After yesterday being spent in the city, we elected to go off into nature today. Not far from our RV park is another free State of Texas ferry that will allow everyone except those with fuel cans in their vehicles to board and ride across the busy shipping lane leading from the Gulf of Mexico to Galveston Bay. We are staying on the Galveston side but not 20 minutes after we boarded we were driving off the ferry onto the Bolivar Peninsula.
Bolivar Peninsula is actually a long sand bar between the Bay and the Gulf. We drove east on TX-87 through some little shoreline communities where most of the houses are built up off the ground atop columns, some of them more than 20′ high. Must flood around there. About 50 miles later, we turned off on some side roads to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.
Anahuac sits in the middle of an enormous flat area and is riddled with ponds and waterways. The water here must be full of tasty stuff to eat because thousands of wading birds, ducks, geese, cormorants, coots, roseate spoonbills, turtles, gallinules, ospreys, songbirds and alligators all were busy feeding. There is a great loop drive around a big marsh called Shoveler Pond and we liked the scenery so much we circled it twice.
By the time we were done exploring, it was late afternoon so we headed the 60 miles back to the ferry but not before spotting a big group of javelinas grazing in some farmer’s field. When we stopped to take pictures, they bolted for the brush. The ride on the ferry was enhanced by the addition of another fabulous Texas sunset. The sunrises and sunsets here in Texas have been stunning.
For some birdy and ferry pix, click here