And time your departure while they are still emerging because while we didn’t really see them from the upper observation deck, we definitely experienced them up close and personal on the road as we left! Make sure you plan your visit April through October.
#Old tunnel state park how to
(The lower observation deck wasn’t open on the day of the week we visited.) I seriously need to figure out how to up my selfie game. The bats emerge into the trees and it’s hard to see from the upper observation deck. I just want to point out that the mom in the lower left of the picture is having to point out where her minion should be looking.
#Old tunnel state park free
(I envisioned our Tiny Toyota Tardis bursting free from the ginormous sand storm of bats that had completely enveloped us. They continued to travel with us for a couple of miles down that tiny Texas back road** until we finally out horse-powered them. Bats!! Those little buggers were swarming just above our Tiny Toyota Tardis, helpfully devouring the mosquitoes that like to feast on our flesh during the summer here in Texas. As we were sharing our perceptions, The Manling noticed something traveling in the sky about 10 feet above our car. We hoofed it back to the Tiny Toyota Tardis (because the Yaris is bigger on the inside) and headed her toward our home away from home.
We eventually allowed the strongly-scented ammonia air (um, guano) to signal that we were good-to-go…home. She excitedly explained that it was! Bless her. We asked our park staffer if that smoke was the colony emerging. Finally we saw what appeared to be the smoke monster from Lost smudging the view of the trees. After waiting – quietly – for about 10 minutes, we noticed another park staffer down near the tree line waving her hands to our park staffer, who let us know that they had begun their emergence. I started whispering to The Manling at this point because there was park staff on-site and I didn’t want us to get the boot so close to what was sure to be an amazing spectacle. I figured they must be anticipating the awe until I read the signage asking everyone to be library quiet. We arrived at OTSP about 8:35pm, quickly parked and made a beeline toward the people congregated on the upper viewing deck. Plus, the bit of education regarding the possibility of them crawling up your legs if they collided and fell is kinda priceless information in my book. Maybe a little too closely? But we saw, smelled and heard them. I gotta say, on the private land with the hole-in-the-ground cave, we definitely saw bats. Surprise, surprise, The Manling was in that camp. Exactly half of us were “into” this several years ago when we Groupon’d a deal for viewing on someone’s private land in the Hill Country. The smiles were before the bats emerged from that abyss behind us. There are caves on privately owned Hill Country land where the things fly like bats outta you-know-where just because the sun is setting (see photos below) and you’d better not be nearby if one falls because, Hello! They will crawl up your legs until they are high enough to launch themselves back into the air from hanging on you! Knowledge is power, my friend, and that little tidbit of knowledge was enough to make me seriously consider power walking back to the car! And now? We discovered that there is a whole Texas State Park completely devoted to the little guys.
There’s a bridge in Austin where millions emerge in a whispy-type ribbon that is completely mesmerizing. All of these Mexican free-tailed bats hole up in the Hill Country for some reason April – October. The fine folks in the Texas Hill Country have this thing about watching bats emerge at sunset. We had adventure after adventure after adventure already on this particular day, but since seeing the bats emerge is a sunset activity and we were only an hour away, we decided to go for it.įirst off, if you’re wondering what the big deal is, I’ll tell you, dear reader. The night that I went (early June 2018), it was at the end of a long day spent state parking with The Manling.
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