Toledo Bend Reservoir, LA/TX

(NB I started this post months ago and never got around to posting it.  I've been traveling & realize I need to get some of this stuff done.) 
 
I did start it out with this:  A while back my husband had a business meeting at Cypress Bend Resort, Many LA, which is located next to the Toledo Bend Reservoir,  the largest lake in Texas and is part of the Texas - Louisiana  boarder (Wikipedia - Toledo Bend Reservoir).   Its on the western boarder but is in the central part of the state near Many, LA .

Cypress Bend Resort

Toledo Bend at Cypress Bend Resort

Toledo Bend looking north on LA-6/TX-21

  And ended up with this post about a Red Fox I saw there and is here @ Fox @ Cypress Bend Resort .  But the Red Fox was not what I had plan on writing about yet I did it because it was something quick and easy to turn out and I wanted to thank Silver Fox because she had helped me get my AW submission into the host since I was having so much technical difficulties doing that at that time.

So now I'm going to start over with this: My husband had a business trip near Many, LA and then he had to go to Austin Texas.  Because of all the driving involved and the timing of the meetings, and the fact that my schedule was free, we decided it would help him out a lot if I could go with him and help with the driving.  

The main thing on my mind about Toledo Bend was that the year before I had seen it and at the time it was 14 feet below normal pool stage due to the drought conditions that had existed for the past couple of years.  Here are a couple of pictures showing how low it was.

 

Toledo Bend Reservoir 14' below normal pool stage (5-23-2011) looking south

These pictures were taking as we were heading east crossing over the reservoir on Tx-21/LA-6.  At the time it amazed me that this reservoir was so low yet the Mississippi River was flooding and they had to open up the Morganza spillway to relieve the pressure of the flooding.

Toledo Bend Reservoir below normal pool stage (5-23-2011) looking south

   Well it was almost a year later when I was finally able to get back to it and we had finally been getting some rain so I wanted to see how the reservoir was doing.  It was really nice to see that the water was now about 5' below normal pool stage.  Its such a big body of water it made me think about how much water we must have gotten to be able to raise it that much since it had been down so much.  The surface area alone is 185,000' (65 miles long x 10 miles wide.)
So here's some pictures of what it looked like on the Louisiana side.

 
There was a nice little trail to walk while at the resort and I was pleased that it took us to the reservoir edge so you could get a good view of Toledo Bend.

Cypress Bend Resort trail leading to Toledo Bend - heading west

 Here you could see a little inlet were a creek emptied into the reservoir.  The creek wasn't well defined and it was very swampy there. 

Toldedo Bend Resevoir looking south

 Here's looking out at the reservoir.  I could tell by the water marks that this body of water was still below normal pool stage. 

Toledo Bend Reservoir looking west toward Texas

Toledo Bend Reservoir looking south toward the area where it is damned

 With this picture I was amazed at how the colors shifted on the lake as to whether the sky was being reflected in it or whether it was in a shaded area by one of the overhangs. 

 What was really interesting was to see the land slides/ slumping that had occurred along its banks since the water level was still down. 

slumping on Toledo Bend Reservoir on the eastern shore

In one spot it was so bad it wiped out the trail. They blocked it off and we had to walk around it.  After seeing that it made me really leery about getting too close to the edge.

Slumping on Toledo Bend Reservoir on the eastern shore

 The trail was only about a mile long but it was a very beautiful and interesting one to hike.  It was a great way to spend the morning while my husband was in his meetings.

 The meetings were over and we had "Go West" over to Austin. 

 And finally here's some view of the reservoir as we crossed over the bridge LA-6/Tx-21.

Toledo Bend Reservoir heading west (looking north)  on LA-6/Tx-21 with it still below normal pool stage

Toledo Bend Reservoir, below pool stage near the TX boarder (west shore) on TX-21/LA-6

  Even though the water was up, you could tell it still could use some more to get it back to normal pool stage.


I Muse:  I wonder if I'll be able to get back to this area since it's such a beautiful place to visit.

I Muse:  There is a lot of debate going on whether Louisiana should sell the water from that reservoir to other states out west.  Its a tough call to make but after seeing how low it can get during times of drought I think it might not be such a great deal after all to sell something that we may need ourselves.