- ANNOUNCER: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife... - The actual single track is about 30 miles-- a lot more than most of the parks in Texas have.

- I could live anywhere in the world, and I live here.

I've been everywhere in the world and I still come back here.

- America has had a really long history of fine arts and environmental conservation.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

- This is the hanger where I do all of my car projects.

[mellow music] This is a 73 Karmann Ghia convertible... and there's the motor.

[laughs] This is an 82 De Lorean.

I'm John Talley.

I'm a European auto technician.

When I first moved out here, they really needed people to work on Volkswagens.

And it's kept me really, really busy for 40 years.

So this is how I spend some of my days.

I moved out here in 78.

We're just really, really lucky that out here we've got this heaven right outside of town.

[mellow music] - JIM CISNEROS: There's not much that I suspect John Talley can't do.

My name is Jim Cisneros.

I'm the Park Superintendent for San Angelo State Park.

I've only been here a couple of years, but from what I understand, John's been here from the very beginning.

- JOHN: A lot of the places are growing up and getting urbanized.

I enjoy being out here all by myself, but I'm always amazed how many people in town don't know this piece of heaven is right here.

[mellow music] - JIM: We're off the beaten path in Texas.

I think we're the biggest city that doesn't have an interstate running through it.

[water flowing] We get some of the hills from the Hill Country.

We get some of the desert stuff from the Chihuahuan Desert Plateau.

You're out here, and you feel like you're in the wilderness, but we're literally a few miles from town.

[car door] - JOHN: In five or ten minutes they can be here and enjoy it.

Riding a bicycle, or boating, or hiking or whatever.

Pretty much just wake up each day and decide if I'm going to go out and ride the bike or work on somebody's car, or I'm going to get on a tractor and mow the trails.

[tractor starts] I take care of the trails at the San Angelo State Park.

[footsteps] This is the area that we call Little Foot Draw because some, I call it a dinosaur, came walking through here at some point in time and left these footprints, preserved in this creek bed.

That's pretty amazing right there.

These have been here for many, many, many years, before man was even considered.

This is a place where you can just stop and think.

[guitar music] When you see them along this ridge over here, it's kind of like getting a picture of the Old West.

People from out of town come to see the bison and our longhorn.

This is part of the official Texas state herd.

This is one of my favorite things to come out here and I really feel like I'm in another time sequence.

[guitar music] - JIM: I think it's the variety of activities that you can do out here.

Pretty close to 8,000 acres.

And I tell my volunteers this all the time.

I can't run this park without you.

- JOHN: Tractors and the lawnmowers, sometimes they'd break down in middle of the park and I'd go out and get them running again.

Do minor repairs on the Coke machines.

And now we have a new firewood vending machine.

So I keep all that going.

[clanking] - JIM: He's like a Renaissance man.

Sometimes it's helping us diagnose a mechanical problem, sometimes mowing the trails, but when I first got here, John invited me to one of his gigs.

And I was like, "“You're a musician?

"” And that's when I really knew that John can probably do just about anything.

[cheers and applause] - JIM: He was playing, you know, tickling the keys on the piano.

And I really enjoyed it, and then he started singing, and I was like, "“Oh my gosh, he can sing too!

"” - JOHN: ♪ Georgia ♪ ♪ No peace ♪ ♪ can I find ♪ - JIM: He can tune pianos, he can play pianos, he can fix cars, he goes kayaking, he goes biking... trail maintenance.

He's very multi-faceted and we all feel like he's a great human being.

[band playing] [applause] [paddles splashing] - JOHN: In a round-about way, it was music that brought me here.

In 1990, Angelo State University hired me to work in a musical with them called Pump Boys and Dinettes.

[recording] ♪ Highway 57, pump boys, and dinettes.

♪ - JOHN: Played piano, accordion, had to sing for two hours every night, had to learn how to tap dance in cowboy boots, so I foresaw all of this fixing to happen and I said, "“I better get in shape!

"” So I went down and bought a mountain bike.

[upbeat music] Then I met some of the local bike club people.

We all rode the south end of the park and we worked deals with the ranchers who had some of this other area and they let us ride through their pastures as long as we kept the gates closed.

- REPORTER: There were a lot of things to see at the grand opening of San Angelo State Park.

- JOHN: Texas Parks and Wildlife worked a deal with the Corps of Engineers and took over this land.

- A community and a great group of people put together a wonderful new state park.

- JOHN: And they allowed us to keep riding and create new trails.

- REPORTER: It has an extensive trail system for both equestrians and mountain bikers, and that will set it off from all other state parks.

- JOHN: Five miles here and five miles there, we finally have 50 or 60 miles, which is a lot.

Probably, I was in on making 25 to 30 miles.

And one of those is named after me also-- it's called the Talley Valley.

[laughs] [upbeat music] We try to keep at least a two-foot section clear, because we do have a rattlesnake or two out here.

Usually the only people that worry about the snakes are the second guys in line.

[laughs] For mowing, we've got a four-foot shredder.

