Creative hiking

We had gone hiking last weekend with a group that likes to combine being with nature and creating art. Though it seems like the most obvious thing to do, this was my first time doing this. In all the countless times I've gone hiking, I've never stopped to sketch or paint what I saw or felt! So this was interesting.

We went to the Grelle Recreation Area in Spicewood, Texas. The trail was a short, 2 miles through some hilly land, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were some pretty tall trees there, with plenty of shade - something you cannot take for granted in Texas.



We soon came to our first creative stop. Here we disbanded for about 20 minutes, when each of us went off to observe and create - one person wrote beautiful words, another took photos and yet another person made some sketches. I found this fallen log and first took some pictures.



When I went closer to the log, I found on it lots and lots of prickly seed pods!


They had all burst open already, and were scattered all over the log along with small dried brown leaves. As I looked at them, it seemed as if I was looking at a bunch of discarded fake eyelashes!


The more I thought about them looking like eyelashes, the more they seemed like little tree-eyes to me! The image of a tree with lots of seed-pod eyes popped into my head and so I put away my camera and started a sketch, which I later finished at home. Raghav thinks it looks creepy. :)




The seed pods were so amazing that I wanted to bring some home with me. I almost did, but then it didn't feel right to move them from this place where they belonged, so I took some pictures of them to take with me.



We continued the hike after this first creative stop. The trail was quite wooded and pretty.



One cannot go into the wilderness in Texas and not see cacti!



At our second creative stop, I took a bunch of bark pictures. There were several interesting trees there with totally different types of bark. I will save those pictures for another post. Raghav got this interesting shot of a tiny jumping spider!



Further along the hike, I was amazed to see Fall colors - here in Texas!


Towards the end, the trail flattened out to where there usually is a lake. It was totally dry that day though, but the ground was covered with these little plants that smelled absolutely heavenly! No idea what kind of plant it was.


As we finished the little hike, the landscape was flat and open. Very serene and the perfect image of Fall.


I think I like this "hiking for the creative types" group and am looking forward to the next trip already!