Wildflower bumper crop

The much-needed rains that we enjoyed this winter all-but-guaranteed a top-notch wildflower season, and that's exactly what we've had.

On our recent trip along the Colorado River in central Texas, we were treated to a practically non-stop wildflower extravaganza. 

I wish I'd been able to get a good shot of some of the roadside fields full of, mainly, coreopsis like the beauties above. But since most of the roads we were traveling on were pretty narrow, with infrequent places to stop, I wasn't ever able to get a good shot.

Most of the photos in this post, including the one above, were taken on the island where we camped the first night. Golly! It was just awash in flowers! Mostly the aforementioned coreopsis, but there were all kinds of other lovelies as well. Even some late bluebonnets, as you can see in this closeup of Michael and Marilyn's camp table centerpiece:

You might notice the rather barren-looking soil that was around our campsites in the background here. Apparently, it wasn't too barren! Rather, just right for growing a veritable garden.

more coreopsis by the stream

one of my favorite shots...with a couple of poppies (?) in the crowd

even the guys past their prime lent beauty to the landscape

another perspective...

...and another

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We saw more flowers on the rest of the trip, too. Here's some handsome prickly poppy by the roadside in Bend, where we stopped for some ice cream.

I saw more impressive poppies, including this giant, near our campsite in Colorado Bend State Park...

And also near the campsite was one of my favorite Texas flowers, a shy wine cup...

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Just to show that I'm not overly prejudiced in favor of flowering plants, I was also quite impressed by this fellow, growing out of a very damp log near our very damp campsite at Barefoot Campground...

I was also pleased with the way my new camera's macro setting handled this closeup. I tried it again a couple of weeks later, on a Guadalupe River excursion, to get this shot. One of my fellow-paddlers pointed the lovely flower out to me, but I can't remember what she said it was called! If you can help identify it, leave a note in the comments...

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Which brings me to my last photo, which will serve as something of a teaser for my next post, as well as being a shot I'm quite proud of...

The picture was taken near our campsite at Llano's city park (a great deal and a fine place to camp). The flowers remain mystery blooms, in spite of Marilyn's intensive research with our available flower books. But the mirror-like water in the background is the Llano River, spreading out behind the dam in the middle of town. 

In my next post, I'll have more to say about the Llano, my "bonus river," and will show you what it looks like upstream from the park. Stay tuned!