Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Start off January right by spending time with the Texas Parks and Wildlife television show. Producer, Abe Moore.

Some of the stories we’re covering in January include the Guadalupe Bass, and efforts to save our state fish. We’re also profiling some fun fishing stories, like on where to go fishing on both fresh water and saltwater, and some casting tips. And then, a story I did that’s going to air towards the end of January is on Buescher State Park, which is Southeast of Bastrop, near Smithville. It’s a nice little quiet park, kind of off the beaten path a little bit, and it’s really got a nice hiking trail down there.

Buescher SP has an 8-mile hiking trail that starts out in the Post oak woodland, which is an area that consists mostly of hardwood trees [bird call], and it makes a big loop and goes up into the Lost Pines ecosystem.

Now, there’s a park Road 1C that connects Bastrop SP with Buescher SP, and it’s a really cool little bike ride if you want to do some bike riding.

[bike gear sound] It’s about 12-miles long between the two parks. Therefore, if you make a round trip, you’ve got 24-miles that you’ve cycled. So it’s a very good workout—very intense.

So whether it’s hiking or biking, those are just some of the things you can do in at this hidden gem of a State park here in Texas.

Thanks Abe.

Find out where the show airs at passporttotexas.org.

That’s out show…for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

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Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Ask Claire Cabler about a memorable time in the outdoors and she’s got plenty.

We were at Guadalupe State Park. I was busy playing in the sand. My dad said, “Look up there’s a water snake!” and I looked and I saw this sticking thing and I thought that was the water snake.

It seems that Claire’s dad, Dru Cabler, is always pointing out wildlife to her. Even at home.

We point ‘em out as soon as we see ‘em if we think she’s never seen one before. We got all kinds of creatures just around our house. Deer that come through our backyard. Lots of rat snakes, grass snakes, a couple of rattlesnakes. Frogs that jump into our swimming pool. Big Texas spiny lizards, and green anoles.

And venturing out to state parks together, they find other creatures that aren’t as close to home.

We like to go to Guadalupe state park, like she said.

How about Port Aransas?

We like Port Aransas. We’re going next weekend. So we’ll spend a lot of time outside there on the beach. She likes to collect dead fish; stack ‘em up with her friends. Remember that?

I don’t really remember catching the dead fish but I remember picking up a bunch of shells. I found a full sand dollar.

We love hearing your outdoor discoveries and adventures. Share them with us at passporttotexas.org

That’s our show…with research and writing help from Sarah Loden… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Texas Outdoor Story: The Cabler Family Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Holidays challenge the creativity of gift-givers everywhere. If you have nature lovers on your list, gift giving is easy—and the giving is twice as nice.

A sixty-dollar Texas State Parks Pass is a thoughtful and sensible gift for your outdoor enthusiast. Pass holders enjoy twelve months of unlimited visits to more than ninety state parks and historic sites. They also receive discounts on camping, park store merchandise and recreational equipment rentals. Money spent on the pass supports your Texas state parks.

For thirty dollars each, you can give the drivers on your list a conservation license plate. Twenty-two dollars from every sale goes directly to help fund conservation efforts in Texas. The horned lizard plate, in particular, funds research and conservation of non-game species such as the horned lizard.

Give every outdoor lover on your list access to more than a million acres of public land—with the Limited Use Permit—for the ridiculously reasonable price of twelve dollars. The permit holders receive twelve months of access to Texas’ wildlife management areas, where they can fish, hike, bird watch, cycle, and camp.

When you give one of these gifts, you delight the receiver, and help support state parks and conservation in Texas. Details at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Conservation Gifts for the Holidays Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

If your Christmas activities have become a ho-hum jingle-bell bore, maybe it is time to take your celebration to the next level—the lower level—of Longhorn Cavern.

Every year we do what we call our caroling in the cave, and what that is, is a Christmas party for our visitors.

Pam Plant is the event coordinator at Longhorn Cavern State Park in Burnet. She says everyone needs to leave any Scrooge-like tendencies at the door for this all ages holiday hoedown.

I mean, it’s Christmas. It’s time for us to let the kid in us come out.

Visitors participate in trivia games for prizes, until it is time to descend into the cavern singing the Twelve Days of Christmas.

We have various artists who will be coming out doing these concerts, and most of them will do the sing-a-long Christmas carols that the audience really loves. Toward the end of the caroling or concert segment, we hand out candles, and the guests come out of the cave singing silent night. Once they return back to the surface, we have a feast that awaits them. We’ll play some more games, give out our big door prizes, and then we end the whole evening with a reading of The Night Before Christmas.

The concerts at Longhorn Cavern State Park are December 17, 20 & 21. We have complete details, including cost and times at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Caroling in the Cavern Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Give a gift as big as the Texas outdoors to someone you love and receive the 2009 commemorative State Park Christmas ornament for yourself.

If you buy a state park pass gift certificate, you get an ornament for free And you get the gift card in the little pillow box so that you can give it as a gift. This is about our fourth year to do that, and it’s really popular.

Bryan Frazier is promotions coordinator for state parks, and says this special opportunity continues through December 31.

State Park gift certificates are sixty dollars. We’re really trying to encourage people to give these as gifts, and the free ornament really makes [it] a nice gift package for people.

Of course, you can keep the ornament for yourself. No one has to know. The certificates and the ornament are available only through Parks and Wildlife central reservations.

It’s the same reservation number that people call to make a reservation for a state park. It’s a little easier, a little more coordinated, to handle it all through one place for our fulfillment. And so we’re doing it again this year.

Now through December 31, when you buy a sixty-dollar state park pass gift certificate, you will receive the 2009 commemorative State Park Christmas ornament free to give to a friend or keep for yourself.

Find complete details at passporttotexas.org, including that central reservation number you’re going to need to call.

That’s our show… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

State Park Pass Gift Certificate Play Now | Play in Popup | Download