Outdoor Adventures 
This Land is Your Land
From Caprock Canyons to Matagorda Island, from the piney forests to the Gulf Coast marshes, the state parks of Texas were made for you and me. What's the best way to enjoy them when the weather is perfect for an outdoor adventure? With a canoe. Or a bike. Or a tent. Or a good book. Presenting our favorite things to do in some of our favorite places on earth.
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Ogle alligators
BRAZOS BEND STATE PARK Considering that Brazos Bend is home to two or three hundred adult American alligators more than six feet long, I was more concerned that I'd trip over one than that I wouldn't see one. But these creatures can be elusive, especially when scattered across nearly five thousand acres of shallow lakes, wooded bogs, and forests of moss-covered oaks. Because they are cold-blooded, alligators must constantly self-regulate their body temperature by basking in the sun or hunkering down in the water, and park naturalist David Heinicke had told me that the best time to spy them is on a warm spring or fall day following a cool spell that has chilled the water below their comfort zone. Conditions were near prime when I took a two-hour stroll around Elm and Forty-Acre lakes in October, and I counted six gators half submerged in the lily pad stew. A baguette-size youngster sharing a log with a daring (or stupid) turtle was my favorite reptilian still life. (And I do mean still; if the little guy hadn't blinked, I'd have thought the turtle had killed him.) About twenty miles south of Richmond on FM 762, 979-553-5101; $3, senior discount, under 13 free. S.B.
Solitude
Take in the sunset
PALO DURO CANYON STATE PARK When it comes to natural wonders, my jaw drops just like the next gal's. And believe me, "spectacular" only begins to describe this rugged eight-hundred-foot-deep canyon carved into the flat Panhandle land millions of years ago by that little creek that could, the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. When I was there in November, the huge parking lot was empty and the only other visitors I encountered were a family of deer. (Be prepared for crowds if you go during the summer, when Palo Duro hosts thousands who come for the spectacle of the musical Texas Legacies.) Happy to have some alone time with the "Grand Canyon of Texas," I walked the three-mile Lighthouse Trail to the park's signature rock formation, stopping on my way back to watch the sunset. The sprawling West Texas sky, laced with wisps of cloud, put on quite a light show. A jaw-dropping one, in fact. Twelve miles east of Canyon on Texas Highway 217, 806-488-2227; $3, senior discount, under 13 free. S.H.
Search for seashells
MATAGORDA ISLAND STATE PARK I never thought I'd tire of picking up sand dollars, but it happened on Matagorda Island. Because you can get there only via the passenger ferry out of Port O'Connor (a worthy adventure in itself) or by private boat, the beach—a whopping 38 miles of it—is off-limits to the caravans of shell-smashing vehicles that cruise most of the Texas coast. You won't find any mollycoddling services either; take your own drinking water, food, shade, bug spray, and sunscreen. Although the park offers a shuttle service from the dock to the Gulf side of the island and the 1852 cast-iron lighthouse, I had brought along my bicycle and quickly distanced myself from my fellow ferry passengers, most of whom stayed dockside to fish anyway. For hours, with only laughing gulls and plovers for company, I searched the beach for treasures, loading my bike basket with shells, a foam fisherman's float, and a curvaceous green bottle stamped vino italia. But my favorite find was one I couldn't take home—an afternoon of seaside solitude. Call for ferry schedule; reservations required (512-389-8900); $16 round-trip, under 13 $9. Shuttle $2 round-trip, children 6 through 12 $1, under 6 free. S.B.
Paddle your own canoe
CADDO LAKE STATE PARK If I were a writer of mysteries, this place would be my muse. The labyrinth of sloughs studded with cypress knees, the dripping Spanish moss overhead, the fall colors reflected in the glassy water, the creature that trolls the backwaters waiting to grab small children—well, maybe not that last one, but the rest would be a fine setting for a tale of intrigue, adventure, and long-buried secrets. As I canoed the waters of this East Texas fantasy world, following offshoot sloughs that beckoned me deeper into the swampy woods, I imagined alligators lurking in every clump of lily pads. Then Mother Nature cut my idyll short with a drenching thunderstorm, and—feeling vulnerable in my aluminum canoe—I decided it was time to bail. From Karnack, head north on Texas Highway 43 for about one mile, then east on FM 2198 for half a mile to Park Road 2; 903-679-3351; $2, senior discount, under 13 free. Canoes can be rented in the park at Caddo Canoe Rentals and Boat Tours (903-679-3743); open every day but Wednesday from March through November, weekends only December through February. S.H.
