Turkey Trip #2: Star Struck

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Copper Breaks State Park is making money hand over fist every night.  It's an International Dark Sky Association location - meaning that the light pollution from nearby cities is small enough you can see an incredible amount of the night sky. We just happened to luck out that the moon phase was waning gibbous and she wasn't rising till nearly 3am.  So, cuddled up with our electric heating blankets and our zero gravity camping chairs, a hot tea (for RDB) and spike hot chocolate (for me) we were in awe of the Milky Way over our campsite for this one-night stopover at the park.

After one of the heating blankets decided to friz out (oops!) we got in the truck and drove over to the dark sky viewing area on the campground (a bit further away from all the campers, making it even darker) and RDB set up the tripod with a long exposure on his iPhone 13 Pro Max - and y'all, OMG, the pictures!!

If I lived out here, I don't think I'd ever sleep! But sleep we finally did, and Monday morning we woke and went into town for a brief moment to check out the Foard County courthouse and grab a quick geocache.

Back at the park, we stopped in to headquarters to drop off a thank you gift to the rangers, and tour the small museum that they had inside.  It would take you less than 30 minutes to peruse the exhibits, learning about the Comanche Indian tribes that first inhabited this land and the ranchers who eventually took over. 

RDB later asked a thought provoking question of "what would society look like today if the Native Americans hadn't been pushed from their land, and if their culture of really being respectful of the Earth had become the driving force in America's creation?"  It's hard to imagine what a world this would be if we all had the mindset of being stewards of this beautiful planet... 

With it being the first Sunday of Advent, I lit a candle and can only hope that someday we'll all respect and love this blue and green globe we get to do life on.  

We were at Copper Breaks State Park, in the Comanche camping loop, site #11, 50a/W.  Immediately across from the bathhouse, and unfortunately, the dumpsters.  Beware of the flying stinging bugs (wasps, bees).  By Monday morning we had the entire park to ourselves.  Every campsite has a shelter over the table that's reminiscent of a teepee, which provides great sun coverage.  Heads up on a bit of construction: the bridge into the camping areas is down to a very skinny one lane, and the park website says they'll begin construction on a newer crossover in spring of '22 - it may be worth a call to the park to double check on that before you go.

For more camping pictures, go here.

For a video drive thru of the campground, go here.