Yesterday was my family's first ever Texas State Park experience. We recently bought a Park Pass and since this weekend was so beautiful we decided to check out Brazos Bend because it is within an hours drive from my home.
We arrived at the park around 10:30 yesterday morning. The weather was a gorgeous 50 degrees and full sunshine. Our first stop was 40 acre lake. We grabbed our binoculars, cameras and kids hiking sticks. Right away we spotted 2 gators sunning themselves and needless to say the kids were thrilled. We walked around the whole lake, stopping at the observation deck. It was really windy up there so we didn't stay there long. We saw quite a few gators on 40 acre lake.
Then we drove to the nature center where we spoke with some really nice rangers. One took a baby gator out of the tank and let us touch it. He told us all about how they take a few eggs each year to raise there in the center for a year and then release back into the wild.
Next we went to the playground and picnic area at Hale Lake. We chose a nice sunny spot to eat and enjoyed a lunch of homemade fried chicken and potato salad and the kids played on the playground for a bit. Then we took off to hike Whiteoak trail. We saw lots of families riding bikes and decided that dh and I have got to get a bike so we can all do the same.
After our hike we drove through the camp ground and marked on the map which sites we like best in case we ever decide to camp there. We also checked out the shelters. Those are pretty neat. Since this was our first time in a Texas State Park I had not seen one before. Now I know what they are like and for the price it seems pretty nice.
We then drove over to Elm Lake and on the way stopped to take a photo of a huge gator sunning himself on the side of the road. That sucker was BIG. We grabbed the kiddos' fishing poles and hiking sticks and took off to fish and hike around New and Old Horseshoe Lakes. The kids didn't catch anything but they had fun trying. My husband has a great eye for gators. He just kept spotting one after another.
The kids had seen a great playground over by the shelters so we took them back over there to play for a while before heading home. It was great except for one group there. There were two men and a pick up truck bed full of kids that pilled out and immediately began cussing loudly as they ran to the slide. I'm talking 9 - 11 year olds yelling cuss words and the "dads" didn't think a thing of it. There were other younger children there to and I couldn't believe it. We just left. We stopped at the State Park store on the way out to appease my 12 year old shopaholic and then headed home.
We hiked a total of 4 miles and saw 19 gators. The kids passed smooth out in the car and we had a nice quiet drive home. So now I can't wait to get out there in nature again. We have rodeo coming up here within the next week and my husband is a volunteer there. It looks like the next day trip will have to wait until the end of March and we plan to go check out Huntsville SP which is even closer to home than Brazos Bend.
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