Passport to Texas

Biking the trails at Brazos Bend State Park.

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This is Passport to Texas

The thing that makes Brazos Bend State Park special is its diversity. About an hour from Houston, visitors to the park experience Texas as it used to be.

And within this 5,000-acre park, we’ve got swamps to marshes to lakes, coastal tall grass prairie, and we’ve also got some pristine bottomland hardwood forests here.

David Heinicke is with Brazos Bend State Park.

There’s so many things to see here, but one of the biggest draws here are the alligators. On a good day it’s not unusual to be able to walk the trails, and see thirty or forty big alligators out basking either on the edge of the trails or out on the islands. And I’m happy to say that no one has ever been injured by an alligator here at Brazos Bend.

With three picnic areas, 30 miles of hiking and biking trails and plentiful wildlife viewing, Brazos Bend SP is a day trip waiting to happen. And after the sun sets…

The George Observatory is located here in the park. It’s actually owned and operated by the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. But, it has a 36-inch research telescope in a dome, and then two 18-inch telescopes in domes. You can come out any Saturday afternoon and evening and buy tickets to view through the big scopes, and there’s always a lot of astronomer club members that are willing to show you whatever they’re looking at that night.

Explore Brazos Bend State Park without leaving your living room. Tune into the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS the week of July 22. Check your local listings.

Our show receives support from RAM Trucks; Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.