Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument

07Sep21

If you really want to tour the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument in Texas don’t go in the summer.

And if you do, definitely venture there early in the morning.

I broke both of those rules on my trip to the Texas park this past June. I made it to the park early in the afternoon and missed out on the one activity I really wanted to do.

In order to see the actual flint quarries, you have to go on a ranger-led tour. There is no other way to get there.            

But because of the extreme heat while I was there, the normally twice-a-day tours were cut in half with an early morning excursion the only one offered.

I knew that before I arrived but was still hopeful that maybe the temperature would be cool enough to go on the hike.

It wasn’t.

Instead, I toured the visitor center where I met a nice ranger from Nebraska. Turns out his sister is a graduate of the vet school I work at, at Iowa State University. Small world.

I did manage to go on a short hike to the Canadian River, which is the source of Lake Meredith. Alibates Flint Quarries is actually located within the boundaries of Lake Meredith National Recreation Area. 

The hike was uneventful as was the walk at the visitor center around a nature area. After driving most of the morning, it was good to get out and stretch my legs, although I would have preferred the hike to the actual quarries.

There I would have seen where some 13,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians quarried flint. They used the flint to create small, crafted spear points to hunt the large game that roamed this part of the Great Plains.

Instead, I did the two hikes, drove around the park a little bit and headed to Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.

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