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River Tracing: Rio Frio 2
For more “River Tracing: Rio Frio,” scroll down to the post below or follow this link.
We are tempted to call this tracing “The Mystery of the Disappearing River.”
Somewhere northeast of Uvalde, the Rio Frio simply dries up. At least during the summer. And during a drought. I’m not just referring to its tributary known as the Dry Frio. The above image of the waterless main course was taken under the old railroad bridge outside of Knippa.
The Frio even disappears from two of our three most trusted maps. I’m no hydrologist, but the culprit may be the heavily irrigated plains around Uvalde. My guess is that the Frio contributes to the aquifer, which is then depleted by agriculture. And there’s lots of it for miles around this bustling town of 14,000.
After shopping for Texana at Uvalde’s Opera House Antique Store, then eating enormous spicy Juan burgers at Towne House cafe, we head into the vast mesquite brush of the South Texas triangle. Here, the Frio reappears in little rivulets and pools under thirsty tree motts as we move through Pearsall, Dilley, Cotulla, Fowlertown and Tilden.
Then, almost without warning, the Frio spreads into the Choke Canyon Reservoir. This wide, shallow lake provides water for the city of Corpus Christi. The lake is low these days, although not as dramatically depleted as Lake Travis. Fishermen hug its shores. Bird life swarms. Last winter, a stray pine flycatcher attracted thousands of birders to Choke Canyon State Park.
Our most exotic sightings on this trip are masses of crested caracaras, raptors that look positively tropical to us, but are common in this thorny brush country. We spot a four-foot-long alligator just beyond the grassy shore (above). Later, we read that the state park is the westernmost home of the American alligator.
In the short distance between Choke Canyon and the town of Three Rivers, where the Frio feeds merges with the Nueces, early 20th-century ranches are interrupted by an enormous federal penitentiary and an old refinery now owned by Valero. In the shadow of that refinery, we visit Tips Park, part municipal recreation, part campground for winter Texans. At an artificial falls (above), a sign reads “Alligators exist in the park.”
We believe the sign maker.
More to come …
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