And that's perfect for 99% of the trail.

There's are a few areas that I can't get to on a tractor, and there we'll use weed eaters, rakes and hoes and stuff.

[weed eater whirs, chopping] Just kind of work as a little team and it's amazing how much you can knock out.

[gentle music] After it's rained, every so often, the longhorn have torn up the trails.

They leave deep tracks, which really jar you on a mountain bike.

[tractor rumbles] The trick that we've come up with was a couple of front-end loader wheels and tires.

The front one digs into the trail and the rear one kind of follows it and smoothes it up.

And that's my dragging tool or dragon tool.

[laughs] [gentle music] - JIM: We get countless compliments on how well they're maintained, and of course that's all due to our volunteers.

[music] I can't ever keep up with him on a bicycle, but he is a very avid user.

- JOHN: If you wanted to see the whole park, mountain bike is a really good way to do it.

I think my favorite part about it is the solitude.

It's kind of a Zen deal to me to just be on the bicycle, and get your heart rate up to a certain level and just keep going, but that puts your mind in a really nice place... perfect for creating new ideas.

And a lot of times when I'm out here riding along, I'll be listening to jazz or classical or whatever.

[classical music] It's quite entertaining to be going over some of these little ridges and stuff, listening to Debussy.

That's just another bit of heaven.

[uptempo classical music] [uptempo classical music] I really enjoy the entire park.

That's my church.

[classical music] Maybe someday you'll find my ashes out here somewhere.

[laughs] - He is really truly a resource, he's a friend, he's someone that we count on, in more ways than one.

I think John Talley is going to be out here for many years to come.

[music] - JOHN: As long as I'm playing music and riding my mountain bike, I'm 19.

I don't plan on quitting anytime soon.

[bicycle rumbling down the trail] [birds chirping] - Ninety-five percent of this ranch is top-notch quail habitat, either through manipulation of raw materials or some natural benefits that were already here.

Remaining percent is water habitat that I've created for waterfowl.

[bird chirping] Huge flock of ducks down here, let's go around.

[ducks quacking] [gentle guitar music] Fisher County, Texas would show up as this county in the rolling plains in the midst of 10 South Texas counties, and it more than got my eye.

- DALE: Paul's a great student of Aldo Leopold when he said that the same tools that were used to destroy wildlife habitat, they could also be used in a creative way to restore game habitat.

[gentle guitar music] - PAUL: This is pretty desiccated, totally gone pear.

- He's thinking about his vocation, ranching, but his advocation as well.

So anytime he is making a decision about stocking rate, or brush management, anything, he's thinking, what are the consequences for my quail?

And I wish every rancher did that.

- These are part of our network of disc strips that we do roadside.

We try to stimulate natural forb production.

Everything just comes together here, water, brush.

This is a natural draw of drainage here that has wildlife all the time.

- On this ranch, there's a bunch of water tanks throughout the property, and that's a key to keeping animals here, especially turkeys.

[turkey calls] - JUSTICE: Here it comes under the fence.

- DAD: Take 'em, son.

[gun fires] [both chuckle] - PAUL: Good job, man, this is a tough day to hunt turkeys.

- JUSTICE: Thank you.

- It's great, Paul Melton's Ranch is being recognized for some of those sacrifices that have been made and the quail and the turkeys and the deer and the waterfowl and the non-game birds and the horny toads have all been beneficiaries.

- Wild quail are a truly a blessing to have.

[light guitar music] I could live anywhere in the world, and I live here.

I've been everywhere in the world and I still come back here.

[light guitar music] Celebrating a century of Texas State Parks.

- LISA REZNICEK: It's a way for us to get people inspired about the outdoors and really to take that inspiration that they have about nature and channel it into some art form.

[upbeat music] I'm Lisa Reznicek, Park Interpreter from Galveston Island State Park.

Today in Galveston Island State Park, we're excited to have a sand castle contest.

Everybody in the entire family can join.

You know if the contest doesn't draw them in, the shade actually might.

It's an experience.

It's something that I remember when I was a kid and I went to the beach with my family, it was something that we all did.

[upbeat music] Are you guys building sand castles?

- GIRL: Yeah.

- LISA: Did you know we're going to have a contest?

I'd love to get you guys involved.

It's a way for us to introduce the concept of Arts in the Parks and three-dimensional art or sculpture.

Do you sand castle at all?

You got some good skills?

It looks like you guys are already working pretty hard on some sand castles.

I would love for you to join.

I also do camera phone hikes, watercoloring programs, drawing and journaling programs.

So, just a little bit of what the Texas State Parks can offer in our Arts in the Parks programs.

[upbeat music] Stemming back from some of the earliest national parks that we've had, America has had a really long history of fine arts and environmental conservation.

[gulls squawk] More than once I've heard adults, kids and families in general come up to me and say, "I had no idea "that I could do this outside, "and now it's just one more thing that gets me back outside, gets me back into the Texas state parks."

