Aneel and I are trying to do one weekend trip per month on average. Sometimes that means non-Tourtoise trips, but they do make up the bulk of our weekend getaways (which is great). We’re always looking to explore new places, but are also trying to keep a list of the best places to return to. Two of our favorites areas have historically been Inks Lake State Park and Buescher State Park—we actually have reservations to go back to both in the fall. In April and May, we added two more areas to our “have traveled to” list.
Park Selection Criteria
Honestly, my criteria this time around for picking areas to visit were 1) what has availability that matches our availability and 2) what is within three(ish) hours, so it still makes for a pleasant three-day weekend. Generally, I do also try to look at reviews and descriptions because we’re looking for hiking trails, great nature, and lean away from busy, group activity-oriented areas, and areas that seem more specifically designed for boating or water sports. I like being on a boat, but that’s not really what these trips are for.
While trying to pick some areas for Spring, I got to reservations a little late, and bluntly… was just looking for places period. One ended up okay, the other ended up spectacular, and I’m glad we went to both for very different reasons.
April trip: Mother Neff State Park
Neither Aneel nor I realized it until our drive to the park, but Mother Neff State Park was the very first Texas state park. I’m guessing timing or paperwork or something makes that claim not 100% defensible because most sources always use the wording “one of the first parks in the Texas’ state park system,” but truly… it’s THE park that starting the whole ball rolling.
Part of what is now Mother Neff State Park belonged to a woman named Isabella Neff from the mid 19th century all the way through her death in 1921. She was a big player in her community (gaining the nickname “Mother Neff”) and had a huge soft spot for community activities and outdoor leisure. So, when she died, she donated six acres of her favorite land to the state for a park. She also, apparently, instilled in her son a love for parks and outdoor leisure because her son, Pat M. Neff, worked hard during his time as a Texas governor to start the Texas State Parks Board and start a government run state park system in Texas.
There is a whole lot more to the whole State Park history in Texas, but the focus for this blog is that Mother Neff State Park is an important part of Texas State Park history, and it was nice to visit for that reason.
The park itself is pretty small—bigger than the original donated 6 acres—at 330 acres. I got curious writing the blog, and apparently the smallest state park in Texas is only 16 acres and the biggest state park in Texas is Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is 311,000 acres. So yeah, definitely on the small side of things. It only has about 4 miles of hiking, so definitely not enough hiking for us during a three-day trip. We pretty much did all the hiking in one day.
It is a pretty area though. The RV camping loop has some good shady areas and tree sections. We were on the inner side, which isn’t our favorite because I want a camp site that backs up just to nature. But we did have okay privacy and some nice trees around. Also, it was pretty much the perfect time of year in Texas to camp and the butterfly, bird, and wildflower life was spectacular.
The hiking didn’t really feel like hiking… it was more short strolls through the area. Some of them are labeled moderate, and that might be fair because they could be a little rocky, but… it was not at all a challenge and they are all very, very, very short.
The birds were abundant—we saw so many painted buntings, and also frequently spotted black-chinned hummingbirds, chickadees, Franklin’s gulls, Bewick’s wrens, Mississippi kites, and had one hilarious turkey encounter that nearly gave me a heart attack. The only bird that wasn’t a decently common enough spotting for me was the dickcissel. We did hear a chuck will’s widow at night… every night… but couldn’t ever find it.
The other big positive is that there are plenty of areas nearby to hike when you’ve exhausted the 4 miles at Mother Neff. We ended up going to Miller Springs Nature Center, which was about 20 miles away, and I had a FABULOUS time hiking there. There isn’t a ton, ton of hiking there, but plenty and it all crisscrosses and is super wild and just very pretty.
The big bonus of Mother Neff is that it’s a recently built campsite, so it’s full hookups and a 30 AND 50 amp plug at every site (Aneel already posted about that), so super easy to camp there. Don’t have to worry at all about having to hook up and dump tanks.
Camping Tip: Best Camp Sites: 5, 7, 8. 6… more privacy, good space, backs up against wild area. We took note just in case we end up coming back. I kinda doubt we will, it’s just not necessarily big enough. But it’d be a perfectly good place to stay if there was something else in the area we really wanted to do.
To Be Continued…
I thought I would post about Lost Maples State Natural Area in this post too, but this post is too long already. Stay tuned for part 2, and I’ll highlight all of the awesome that is Lost Maples.
