Devils River State Natural Area: Austin Travels

Very beautiful setup for this week's Austin Travels visit here with Pamela Block, who is back from another trip a little closer to the border to an area you know pretty well, the Devil's River General Area. Right. And it's expanded, you said. Yes, so I've paddled the Devil's River five different times, but there is a state natural area. There's two units now. So the original unit of the park was called the Del Norte Unit, and that was about 19,000 acres. Well, recently they've added a southern unit, and that's called the Dan Hughes. It's named after somebody who donated the land and so it's just recently open, was dedicated a cou- ple of weeks ago I went out Not to paddle the river, but to camp and do some hiking. And my trip coincided with the annual monarch butterfly migration, which was really cool. Okay. Was that part of the trip or did you not have? No, I knew it was happening and I went out there specifically to see it. I've been on a paddle trip along that river when the monarchs were coming through. So I went out so I could photograph them. And it's amazing. There's a lot of purple sage in that area and they cluster all over these bushes and they hang. They hang in big groups in the trees, and it's really beautiful. This is sort of a migratory... Right. They're coming down towards Mexico from the northern U.S. and Canada this time of year. The migration starts in late September, and it typically runs through early November. So there's still a couple of weeks that you can catch it. And you might see some of the butterflies in the Austin area, but they're really mostly further west. And we know, talking to you before, you love traveling some for bird migration and to watch birds. Wildlife. Yeah, right. This is kind of the same idea. Yeah, but it's kind of very beautiful in its own right. Yeah, and the Devils River State Natural Area, this new southern unit, the Dan Hughes unit, is a great place to experience it. You really need a more rugged vehicle to get down to the campground. A high-clearance vehicle is recommended. There are six primitive campsites there, and you need to book it in advance. Three of them are hike-to, so you need to carry your stuff not very far, like maybe a quarter of a mile. And then there's three drive-up campsites. They have a brand-new, really nice visitor center when you check in. And the other thing to remember is when you check in, you have to watch a short, it's like a 10-minute kind of orientation film, so you understand that this is a state natural area, which is a little different than a state park. It's set up more to protect the wildlife than it is for a recreation area. Exactly. And this is an extremely pristine river, and we really need to protect it. And you need to pack in everything that you take. Pack out everything that you bring in. Now, again, you come to us after having traveled literally all over the world, or sometimes you're up in Canada or something like that, and we'll say, OK, this thing you just did, we're getting toward a time of year where maybe you can't do it anymore. I would imagine where you just were these last few months can get obviously pretty toasty down there. And then we're kind of coming into a nice time. This is prime time. So fall and spring are the best time to be out there. In fact, I was out there a week and a half ago, and it was right when that cold front hit. And that also kind of stirred up the butterflies a bit, I think, so we were lucky with that. But you don't want to go to this park in the middle of the summer. I don't. No, but right now, you know, it's camping season and camping weather. Absolutely. Go online and make reservations in advance. You do not want to drive four hours to the park. And a lot of that drive is on a rugged gravel road again. So it's not a trip that you want to go out and then find out that it's booked. And again, because it's a state natural area and not a park, it has limited capacity. So they're not trying to cram a bunch of people in there. They're trying to have as little impact on the wildlife as possible. So you go online, get that reservation. Like you said, the next couple of weeks should still be nice for the butterflies. Yeah. And I'm sure more information about that. And so much else at Austin Travels. That's it. Wonderful. Pamela Blount, we appreciate it, as always. Thank you.