NPS Unit Count: 73
Hey there Adventurers! The Sidekick and I went out to Texas to catch the Great American Eclipse in April last year. AND IT WAS AMAZING. The US was blessed to have easy access to not one, not even two, but THREE amazing eclipses between 2017 and 2024, and I got to see all three of them! The eclipses in 2017 and 2024 were both total eclipses, sometimes referred to as a “diamond ring” eclipse and the one in 2023 was an annular eclipse, also referred to as a “ring of fire” eclipse. All were awesome, but the diamond ring eclipse just hits a lot different that the ring of fire. The reason for the difference is the the moon is further away from the earth during the annular eclipse and does not entirely cover the disc of the sun, whereas the total eclipse sees the moon closer to the earth and it will cover the sun entirely. Apparently I did not make an entry on my 2017 eclipse experience. But you can find my entry on the 2023 annular eclipse here.
To be sure, this trip was complicated. Firstly, I could have went up to my family in Indiana, which was in the path of totality. However, being April, and having spent 22 Aprils in Indiana, you never know what the weather will be like. I also entertained other areas in totality served by an airport that Southwest flies to. However, there was the same basic problem: April weather. In the end we settled on almost the exact same area we caught the 2023 Annular Eclipse: Texas. The appeal here is it is south, meaning probably better weather. It was also close. With the eclipse being on Monday afternoon and both of us needing to be back at work the following day, there was a non stop flight between Austin and Tampa that left after the eclipse and got in that evening at a reasonable hour.
Months ahead I started looking for lodging. The path went though the San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas areas. The best flight pattern was to Austin, so the search was mostly there. I was sorta letting the price of lodging lead the way. And it wasn’t good news at all. Seriously, hotels and Airbnbs were advertising in the THOUSANDS of dollars PER NIGHT for that weekend. It was looking pretty bleak. But then we found and booked two spots in the Waco area. One was an RV on the eastern side of the city. The other was about 45 minutes to the west of Waco and out of the path so we would have to drive a bit. Waco was directly in the path, and in fact, almost the best place in the US for the eclipse. Because both of these places were coming up at like $150 bucks a night I booked both in case the hosts forgot what that weekend was and decided to cancel on us and then re-list with the jacked up prices. Coming into Friday before the eclipse, lodging was looking good, and in fact I canceled the western one and let people in an eclipse group know about it. The next problem: car. I had booked a rental car months in advance. On that Friday, I got home from work in the early afternoon and noticed the Facebook groups were starting to grumble about rental cars. Then I saw people saying that the Austin area was entirely out of cars. I immediately made a call to my rental agency. While on hold, I opened up Turo and found a car with an hour or two cancellation policy and booked it. It was reasonable…like maybe $400 for the 3 days. After being on hold with the rental agency, I was indeed told that they had no car for us! But I had the new Turo booking! It was a a little pricier but wow…super fortunate!
Meanwhile, the weather was not looking great. The forecast was pretty overcast but allowed for some uncertainty. So, Saturday morning we got on the plane. Even though everything logistically was a “go”…it was still a great big question mark if our lodging or car would actually be available to us when we got there. Literally, we were in for maybe 6 or 700 dollars for an event that it seems everyone was paying thousands. And who knew how the weather was going to go! But, we landed, the car was delivered in person to us, and we got to the Airbnb, an RV in an RV park on the banks of a river on the Eastern edge of Waco. We were there, with a car, and beds to sleep in!
During the day on Saturday we stopped at a National Park Site in Waco called Waco Mammoth National Monument. This is a mammoth excavation site and is mostly indoors. In the planning for this event, we thought it would be really cool to check out the eclipse here! This site has a Bark Ranger program to boot! We got there and the place was packed. The line for tickets to get inside was like maybe an hour or two long. So we made a real quick decision that we were not going in. We did however find a ranger, the one who was in charge of the Bark Ranger program, and we spent a good long time chatting! So it was still a worthwhile visit! We got eclipse passport stamps and some swag. But it became very apparent that this was not going to be the ideal place to catch the eclipse due to crowding. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a whole lot to take pictures of other than the sign.
After leaving Waco Mammoth we went exploring. Some Google researching was done, and after driving around a while we found the spot: Cameron Park, specifically Lovers Leap, which overlooks the Brazos River from 100 feet above. There isn’t much parking, but it is a beautiful area up on the cliff overlooking the surrounding area. And, if it were to not be available for the eclipse, there were a whole bunch of other spots along the road through this area that looked like they would do. After an evening hanging out in Waco we turned in. Oddly enough were were staying very close to the Branch Davidian compound, of the David Koresh cult fame. On Sunday we drove out there to take a peak. The compound is still there and the Branch Davidians still live there. How bizarre!
So, Monday arrived. The weather forecast had indeed improved, but it still wasn’t great. It looked like there MIGHT be a chance of some open skies during totality. We drove up to the park early on Sunday, maybe 9 or 10 AM. We found a great parking area and got our spot set up and staked out! We popped some beers and wine and chilled, chatting with those that wanted. The cloudiness was there, but honestly was not nearly as bad as I had feared, and I was optimistic. The eclipse started. I had my phone set up with a filer and tripod. During the lead up to totality I got some awesome shots! The sky had cleared enough to actually see the eclipse! There were occasions where the clouds obscured the sun. But the big question was…what happens during the time totality! The 2017 eclipse was glorious but there were wispy clouds interfering. As totality grew closer, there were some big clouds lurking around…and to be honest, it was looking like it could go either way. If those clouds moved past it would be great, if they didn’t it would not be visible. At precisely 1:38 PM the total solar eclipse began. It was mostly cloud free, and the small clouds that were there, seemed to fade away. You can see this in my video and apparently it is a “thing” that this can happen with the thin clouds as the temperature changes. For 4 minutes and 13 seconds there was nearly nothing to obscure the eclipse. It was amazing and totally awesome. Although I had been lucky enough to see this 7 years prior it was not nearly as clear and glorious as this one was! Absolutely jaw dropping. The temperature change, the quiet, the weirdness of the shadows, the city lights turning on, the energy from the people. Amazing. From the total uncertainty if this trip would even happen just 3 days prior, to seeing this rare and glorious natural spectacle, it’s almost as if we were meant to see it. And for 4 minutes and 13 seconds we existed in this ethereal environment. And then just like that, it was over. 99.9 percent totality is not 100. It’s not fully bright, but its not at all 100 percent. And within a few minutes, 98, 97, 90 percent: the day was basically back to no different than 100 percent sunlight. As we had a plane to catch, and there was a thunderstorm approaching we cut out a little bit after the total eclipse ended. The timing was impeccable. The video below is the lead up, totality, and after. It is a 360 degree video that I look with my Insta 360 camera. Please watch! Make sure to click and drag around for the full scene. All photos were taken with my phone, unless otherwise noted.
I consider myself exceptionally blessed to have been able to see two total solar eclipses and one annular solar eclipse in my lifetime, let alone in a 7 year period! In case you are wondering…the next total solar eclipse visible from the US will be in 2044 but you’ll have to be in Montana, and some small parts of North and South Dakota to see it. There will be a coast to coast total solar eclipse crossing the continental US the following year. The next annular eclipse in the US will be in 2077. I’ll be sure to check out that 2045 one!
The Parks Adventurer 