3 replies to this topic

[don212]

this is not a collecting trip, but a family excursion. It is about 2.5 hours from Houston in the beautiful texas hill country. The San Marcos river arises from about 200 springs of varying size, producing 123 million gallons/day from the edwards aquifer. The area around the springs have been occupied by indians, spaniard explorers,and mexican settlers for 12000 years. In 1849 the area around the springs was dammed to build a grist mill.  The old shorelines were flooded, preserving archaeological sites, and forming Spring Lake, In 1927 the Rogers family bought the lake and built a resort hotel on it,s shore, They put glass bottom excursion boats on the beautiful clear lake. Then in 1951 they brought in people from Weeki Wachee Springs, to open the Aquarena, first theme park in Texas. It included an underwater theater like  Weeki Wachee , a skyride, a moving observation tower, crazy acts like Ralph the swimming pig,Eventually, just like so many Florida attractions it came on hard times.In 1994 the property was sold to the Texas State University in San Marcos. The college manages the lake through the Meadows Center for water and the environment. Access to the lake is controlled because of the archaeological sites and because it is home to 5 endangered species. these are Texas wild rice, Texas blind salamander, restricted to the edwards aquifer cave system, San Marcos salamander, restricted to this lake and its short river, the San Marcos gambusia, suspected extinct victim of interbreeding with mosquitofish, Fountain darter restricted to San Marcos, and even smaller Comal river. They still operate the vintage glass bottom boats . We took the 30 minute guided boat trip,$9,00 We saw a lot of fish and turtles, including spotted gar, guadalupe largemouth bass, and Texas Cichlid. it was fun. the water is like most springs no longer completely clear but kind of turquoise, The first floor of the old hotel contains educational displays and aquariums including fountain darters. fountain darters are more handsome than in Petersons . Males have red edged fins. We also rented kayaks  fromTG canoes and kayaks for a short excursion on the San Marcos river. Saw an enormous number of turtles, and various birds including yellow crowned night herons. the river is mostly within the city . water is cool 72 degrees , and quite clear.there are both quiet stretches and rapids. it is very popular for swimming, tubing , canoeing, there are several parks on  it's shore.  i'm afraid it is being loved to death. I took a short swim but did not have my mask. seems like it would be fun to snorkel or collect there, it was a weekday when we were there but on a summer weekend it would be crazy.

 

[Casper]

Cool...

I was there years ago.  Our 2nd Texas Tour.  I remember the sign for the diving pig at San Marcos, but he had retired.  I snorkeled a good bit and remember lots of Logperch, also a common shiner perhaps they were Whitetails, i remember being suprised to see my TN fish in TX.  I looked for Fountains but was unsure of the tiny darters in the weeds.  Also big Prawns were said to be but i did not see any.  My family and a friends tubed down the Comal and i had my head under water a lot.  I remember big red crays and being attacked by a Rio Grande Cichlid for pushing my finger into the black cloud of fry.  The was a German town nearby where we enjoyed Texas BBQ, unlike Tennessee's pork and myraid of sauces.  Snorkeled Barton Springs in Austin.  Nature cruise near Burnett, durn it, learn it.

Worthy of a return!

Thanks Don for a tease.

[Isaac Szabo]

Sounds fun. Thanks for the info guys. I've been wanting to explore that area and other TX spring-fed rivers for a while. I did get to do Balmorhea last fall, which was pretty neat.

[don212]

i am fascinated by the florida similarities, this river has rapids though, a fun feature missing here. and the weeki wachee connection,old texas and florida tourism both have that  weirdness