Mansford Dam Park

This afternoon Kris, Katie, and I went to visit the Sometimes Islands. This is a rock formation near the south end of Lake Travis, the large reservoir west of Austin on the Colorado River. These islands appear and disappear as the reservoir level fluctuates. If you look at the location on Google Earth you can look back at old images and watch the islands appear and disappear. The image shown was taken last March. Things have changed dramatically. The "exceptional" drought here has dropped the level to near-record low levels. I read in the local paper that the islands were now connected by land to make a peninsula. I was a little concerned that the recent rains might make them inaccessible again, so I made an effort to get out there. I was not prepared for the scale of the islands, the reservoir, or the Mansfield Dam. (I was also not prepared for the size of the entrance fee-$10-to get into the county park.) I had seen a (smaller) reservoir drained before many years ago in northern Wisconsin, so the sight of clamshells among the remains of stumps was not unknown to me. We found some nice shell fossils, too. The wasteland-looking landscape was vaguely reminiscent of the area around Mt. St. Helens - instead of lightweight pumice there were occasional large chunks of polystyrene foam. Overall we enjoyed the rocky 3-mile round trip hike to end of the peninsula and back, but I'm a bit sore from carrying Katie on my shoulders on parts of the uneven trail.