




I found two of the three caves, crawled down into them, took a very dark photo and then sat quietly just listening. I enjoyed the semi spelunking and thought that maybe after running the half marathon I'd try doing that. I was only at the park for a few hours, but I emerged a better woman for it.