31st Annual Parker County Peach Festival July 11 in Downtown Weatherford

Saturday, July 11, 2015, the 31st Annual Parker County Peach Festival takes place in beautiful Downtown Weatherford in the area surrounding the Parker County Courthouse.

This is a one day festival, opening at 8am, closing at 5pm.

There is a $5 admission fee. Children 12 and under go to the festival for free.

This year Parker County Farmers are reporting a Bumper Crop of Parker County Peaches.

Previous years festival goers have been advised to arrive early because peach products run out as the day progresses. We do not know if the Bumper Crop is going to have the festival supplied with peach products til closing time.

Among the peach products we have sampled at past Parker County Peach Festivals are Peach Juleps, Peach Smoothies, Peach Cobbler, Peach Pie, Peach Ice Cream and a plain ol' fresh Parker County Peach.

You can go to our Parker County Peach Festival webpage for a good look at what you will find Saturday in Weatherford, Texas.

Flooding Has Forced Temporary Closure of Oklahoma's Turner Falls Park

Torrential rain in Oklahoma is flooding Turner Falls Park, forcing the City of Davis, on May 7, 2015, to close the popular park until the flooding recedes.

That is Turner Falls falling a lot of water you see here.

The flooding at the base of the falls has Turner Falls looking a lot shorter than its usual 77 feet.

The photos were taken by the Davis Police Department, then posted on the Davis Police Department Facebook page, along with saying...

Sorry for the inconvenience of Turner Falls being closed but it's not safe to open. We will open as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

Above you are looking at the flooded swimming hole that, come summer, will have a lot of people cooling off beneath Turner Falls.

Go to our Turner Falls Park webpage and you will see photos of what Turner Falls looks like when it is not flooding, including, if I remember right, a photo of my humble self underneath the then trickling falls.

A few years ago we visited Turner Falls in winter. At that point in time Honey Creek was running high with some flooding, but nothing like is currently happening. Go to our Turner Falls Park in Winter webpage and you will see photos of a semi-flooding Honey Creek and Turner Falls falling a lot of water.

Hippie Hollow Skinny Dipping At The Only Legal Clothing Optional Public Park In Texas

What you are looking at here is a screen cap from a Durango Texas blog post from June 1, 2008 which documented our Clothing Optional Hippie Hollow Nude Beach in Austin experience.

Hippie Hollow has a Facebook page.

Wikipedia also has a Hippie Hollow page.

The Hippie Hollow Facebook page uses the Wikipedia article as its source for Hippie Hollow information.

From that information we learn that Hippie Hollow Park used to be known as McGregor County Park. The Hippie Hollow land is owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority, which is the governmental entity responsible for Travis Lake, which is the lake one skinny dips in at Hippie Hollow.

The Lower Colorado River Authority leased the Hippie Hollow Park area to Travis County whose Parks Department has been in charge of the only legally recognized clothing optional public park in Texas since 1985.

If you go to Hippie Hollow expecting to find a nice sandy beach you may be disappointed to instead find a rugged, rocky cove that can be a bit adventuresome to traverse.

This area of Lake Travis was known as a skinny dipping swimming zone for years. Then, during the American Cultural Revolution of the 1960s it became more popular than ever as a free-spirited destination. It was after the rock festival known as Woodstock that the name Hippie Hollow came in to existence.

In the 1970s the increase in skinny dipping drew some complaints, making Hippie Hollow a bit controversial, but the Travis County sheriff at the time, Raymond Frank, wisely decided it was better for the county's cops to focus on more serious offenses than skinny dipping, thus rendering Hippie Hollow to be the only legally recognized public park in Texas where it is not considered a crime to swim without a swimsuit.

Texas Hill Country Bluebonnet Wildflowers Are Putting On A Good 2015 Show

We have been seeing reports that this year's Texas Bluebonnets blooming in Texas Hill Country is the biggest bloom of bluebonnets in several years.

The last time we witnessed the Texas Hill Country Wildflowers the colorful day started near Fredericksburg at Wildseed Farms, where, along with hundreds of others, we walked in fields of wildflowers of various sorts being grown for their seeds.

That day continued on to a hike to the summit of Enchanted Rock for an elevated view of Hill Country, before continuing on, heading north through the most colorful display of wildflowers we had ever eye witnessed.

Tiptoe Through Texas Tulips

A family of farmers with roots back to Holland have planted for your flower plucking pleasure the first Tulip Field in Texas.

Texas-Tulips has a well done website, a screen cap of which you see here.

From the website you can find all the information you need so that you can go do some tiptoeing through the Texas Tulips.

Texas-Tulips is located near Pilot Point, that being a small town east of Denton at the north end of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Deer Park and the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site Monument

Near the Texas town of Deer Park is where you will find the San Jacinto Battleground Natural Historic Site, which is a National Historic Site where the 570 foot tall San Jacinto Monument marks where the Battle of San Jacinto took place, victoriously, winning Texas its independence from Mexico.

The town of Deer Park was founded in 1892, with the town's being named Deer Park due to its proximity to a deer preserve.

Deer Park is the Texas town closest  to the San Jacinto Battleground Site, as such, Deer Park bills itself as "The Birthplace of Texas."

Deer Park is near the Houston Ship Channel and Buffalo Bayou, which allows the Battleship Texas to be docked as part of the 1,200 acre San Jacinto Battleground Site.

For more information about Deer Park and the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site go to our Eyes on Texas entry about Deer Park.

Almost That Time of Year When Texas Blooms Colorful With Wildflowers

Soon March will arrive, and with March will come the arrival of Spring, and with the arrival of Spring will come that time of the year when the hills of Texas  come alive with the sight of a technicolor display of wildflowers.

The photo you see here was taken north of the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

When the conditions are right, with the right amount of sun and rainfall, the prime Texas Wildflower season lasts from March through May.

For more Texas Wildflower photos, along with a list of some of the more than 5,000 species of Texas Wildflowers go to our Eyes on Texas Wildflowers webpage.