After Caprock Winery I traveled 166 miles southeast to the Abilene State Park.  Before getting to Texas, I was very comfortable with the New Mexico State Parks.  You drive into the park and check out the site where you would like to park, then go back to the pay station and deposit your money.  In Texas you must check in at the visitor center and tell them what type of site you are interested in.  They assign you a site and you pay your money and then proceed to the site.  I didn’t have any choice in the site except for shade and no shade.

I opted for a no shade site with water/electric hookups at $12/night.  There was also a $4/night entrance fee that is not included.  Thus your site is $16/night.  Not bad but quite a bit more then the New Mexico campgrounds where I was paying $4/night with water/ electric and $0 with no hookups(with my annual pass).  You can purchase a Texas State Parks Pass which is an annual pass that will cover the entrance fee.  If you are planning to visit many of the Texas state parks it may be beneficial to purchase the annual pass.  Cost of this pass is $60.

I was really surprised by the Abilene SP.  It was very big with trees everywhere.  They even had a huge swimming pool (although it was not open at the time), basketball court, baseball fields and even a bird blind, plus lots of hiking trails.

Be sure to click and then click again to enlarge all photos.

And again at this bridge.

If you don’t have an RV or a tent you can always opt to sleep in one of the screened shelter located throughout the park.

Or you can also select a wooden screened shelter as well.

Once I got set up I was off on a hike of the grounds.  I started hiking on the Eagle Trail, just a few yards from my campsite.  It wound around thru the woods and crossed the Elm creek at this bridge.

and again at this bridge.  It led to a small pond where I chatted with a couple who were fishing.  They had only caught one small fish but they were sure enjoying the beautiful day.

This stairway led to the swimming pool.  They had just filled it recently but it was not yet open.

Then around 7:00pm the deer started to come out to check the grounds for food.

This one was very friendly and almost came right up to me.

I am not one to feed the animals so it finally went on it’s way.

I stayed at this park for 2 nights and might have stayed longer if I wasn’t on a schedule to put me in Fort Worth before the Memorial Day weekend.