Hurricane Harvey – Texans Travel Life

By the time we visited Stephen F. Austin State Park, we knew the drill. There would be closures in the park due to Hurricane Harvey. We were prepped for that. We adjusted our expectations prior to arrival. We were ready to embrace whatever opportunities awaited us, and with that cranial approach, our visit to SFASP was a surprisingly pleasant experience!

I say surprisingly because the river portion of the park was closed, which meant no fishing, and like I have stated before, The Manling is happiest when he can drop a line in the water. But…

After talking with the most outgoing Park Ranger we’ve encountered to date – seriously, Bryan was super enthusiastic, a lover of birds and edible plants, and just so happened to know his park backwards and forwards, so he completely hooked us up with some stellar hikes in his breathtakingly beautiful park – we headed to our first stop.

I’ll never look at trees “dripping” with something in the same romantic way. Ever again. Seriously.

The Barred Owl Trail was a compact dirt trail through towering trees draped with what The Manling thought was called Grandfather’s Beard (which he pointed out was Tick Paradise, which maybe wasn’t what I especially wanted to hear in the moment. “And it’s good as a fire starter, too.” Okay, then. That info will come in handy if we need to send smoke signals once the ticks descend upon us en masse.) Within the first five minutes on the Barred Owl Trail, we heard a massive flutter overhead. Looking up, we were shocked to see an actual Barred Owl taking flight! Owls being a favorite of The Manling, he thrilled at being able to see one so up close while my prevailing thought was What an aptly named trail! closely followed by We’re definitely not going on the Copperhead Trail then!

We continued on that wide trail to the Scenic Overlook, which was the closest we got to the Brazos River. It was both beautiful to behold and sobering to see the destructive potential that rivers bear on the areas surrounding them.

Our next stop was the Amphitheater, where we parked the car for our hike on the Opossum Loop, which sounded like a way less sinister trail than the aforementioned Copperhead Trail (which Bryan suggested would be a great hike for us to explore, but I was not having that name in the HQ, and even less so once we encountered the Barred Owl on the Barred Owl Trail). Park Ranger Bryan pointed out that the Opossum Trail featured 100′ tall cottonwood trees draped in vines that were a definite must-see, and he was right. They were magnificent and majestic and exquisite and stunning. I got a little turned around with the map and directions in general while we were on that looped trail, but thankfully I had an Eagle Scout with me so I was able to just enjoy the sights and sounds while he navigated us back to the Tiny Toyota Tardis (because the Yaris is bigger on the inside).

Look how utterly inviting the path looks as The Manling directs our steps into the blessed shade of those towering trees. Delightful!

I’m pretty sure this guy was stalking us.

Seriously the most serene, easy to follow trails through beautiful towering trees. SFASP knows how to do trails.

One more thing I want to point out is the fact that SFASP has the most adorable log cabin-type shelters in the existence of log cabin-type shelters. It totally looked like something out of pioneer America and if, by chance or plan, you find yourself in the area, I would highly recommend staying in their Log Cabin-inspired Tiny House Community. They would make such an adorable addition to your memory-making moments. Trust me.

Why We Love Stephen F. Austin State Park

Log Cabin Tiny House Village. Go back and look at the pics. Adorable, right? You can’t help but want to make those a part of your memories at SFASP.
Aptly Named Trails. How often have you hiked a trail and thought, Why’d they name the trail that? I didn’t see anything but this. Amiright? We saw a Barred Owl on the Barred Owl Trail. Which leads me to believe the Sycamore Trail has Sycamore Trees; the Opossum Trail has opossum; and that Copperhead Trail has (gulp!) copperheads. There are maybe about 6 miles of trail in the park, broken down into very doable loops or one-ways that are very well maintained. Enjoy exploring them!
Bryan. This guy has information in spades stored in his noggin. Use him. He was a wealth of information, super friendly, and he made our adventure sound like so much fun I asked him to join us! (He actually wished he could, but he was training a new recruit that day.)

Must Do’s

Stay. Tiny Log Cabin Village. How can you not?! They also have camping, RV spots, a cabin, and group barracks. I’m partial to the pioneering-type shelters, but you do you.
Hike. The trails are all manageable lengths for most anybody. The longest trail is only 1.25 miles and it’s marked as Easy. Get out there and explore, especially the Barred Owl Trail and the Opossum Loop.
Talk to Bryan. He’s your man for all things SFASP-related. And if you really want to speak his language, ask him about birds or edible plants.

We’d love to hear about your experiences at Stephen F. Austin State Park! Please share your thoughts on this magnificent park in the comments.

*In all natural areas, you are a guest. Educate yourself on what lives in the areas before your visits, always talk to the Park Rangers upon arrival and take precautions so that your experiences end as positively as ours.

God bless Park Staffer Kathy Smith. She has got to have the toughest job in the Texas State Park System at the time of this post. Why? Because her park was pretty much destroyed by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and by the time of our visit in August 2018, it was still largely unusable. As in, the only areas open were the RV camping loop, the nature center, and the HQ.

Trails? Closed.

Picnic area? Closed.

Campsites? Closed.

Youth Group Camping? Closed.

Bike Trail? Closed.

Bridge to most of the park? Closed.

Canoe launch? Closed.

Village Creek? Closed.

No fishing. No tent camping. No exploring. No geocaching. No swimming. No playground. Just, no. All no.

And yet, Kathy was cheerful, super friendly, and eternally optimistic that the Texas Department of Transportation would soon have the bridge repaired so that the majority of the park could once again be accessible for repairs from the dreaded effects of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. {Fingers crossed for Spring 2019.}

So while I sadly cannot share first-hand experiences at Village Creek State Park, I can share with you what I learned from Kathy on the day of our visit while she was taking us on a walking tour of her park via the Park Map and that is this:

A creek flows one way all of the time (except for droughts, obviously); sloughs connect to larger bodies of water (like creeks) and their directional flow depends on the level of water in the larger body of water.

We talked about this because I noticed that Village Creek on the map looked like a river with a bunch of creeks running off of it, but Kathy was kind enough to explain to me the difference so that I left smarter than when I came. Village Creek is, well, a creek with a bunch of sloughs running off of it. Therein lay the problem when Hurricane Harvey hit last year, swelling Village Creek and consequently affecting her many sloughs that fed off of her.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Village Creek State Park. May you soon be able to open your gates wide to receive visitors within your boundaries once again. We look forward to making memories exploring your creek, sloughs, and trails sometime in 2019.

Why We Love Village Creek State Park

Park Staffer Kathy Smith. She was awesome! Only she could keep us riveted and engaged over a map. If you’re reading this Texas Parks and Wildlife, give that woman a raise. She’s your greatest asset!

Must Do’s

Revisit. Fingers crossed that she will be repaired and reopened by Spring 2019 so that we can actually experience her creeks and sloughs and trails in person. The map tour was good, but we look forward to the real deal.

We’d love to hear about your experiences at Village Creek State Park! Please flood our comments with a slough of your firsthand experiences at Kathy’s beloved State Park. (Too soon?)

*In all natural areas, you are a guest. Educate yourself on what lives in the areas before your visits, always talk to the Park Rangers upon arrival and take precautions so that your experiences end as positively as ours.