The high today was in the low 70s. We’ve had a couple of hard freezes and ice storms recently. I needed no excuse to head out on a hike at Spring Lake Natural Area.

Spring Lake Natural Area is part of the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance‘s parks and natural areas in and around San Marcos. It’s about 250 acres of undeveloped parkland located just above the headwaters of the San Marcos River. The SMGA has done a beautiful job of developing the area and it contains several hiking and biking trails. All the trails are well-marked and maintained. We stayed mainly on the Tonkawa trail and covered about 3 miles of it.

A little past the end of the Tonkawa trail is a beautiful little pond. The wind rustling the cattails sounded like falling water.

Spring Lake Natural Area Pond

The Hill Country Photography Club’s critique theme this month is red, so here’s one of my submissions. I think it’s a Pencil (or Christmas) Cactus (Cylindropuntia leptocaulis). Can any of you confirm that or identify it?

Spring Lake Natural Area Pencil Cactus

The bright red fruit popped out in the winter landscape. There was quite a bit of it along our hike.