Bike the backcountry
DEVILS RIVER STATE NATURAL AREA Most of the visitors here are kayakers making the two-day trip from Bakers Crossing, through Val Verde County, to Lake Amistad. But only a tiny part of the park borders the river: Behind the bluffs along the bank lie 20,000 acres of hardscrabble backcountry, irresistible to those of us who like our isolation active. A twelve-mile hike-and-bike loop promised the chance to test myself against this harsh terrain. The trail, an old jeep track, rises gently at first—cottontails and quail leaped from the brush as I rode through the morning mist—but soon climbs steeply to a ridge, where I was rewarded with a sweeping view of the place where West Texas and the Hill Country meet. The jeep track stops at the halfway point, and from there on I had to lug my mountain bike over the ankle bustingest, wheel-bucklingest ground I've ever come across. The markers here blend into the rocks, so do not continue until you have spotted the next one; several times I wondered if I would see my campsite again. Though it took me ten hours to cover twelve miles, I saw no one, I had a close encounter with the fragility of existence, and I survived. Mission accomplished. From Del Rio, go north on Texas Highway 277 for about 45 miles, turn left on Dolan Creek Road, and follow it for 18.6 miles to the park entrance; 830-395-2133; $3, under 13 free. C.L.
Adventure
Go underground
COLORADO BEND STATE PARK Twenty percent of Texas is karst, areas where the limestone has slowly dissolved to form all kinds of fissures and cavities. In fact, there are at least six thousand caves and sinkholes in the state, the longest extending more than twenty miles and the deepest descending more than five hundred feet. Texas has several famous show caves—the Caverns of Sonora, for example—but in this park's "wild" caves, you can find out if the down and dirty joys of spelunking are for you. Wild caves have no illumination or walkways; you need a flashlight and good boots in these strange dark places, which are home to bats and ancient tiny blind things. Daddy-long-legs-like arachnids bob up and down in alarm when you shine your light on them, and troglobitic amphipods, little shrimplike creatures, scrabble around in silent pools. The fearless can bump their heads on a crawling tour; the rest of us can ramble through the relatively spacious Gorman Cave. From Lampasas, go west on FM 580 for about 24 miles to Bend, turn left at the stop sign, and follow County Road 442 for 10 miles to the park office; 325-628-3240; $3, senior discount, under 13 free. Walking tours (2 1 / 2 to 3 hours) Saturday and Sunday at 9:15 a.m., $10; call for schedule and price of self-guided crawling tours (3 to 4 hours). Reservations required. C.L.
Hike and bike
CAPROCK CANYONS STATE PARK "If horses shouldn't go here, then I'm not so sure fiftysomethings should either," said my fifty-something father as we passed a no-equines-beyond-this-point marker along the multi-use Upper Canyon Trail. Up and down we hiked (learning that when signs indicate steep inclines, they mean it), stopping to admire the views of juniper-and-mesquite-dotted red-rock escarpment and to drink plenty of water. We even climbed our way into a cave filled with ferns. Six miles later, back at our starting point, we agreed that a rental car had never looked so good. The next day, after a good night's rest, we rode our bikes on a 17-mile adventure along the Caprock Canyons Trailway, an abandoned rail line that takes you across trestles and through tunnels. While horses are welcome on the entire 64-mile gravel course, my dad again found himself wondering if the same access should be given to fiftysomethings. Three miles north of Quitaque on FM 1065, 806-455-1492; $2, senior discount, under 13 free. Take your own mountain bike; the Caprock Home Center, 126-128 West Main, Quitaque (806-455-1193), offers a shuttle to the South Plains entrance of the trailway; $25 for groups of up to four. S.H.
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