Category: TexasStateParks

My friends and I are attempting to visit all 93 State Parks in the great State of Texas. I will provide posts, pictures, maps, advice, tips, etc on all of the parks we visit.

Guadalupe River State Park Visit

by John L, posted in Guadalupe River State Park

We went out to Guadalupe River State Park on a recent outing. I knew this park would be dry, but when I saw the flow rate posted at the park store I knew it was worse than I thought. The sign said “0 feet/second.”

There’s no tubing, very little to swim in, and if you’re fishing, bring the small hooks.

It wasn’t more than a few inches deep on avg through this area. Upstream was a little better, but it wasn’t a long stretch of waist-high water and then back to near dry conditions.

Above you can see where the water has carved into the rock along the river. This was probably a good 25 feet lateral and 15 feet above the current water level. Did I mention the river was low?

Old Tunnel State Park

by John L, posted in Hill Country, Old Tunnel State Park

One of the newest state parks in Texas is the Old Tunnel State Park. The main attraction here is the bat emergence nightly from May to October.

Open year-round from sunrise to sunset for general use.

Bat viewing nightly May through October. The trail to the lower viewing area is closed each evening. Monday through Wednesday evenings the trail and lower viewing area are not open to the public. On Thursday through Sunday evenings, the trail will only be open to those visitors who pay admission to view the bats at the lower viewing area.

For the most up-to-date emergence information, call the toll-free information line at (866) 978-2287.”

Plan your visit ahead of time and find a place for dinner close by. It is a bit out of the way and “out in the middle of nowhere” off of Old Fred Road and Old San Antonio Road. If you spot Old Fred that’s just a bonus.

 

Mission Rosario State Historic Site and Archaeological Site

by John L, posted in Goliad State Park, Mission Rosario

After Goliad State Park we stopped by what is left of the Mission Nuestra Senora Del Rosario State Archaeological Site.

You can see more of the site on Google than you can by actually going because there is really nothing left. As far as the park rangers at Goliad knew there are no plans to restore Mission Rosario at this time.

The sign (pictured below) reads:

Missionaries from the college of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas founded Nuestra Senora del Rosario in 1754 for the coastal Karankawa tribes. The extensive cattle ranching operation begun by sister mission Espiritu Santo also supported Mission Rosario. However, the mission indians periodically abandoned the mission when supplies were short. By 1807, it was combined with Mission Refugio nearer the coast. Mission Rosario was officially closed in 1831 as part of earlier secularization orders.

Today, the largely undisturbed site of the Spanish Colonial mission provides unique opportunities for scholarly research. Through carefully controlled excavations, the archaeological process will bring to light new information about the Native American and Spanish inhabitants of the late 18th-century Texas.

If you are interested in getting behind the fence you must contact TPWD and arrange for an official visit. There is nothing to see so don’t go through too much trouble unless you are looking to do research.

Guadalupe River State Park

by John L, posted in General, Guadalupe River State Park

Visit to Barrington Farm

by John L, posted in Barrington, General

Barrington Farm is a living history farm similar to the the Sauer Beckmann Living History Farm at LBJ State Park.

If you haven’t been to one of these living history farms I highly recommend a visit. It is educational and entertaining. Ask lots of questions.

farm house at Barrington Farm

The farm still uses the smokehouse. They slaughter a hog in January and smoke meat for the rest of the year.

The farm has a beautiful Polish Crested Red that guards the hens.

There are also two slave houses that are present at the farm.

There is not quite as much to check out at the Barrington Farm as the Sauer Beckmann Farm, but I still recommend the stop.

Barrington Farm

by John L, posted in Barrington, General

After our visit to Washington on the Brazos we went right down the road to The Barrington Living History Farm. I’ll have a longer post with pictures coming up. Part of the video below discusses the farm.

Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway

by John L, posted in General, Lake Somerville

On our way home from Houston (Battleship Texas and San Jacinto Monument) we stopped by Lake Somerville State Park.

The park has an office on both sides of the lake. The reason for this is that the lake is very long. It does take some time to drive from one office to the other so if you plan on visiting both offices (path tags at both) make sure you allow for about 45 minutes to get from one to the other. The other key piece of info is that the Birch Creek Unit Office closes at 4:45 pm. We arrived at 4:55 and were unable to get our path tag.

The park and lake are very beautiful. Some trails do need some maintenance. It doesn’t look like they cut some of them back much. Make sure to wear jeans/boots on the more hairy trails as there are some poisonous snakes out and about especially around the shore.

This was one of the trails that looked safer.

It turned out to be the one we saw a rather large water moccasin cross right in front of us.

Again, the lake was beautiful and there were lots of people out enjoying the water.

lake somerville

lake somerville

Plan to spend a weekend at this park to enjoy the lake. Be sure to check the TPWD site for good directions and updates on the water level.

Battleship Texas

by John L, posted in Battleship Texas, General

Next to the San Jacinto Battleground in Houston is Battleship Texas. If you like history, ships, militaria, or all of the above you’ll easily spend a few hours checking out this jewel of the Admiral Nimitz Fleet.

battleship texas

Your parks pass gets you aboard for free. This is a great deal considering it’s normally $12 for an adult and $6 for the kids.

You can take a seat on the guns and get a feel for what it was like to aim these beasts.

view from guns on battleship texas

If you’re a photography nut, you’ll need to bring extra memory cards. One of my favorite shots was of the San Jacinto Monument from the bow of the ship.

view of monument from battleship texas

San Jacinto Battleground and Monument

by John L, posted in General, San Jacinto, TexasStateParks

Back in June we headed to Houston to see an Astros game and check out a couple of Houston area parks. Truly one of the highlights was the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site and Monument. This should be on every Texan’s bucket list. (summary of battle)

san jacinto monument

view from top of monument

The elevator ride to the top is $4 and is probably a “do it once just to say you did it” kind of thing. The views are nice though.