Texas State Parks
Reviews of Texas State Parks
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Purtis Creek State Park
We picked Purtis Creek State Park because it was on the Austin-side of Dallas. Our plan was to go camping for the weekend and then have my husband drop the boys and me at my parents in Dallas after we finished. It turns out, we couldn’t have picked a better park for the time of year. The park is built inside of a dense oak forest, which gave me the feeling of stepping back into time, before the relentless clearing of the post oak savannas occurred to make way for agriculture. When we arrived to the park at 11pm, we quickly set up camp and tucked-in for the night. Fact:…
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Davis Mountains State Park
I have always been fascinated by stars. So when my husband suggested we make a two-day detour on our way to Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta to visit the McDonald Observatory, I was immediately enthusiastic. Who doesn’t want to see Saturn’s rings? Davis Mountains State Park is about 6.5 hours from Austin, so we came up with the following itinerary: Friday Night Grocery shop Prepare picnic breakfast and lunch for Saturday Pre-cook Saturday’s dinner Pack the Car Saturday 5 am – depart 8 am – picnic breakfast in Junction Noon – lunch in Fort Stockton 4 pm – arrive at Davis Mountains State Park 8:15 pm – star party at the McDonald…
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Goliad State Park
In February, Landon and his father started training for the Texas Water Safari. It’s a 260-mile canoe race that runs from San Marcos, TX to the Gulf of Mexico. Their training plan had them paddling weekday mornings and most weekends. While I had been doing my best to be supportive, they had been training EVERY Saturday. So I pitched a compromise: “How about we go camping somewhere you can paddle?” Our go-to river parks, Palmetto State Park and Guadalupe River State Park, were completely booked, so we decided try Goliad State Park! Neither of us had ever heard of it, but it advertised that it had a paddling trail. So…
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Bastrop State Park
Almost every time we discussed camping, my husband would always suggest: Bastrop State Park! I am not sure if he had fond memories of the park or if he simply likes the tall trees, but eventually he convinced me, and we made plans with his parents to go camping for the weekend. We got in around sunset. The air was damp and the temperature was already in the lower forties. We set up camp, heated up some chili, shivered around a fire. Well at least we tried to. My husband had purchased two cords of wood from HEB on the way, and it turned out to be green. As I…
