A Walk on the Cottonwood Trail in Allen

It's walking season! We've not had much time to take in walks given our busy fall schedule of festival-going, Halloween, and so forth, but Sunday evening, we took some time to do so on the extensive Cottonwood Trail in Allen. Toby and I walked it a bit back in the early spring on a cold morning, but haven't been back since. On the evening of Sunday, October 27, we finally got out and took Augie out with us. (But I'm only now blogging about it.)

There's actually more to this trail than shown here. We started further south than what you can see here and went further north. 

We started our walk from some softball fields where we parked. It was a lovely sunny afternoon with beautiful golden autumn light. All along this trail are historical markers and signs about the railroad that used to run through here with stops for refilling with water.

Sunlight through a cottonwood tree. I love the sound of the wind through them. 

There are a number of great bridges along the way as well crossing over the Cottonwood Creek. 

The water was up a bit from the recent rains and the little dam was neat to watch.

We then headed off trail to do a bit of geocaching - and we were successful! I got my first find since January 7 of this year!

Found it! 

It was a rough slog to get to it. The area was overgrown with thorny brambles.

We headed back to the trail to continue our walk.

This squirrel fascinated me. He was eating some of the stone. I wondered if he realized he had a mineral deficiency and if that stone provided what he needed. 

Toby then found another potential cache but it must have been muggled or swept away in high water.

We all three thoroughly searched under the bridge, but to no avail.

There were yet more bridges and waterways to look at as we progressed, as well as a number of places with thicker areas of trees.

Some great reds! 

I like pics of water running over rocks, even if its just under an overpass.

Look at the golden light and shadows there. I love it. 

See the golden leaves? Just beautiful.

A field of goldenrods in the golden evening sun.

This was actually not the prettiest. There was a good bit of debris there as we often find in Texas waterways. Always disappointing, but we try to overlook it.

The water itself was actually quite clear.

Continuing north.

These pics are from our way back where we were able to see some beautiful color on the trees. You'd think that with our travels that local color would not impress us. You'd be wrong. We love everything we can take in about nature wherever we are. This is actually turning out to be one of the most colorful falls since 2013.

We were now on our way back and the sun was quickly setting, but those red trees - Chinese Pistachio - were even more spectacular.

The sky was beautiful as well - but it is so hard to capture.

So we headed back to the car and I was able to get these last two pics of the sky.

That was our first evening fall walk in some time - really it may have been the first one this season - but it would not be our last. 

Thanks for reading!