Roots, rocks and the color purple

Saturday the weather was beautiful and the rivers are still running well—and that made for a most enjoyable paddle on the upper Guadalupe, starting here, near Comfort:

As some of you may know, I'm a tree hugger, in the sense of often finding trees to be the most interesting part of a landscape. [as well as in other senses, I admit] And yesterday I particularly focused my picture-taking on the roots of the wonderful cypress trees lining the river, trees that are just beginning to leaf out.

Here's a handsome collection of these beauties, with their lovely intertwined roots on display:

I wonder if my eye was especially drawn to the roots today because the high water we had earlier in the spring washed them clean, and now the level is low enough that you can see them clearly in all their twisted glory?


Whatever the reason, I really enjoyed seeing all these fabulous roots. And it was easy to take their pictures as I glided by, since there were few rapids where the camera had to be safely stowed away, out of reach.

I also saw some spectacular rocks, another favorite landscape element. Here's one that looks for all the world like it's just about to slide into the water. But I wonder how long it's been there?

The most impressive rocks along the rivers in this part of the country, though, are the limestone cliffs. And although I know I just showed you some of these gorgeous formations a few weeks ago, I couldn't help snapping some more pictures on this trip. Here's one:

All this paddling, photo-snapping, and bird-, tree-, and rock-watching does give you an appetite. Several of us stopped in at Po Po's, a old-fashioned [meaning giant portions of basic food] restaurant near the small town of Welfare. Its ambiance is as much fun as its food—I had the first fried chicken I've had in, probably, years, and Henry managed to finish not only a large chicken-fried steak, but a milkshake, to boot!—as you can see from the shot on the right of just part of its amazing and ever-growing collection of souvenir plates.

Oh, yes, what about that Color Purple reference? I couldn't help but remember the movie when we stopped by this amazing field full of verbena, in between our takeout and Po Po's. No way we could walk, or drive, by this and not notice it.

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Henry has blog post about the trip, with many more photos of the actual paddling.