Shannon

Share you comments or questions about Brazos Bend State Park, located in Needville, Texas.

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- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com
http://www.twitter.com/ageekgal

wes

Hi guys, We just returned from Brazos bend state park, we were there from March 11th, till March 13th (2002) for spring break. This is an awesome park!! Great for families. We were in camp site 103, with my parents across the way in 102, these are the 2 best sites in the park (in my opinion) easy access to the bath house, and thick woods in the rear.

Pros:
Alligators!, alligators!, alligators! (saw about 75)

Lots of trails

Clean Bath houses (rest rooms)

Raccoons to boot! Tons of them!

Lots of interesting birds!
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Cons:

The "head ranger" who calls himself "Jerry" is a bit full of himself! (He drives a Jeep Cherokee....Legal Eagle alert!)

The benches at the camp site picnic tables are too close to the table!

Not very many deer! (only saw about 10 the whole time)

Over all a 9 out of 10 (would have been a 10 if not for "Ranger Jerry")

Great park,

--Wesley
----Sa, TX

Shannon

{jealous grin} Your message brings back fond memories; Justin and I need to get back out to Brazos Bend again. During our camping trip there, we stayed in campsite #105 in the Burr Oak Camping Area and liked that one very much. I agree with your assessment and am thrilled you and your family had a good time -- that's what camping's about, afterall! We love the alligators out there and saw everything from itty-bitty baby 'gators to big, bad brute-type grandpa gators. And the birds were something else, too... although you have to be careful about hiking and birding at the same time, else you might step on a gator sunning on the trail!

I don't remember seeing many deer, either. I imagine the deer are a little put off by all the alligators (and all the water).

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and impressions of Brazos Bend SP. It's always good to hear from other folks who've been to a park -- I'm not a "park authority" by any means, I just happen to enjoy writing and compiling our travels into this website.

Happy Travels!

- Shannon

__________________
- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com
http://www.twitter.com/ageekgal

jphilson

We just returned to (June 1st or 2nd, 2002) Brazos Bend after a 12 year absence, and found a lot has changed. Our visit was a little different than yours, and the others responding. We saw a lot of deer, but had the forsight (from previous experience) to bring a bag of feed corn. The deer love it, and will come out of nowhere if you put a little out on the ground. After they come, if you stand outside the car, and put some about a foot away from you, they will come right up to you. If you take a pan (frying or pie tin), put some corn in it and shake it a little, then hold it still, and they will come right up and eat it. I do NOT recommend that you attempt to feed them from your hand, or have small children in the area, they are still wild. It was very hot while we were there, and we did not see many gators (only 2). The big thrill of this visit was on the handicap path, just a few yards from the split between the two lakes we encountered a mother Coatimundi, and four young offspring, this is a rare event in the wild, and especially rare inthat that area is a couple hundred miles outside their normal range. My wife and I are both over 70, and this is the first time I have seen Coatimundi in the wild.

Our big disappointment on this trip, was the overgrown condition of the lakes. I would not want the Parks Dept. to mess up the ecology, but there must be a way to cleanup, and reduce some of this over growth. Also the area around the fishing pier, has been abused by the park users, with plastic bottles and cans and other trash. Let learn "if you bring it in...pack it out" "Don't mess with Texas" and "lets not leave nature the way we found it, lets leave it in better shape"

Repmac1

Just read about the wonderful time that wes had at BBSP during spring break 02. Sounds like a good place to camp before the heat turns on.
Was wondering about the mosquito population at the park. Anyone have information about how these critter would affect a spring break 03 camping trip?

jeff parker

Surprisingly not that bad in the open, especially if you go in March. Hiking in the woods where the air is more still you will have more trouble with them. Bring some Off! just in case.

Tank

I frequented this park fairly often as I lived 5 minutes from it. I never camped there but did plenty of hiking and biking. My favorite trail is the Pilant Slough Trail. It takes you a little over a mile through creek bottoms where you can see plenty of Aligators in the wild. Lots of good fishing on Elm Lake. If you're biking I suggest the Elm Lake Loop with a quick jaunt over to the observation tower.

I never camped out there, I guess because I lived so close, but if you do go be sure to hike in the early morning to catch the wildlife, including bugs, birds, and of course the alligators.

4runner

We went to Brazos Bend SP July 15-17.

This was our first visit, and the park was beautiful. Sadly, some of the lakes are still choked up with vegetation, but park staff mentioned that plans were in the works to drain and clean out some of the lakes. The fishing was disappointing. The trails were nice, and kind of exciting because we kept expecting alligators to charge out of the brush. We only saw five alligators, and they were in the water and were not interested in us at all. On our first night there, we drove around the camping areas and counted 72 deer, from babies up to nice bucks. Raccoons are present, but not near as obnoxious as they are at Goose Island SP and Guadalupe River SP.

We had screened shelter #13, and pitched our tent next to it. The shelter had a ceiling fan in it, and was about 15'x15'(this is a wild guess) with a small covered porch. The shelter had two picnic tables, a waist high grill, fire ring w/grill, water and electric. The only downside was that all through the night people walked through our campsite to get to the bathroom. All other shelters should offer a little privacy.

I don't know if "Jerry" is still there, but some guy in a Jeep Cherokee drove around regularly at night and actually enforced the "Quiet Hours" rules. I wish the staff at other parks were as conscientious. It was nice to go to a state park on a weekend and not have to try to fall asleep to tejano music blaring from nearby campsites.

The park has a nice interpretive center. Be sure and check out the mongoose.

