Blackstone Heritage State Park

Today Hubby and I decided to make the most of the sunshine and headed out for a little nature walk with Tembo. (Tembo, formerly known as Marley, was named after a baby elephant in the John Wayne movie Hatari!, which is a GREAT movie!) We headed down south to the Blackstone Heritage State Park, which I hadn't been to before. Hubby thinks he's been there before, but I told him if even after going he's not sure, then it doesn't count!


Unfortunately, just a few minutes before we arrived thunder clouds began forming, and were looking rather ominous by the time we got out of the car! One of the park rangers was driving around on a golf cart warning people that there were thunder storms with strong winds and heavy rains expected to come through in 10-15 minutes!


Well, I was hardly dressed for rain since it was 90 degrees and humid, but the sun was still peeking through in spots, so we decided to see a bit of the trail before the rain started really coming down!
There was a nice carriage trail running along the river, with loads of flowers and flowering shrubs growing along it. The path was warm, but the trees shaded it in places so we had a chance to cool off!
(Photo from website.) There is a canoe put-in right by the visitor center, and since there was very little motion to the water (see all that pollen floating on it in the previous picture? It wasn't moving,) I imagine it would be a nice, easy paddle!

If you head over the bridge to the left it's a short walk to the end of the path where there is access to a part of the river that is much cleaner. I decided to let Tembo dip his feet and get a drink to cool off, but was careful not to let him get in too deep so we wouldn't be driving home with a wet dog.

Unfortunately, Tembo had other ideas!


I let him in ankle-deep, and he promptly laid down! Oh well, at least we'd brought the dog towel with us!


Seeing as he was already thoroughly wet, I decided to let him have a little fun! Shortly thereafter another ranger came by to warn us that the torrential rains were imminent, so we high-tailed it back to the car and headed home!


I forgot to take pictures of it all, but there were fields to play in, a series of trails to hike, and tens of picnic tables scattered across the lawn and in the woods. We only got to spend about half an hour there today, but we'll definitely be heading back another day!