I've even had a family with young toddlers who now have watercolor sets for the entire family, and every time they go camping, they now take out their watercolor sets.

- Today we are going to do some watercolor painting...

I'm Lauren Hartwick and I am the Park Interpreter at Lockhart State Park.

...one of our dry watercolor palettes.

For me, it's just a way to relax outside, draw in people.

Now you can see right away that the wet-on-wet technique is going to give you nice blurry lines.

I try to give them enough information to get them started.

Pretty cool, right?

After that, it's all about giving them a chance to express whatever they want to express.

- Hmmm.

- It allows people to get outside and express their creativity and make observations about nature and try to translate the beauty of nature onto a page.

- WOMAN: Yeah, cool.

- What about green?

- Yeah.

- LAUREN: Are you going to do a landscape?

- GIRL: I don't know.

- LAUREN: I like having arts in the parks programs because sometimes it draws a different audience into the park.

That is really cool.

- WOMAN: That looks good.

- BOY: That is still black.

- LAUREN: It's really appealing to families... and kids, or just the young at heart.

- BOY: That's a cherry.

- LAUREN: Thank you.

It helps to have objects to draw sometimes, like an antler or a feather.

Something you can look at in front of you and translate onto the page.

- GIRL: I need brown.

- LAUREN: Some of them were drawing the wildlife that you would find here in the park.

- BOY: I see it!

- LAUREN: We do painting, we do block printing, we do origami.

We try to do an art specific program once a month, once every other month.

That's a beautiful painting.

Lots of inspiration to be had.

[laughs] Well enjoy your camping too.

- GIRL: Thank you.

- LAUREN: Sure thing.

See you guys.

Enjoy your stay.

[bird chirping] - ZACH RIGGS: You're good to go.

My name is Zach Riggs... Oh yeah!

I am the park interpreter here at Dinosaur Valley State Park.

Everyone comes down here and heads straight for the dinosaur tracks.

[camera shutter click] We just got finished with archery out here.

We've got the hiking and biking.

We've got horse riding here.

Not every park gets to claim that.

Later on tonight, we're going to do a nature photography class.

- CASEY CLICK: I've taken these pictures with my phone which is an iPhone 8.

If you've got any questions about these before we go, just let me know.

I am going to lead a nature photography hike which is utilizing smart phones, primarily, because everyone has smart phones with them all the time.

Most of the time we see something pretty and we just take a quick picture of it.

We don't really think about exactly where it is in the photograph, or think about the colors.

- ZACH: Casey is a great photographer.

So Casey is one of our volunteers here at the park.

She's helped me out with so many different programs and this nature photography hike was actually her idea.

- CASEY: We're going to walk about two miles.

I think a lot of people aren't really used to exactly what all the phones can do.

Is that an Android?

- WOMAN: I found it.

- CASEY: Okay, good.

Oh yeah, that looks good.

That looks great.

I used to carry a camera around all the time, years ago, wherever I went because I never knew what was going to strike me as beautiful.

But these smart phones, they're fantastic, and it's nice to have it with you.

That spot right there is one of my favorite spots, where the river curls right there.

We're going to visit a part of the river that's not normally seen.

People don't go down that way that much.

That's why I like it too.

I'm not saying don't look at the dinosaur tracks, but don't just look at the dinosaur tracks.

They've got great hiking trails, and there's so much more to see.

[upbeat music] I just think it's all about where you look and how you look.

If you're looking for little pieces of beauty, you will find them.

[upbeat music] We're surrounded by concrete all the time, you know, and people are always on their phones.

We're going to go this way.

But if they're using them to capture something beautiful and get out in nature, it can maybe spur them to go out and find different things outside that they would enjoy.

[upbeat music] [crickets chirp] [whistle blows] - Sand castle contest!

Some people call it like a ditch or a moat or like a little bitty river.

If you want to make a mermaid out of sand, that's totally fine, you can be as creative as you want.

Think big.

Once people get their hands in the sand, they don't want to stop.

That's looking really good.

I think that part of the experience of joining the sand castle contest is just building, being with friends, being with family, being in a beautiful setting.

I think it's fun just to participate.

- Lots of fun, all the kids on the beach coming together like this.

It's fun.

[playful music] - LISA: Looks good.

Nice.

Oh, it's like a pond, that's going to be great.

Five minutes!

The rain is coming.

Even castles made of sand fall into the sea eventually.

[laughing] - MAN: It looks really nice.

- LISA: You were inspired by the beach, I love it.

[clapping] We do give out prizes to help inspire people.

The most creative castle for the day, nice job!

So a lot of pencils, stickers, temporary tattoos for all our participants.

Best volcano!

Ow!

[applause] You guys get the best teamwork, you work so well... We're only going to cover just about this much of 2,000 acres.

We start with sand castles, but we're hoping people continue to go out and explore and continue to be inspired by nature.

[rolling waves] [rolling waves] [upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] [crickets, birds chirp] This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding is provided by Toyota.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Toyota -- Let's Go Places.