There is also an observatory on sight(open on Saturday), but you need to buy your tickets early. We got there right as it got dark and they were sold out. Some amatuer astronomers bring out their scopes and allow people to look through their scopes free of charge.

vettech2112

I'm sorry you didn't see more alligators. I was there the Tuesday after you left, July 20th, and saw more than a dozen, many up on the paths. I spotted a juvenile about 2' long at the base of the observation deck. A big 8-9' gator was basking along the western part of Elm Lake Loop and allowed me to get very close. Two or three 4' gators were basking on the northern portion of 40-Acre Lake Trail.

I sat for nearly an hour and observed a 8-9' gator and a 6-7' one tussle over "ownership" of a big alligator carcas in the swamp along eastern bank of 40-Acre Lake. According to the wildlife photographer that was filming it, the big one was a male who'd fought with the deceased gator about the time y'all were there. It was really interresting to watch the big male guard his prize from the smaller female while trying to rip into that tough gator hide. She would swim in on the opposite side of the corpse, take a quick bite, then he'd notice and come around and chase her off. I think the female got more to eat than he did! (There's a lesson in there, IMHO.)

The wildlife photographer said he'd filmed alligators all over the Gulf Coast and felt that Brazos Bend was the best place in the country for it. I've never seen gators so tame.

Unlike you, I didn't see any deer, sadly. I did see a pair of juvenile raccoons playing chase over by Hale Lake which was an unexpected treat. Also saw a blue heron nab the biggest crawfish I'd ever seen in my life. It was so big the poor thing was trying to figure out how he was going to swallow it! He'd crunch on it with his beak, then turn it and turn it, plop it down on the ground, crunch a few times, repeat. I watched for a good 10 minutes through my binoculars before he finally got it down. It was like watching a snake eat as you could see the big crawfish slide down that long neck.

My only complaint about the park was my own squeamishness... I've been stomping around woods all my life, especially the forests of SE Texas and the Florida panhandle, but I've never seen so many spiders in one place in my life. If they didn't give me the willies so much, I could have photographed quite a few species of really big spider in just one day. I saw even more than that at Village Creek SP today. <shudder> Has there suddenly been a boom in the spider population?

ploddinTod

Ed,
I went to your website to view your photos of the gators. Nice job but where are the spiders? Just remember those guys are our friends for all of the insects they dispose of.

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PloddinTod

vettech2112

I realize the value of spiders. I don't kill them when I find them in my apartment. I find a way to shoo them out the door.

However, as I said in my post, they give me the willies when I have to be close to them. I have no desire to photograph them. Besides, my best friend is severely arachnophobic and if he saw even ONE spider pic on my site, he'd never go there again.

I had a run in with a REALLY big spider at Village Creek SP yesterday. I stepped off the path to shoot a pic of Sandy Slough, careful to avoid a particularly evil looking arachnid. I shot a couple of pics, then cut back to the path only to walk right into a different, and even larger spider's web. I managed to fling the web (and its creator) off my neck failry qickly. I have no idea the species nor if it was dangerous but this thing was easily the size of the palm of my hand. After that, I walked with a small stick in my hand, held up perpendicular to my body in front of me to prevent any further encounters.

Didja see the pics of the gator at Sea Rim? I actually saw 4, but the one on the site was the only one I got a really good pic of. You can see in the pic that it was just laying beside the boardwalk without a care for the humans walking by. Before I encountered that beauty, about a 3' gator nabbed a bird right by the boardwalk right after I'd passed by. I heard the commotion behind me and saw the gator drag off its prize, still crunching. I have a shot from fairly close but it didn't come out very good. I've been debating if I should post it on my site.

I really need to sort through the pics I've taken in June & July and post some of the better ones here. I've only got one more hike planned before school starts. Gonna go check out Huntsville SP in a couple of weeks.

ploddinTod

Sound like you were in the right place at the right time to view some serious nature-in-action. BTW how's that knee mending?

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PloddinTod

vettech2112

Yeah, it was pretty neat. Seeing the animal is cool, but seeing something like that is even better. I was fortunate to have spotted sp many gators as there were several groups on the boardwalk with me that were being pretty loud. Stealth is the best thing about hiking alone.

As far as the knee (and thanks for asking BTW), doc says its likely a torn meniscus but we can't confirm without an MRI (that my insurance won't cover). I'm reabing it by cycling at the Y. I have to pay for a day's hike with 12-24 hrs of soreness is all. If it doesn't repair itself, I'll have to have it scoped in the forseeable future. Meniscii only heal if the damage is on the edge, deep tears have to be fixed manually.

Shannon

Thanks for sharing your photos -- the Brazos Bend ones are enough to make me want to declare a week off from my small business desk-bound duties to actually (novel thought!) take photos! We always see a lot of gators at Brazos, but your shots show they're out in full force and not minding being right out on the trail which makes for some awesome viewing and photography. That, and I can't get over how lush green everything is there -- I know it's the Houston area so it gets a lot more rain than we do here in San Antonio, but for July that's still an impressive amount of growth!

I need to take better notes, as there are certain times of the year that the water lilies are in bloom on the lakes (40 Acre in particular)... but we haven't timed our last couple visits to coincide with that, apparently.

__________________
- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com
http://www.twitter.com/ageekgal

ploddinTod

Yeah, we had a record amount of rainfall in the Houston area for June, which probably accounts for all of the green . Usually by this time the ground is cracked and the grass is dying.

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PloddinTod