The Beginner’s Guide to Camping in Texas
I’d never understood the allure of camping. Perhaps it’s because my family was never very interested in spending time in the wilderness. We traveled quite a bit, but our destinations were always big cities with the inescapable smell of car exhaust and neon signs lighting up the night sky. In the outdoors, there were bugs, critters, and uncontrollable temperatures—and why would we voluntarily sleep on the ground when my parents worked very hard to put a roof over our heads? Whether due to nature or nurture, I knocked at the door of my 30s with no basic outdoor survival skills or knowledge. Read More »
Texas Parks & Wildlife’s Texas Outdoor Family Program Caters to Rookie Campers
Texas Parks & Wildlife ranger Immanuel Salas assists Texas Outdoor Family campers in building a fire. Photo: Tiffany Hofeldt Read More »
National Forests in Piney Woods Closing Some Trails, Campsites
Planning a wilderness escape to the Piney Woods? Consider double-checking the availability of your preferred camping areas and hiking trails—particularly in East Texas’ national forests, which are closing some campsites and trails to ease the financial strain. Read More »
Say Hi to the Llamas When You Stay at This Historic Blanco River Ranch
Despite the newness in the name, time seems to stand still at New Tracks, which is how David and Shyrle prefer it. “I often wish I had grown up in the 1800s,” says 85-year-old David, who remembers riding into the small town of Kyle as a child and finding dirt streets and hitching racks for horses in front of the general stores. Read More »
The Adventure Seeker’s Spring Break at McKinney Roughs
With 18 miles of hiking trails— 13 of them open to mountain bikes and horses, along with plenty of flora and fauna along the Colorado River— McKinney Roughs Nature Park lives up to the “nature” in its name. Adding the word “adventure” seems more appropriate though, given the current offerings of zip lining, universal terrain vehicle tours, survival skill classes, and more. All of the above makes this Lower Colorado River Authority property an excellent destination for a family spring break adventure. Read More »
Ditch the Survival Skills With These 3 Easy Ways to Explore Big Bend National Park
BIG BEND National Park can be intimidating. Countless photographs behold the region’s undeniable grandeur, its spectacular amalgam of desert, mountain, river, and sky. But the images also convey vast emptiness—16th-century Spanish explorers dubbed this territory el despoblado, “the uninhabited.” And those scenic photos often overlook the granular details, where scorpions, thorns, snakes, sunburns, and blisters reside. So it’s understandable when the uninitiated knit their brows at the thought of Big Bend, weighing a vacation experience against fears of a survival exercise in the Chihuahuan Desert borderlands. Read More »
12 Texas Trips for 2019
A new year and an empty calendar. Does inspiration know any finer muse? When it comes to travel, the arrival of January fuels daydreams of adventures and far-flung exploration—at least it does in the halls of a travel magazine. Here we explore 12 new and evolving travel opportunities across Texas, everything from cold springs to hot fiddling and craft beer to modern art. And with the exception of two—McAllen’s MXLAN festival in July and the Festival of Texas Fiddling in December—these ideas aren’t tied to a specific date, making them worthy of a trip any time of year. Start marking up that calendar now. Read More »
Make a Date with Mother Nature on the Pecos River
For nearly a week, an unspooling ribbon of greenish-blue will carry you down frothy rapids, alongside towering escarpments, and into deep, fish-filled pools. You’ll tangle with tall reeds that line the banks, drag boats through a section of bony limestone channels called The Flutes, and camp on rocky riverbanks. Read More »
8 Great Quirky Stays
Explore these unconventional lodging options across the Lone Star state. In the Big Bend feeder town of Marathon, a lone, multicolored mirage appears on the horizon. Luckily, the fanciful sight gives way to a very real, if unlikely, organic bed-and-breakfast made most entirely of recycled paper, Styrofoam, and sand. Read More »
Dive into Classic Summer Activities at Daingerfield State Park
Summer fun awaits at Daingerfield State Park, located a couple of miles southeast of the city of Daingerfield in Northeast Texas. The 507-acre park offers plenty of classic summer diversions from camping to swimming, fishing, hiking, dancing, canoeing, kayaking, and pedal boating. Read More »
The Devils River Camping Conundrum
The Devils River grows more popular every year as word spreads about its crystal-clear water and spectacular setting. With the increase of paddlers embarking on overnight river trips comes increased tensions with the landowners who own the river’s banks. Read More »
Camp Comfort Provides an Antidote to Life’s Stressful Moments with Pizza, Bicycling, and Wine Nearby
Comfort’s effect on me during my recent visit mirrored my thoughts on my first trip more than 20 years ago: This ... Read More »
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