Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories from Texas Parks and Wildlife

We all come somewhere, and Chris Holmes, who oversees the Texas Outdoor Family in State Parks program, comes from England. From the time he was a boy, Chris had a passion for the outdoors. It made sense that when he became an adult, he would seek a career that kept him close to nature. He has followed that career to several continents and two hemispheres. This is his outdoor story.

I was a park ranger once in Australia. And we had some monitor lizards that were fairly aggressive—similar to the raccoons here in Texas—they would go after food. And it was always very funny to watch these monitor lizards slinking up towards tents, and smelling the food. These lizards were about five to six feet long.

So, having a monitor lizard stick their head through the tent—a lot of people are not used to seeing that. So that was a lot of fun. And sometimes, maybe we had some mischievous young adults that have kept us awake at nighttime, so we may have encouraged the lizards to go see them in the morning.

Monitor lizards are like raccoons. I don’t think so. Thanks, Chris.

If you have a fond memory of time you’ve spent in the Texas outdoors…tell us. Go to passportotexas.org and click the Outdoor Stories link. If we use your story, we’ll send you a Life’s Better Outside t-shirt. What are you waiting for?

That’s our show…for today. Remember: Life’s Better Outside… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Outdoor Story: Chris Holmes Play Now | Play in Popup | Download