November 10, 2023 | By Melissa Gaskill
The Texas State Parks system marks its 100th anniversary this year. With 89 parks, natural areas, and historic sites to choose from, visitors can experience all kinds of outdoor activities.
September 20, 2023 | By Melissa Gaskill
The Texas State Parks system marks its 100th anniversary this year. With 89 parks, natural areas, and historic sites to choose from, visitors can experience all kinds of outdoor activities.
June 27, 2023 | By Jac Darsnek
The impulse to get away from the grind of daily life is not a new one.
June 30, 2022 | By Joe Nick Patoski
June 30, 2022 | By Dan Oko
Fifteen major rivers and many hundreds of miles of smaller streams run across Texas, giving adventurers and anglers countless opportunities for exploration.
January 27, 2022 | By John Nova Lomax
November 18, 2021 | By Dan Oko
In his majestic Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea, historian Jack E.
October 20, 2021 | By Dan Oko
The numbers don’t lie. With nearly 7,000 named lakes in Texas and nearly 190,000 miles of river, not to mention stock tanks and ponds on private property, freshwater fishing in the state offers tons of fun and a lifetime of challenges.
September 29, 2021 | By Dan Oko
Fishing is a hobby and a pastime that can offer a lifetime of outdoor entertainment, providing not only the occasional meal, but also campfire stories, bonding with friends and family, and a chance to explore the world.
July 16, 2021 | By Dan Oko
Texas history buffs have the Alamo. Peak baggers have Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in the state.
December 24, 2020 | By Dan Oko
December 14, 2020 | By Dan Oko
Reading Boerne-based author Steve Ramirez’s first book, Casting Forward, feels a lot like stepping into the refreshing Texas Hill Country rivers Ramirez visits in the book’s pages.
October 29, 2020 | By Chet Garner
It takes tenacity to live on the Texas coast, and perhaps nobody knows that more than the people of Palacios (pronounced Puh-lash-iss).
September 17, 2020 | By Pam LeBlanc
Siobhan Fairchild molds a fistful of what looks like pink oatmeal into a ball, tucks a thumb-sized hook into the fragrant bait, and launches it into Austin’s Lady Bird Lake using a 12-foot rod.
May 28, 2020 | By Traces of Texas
October 31, 2019 | By
World War I is over, and the Jazz Age is on. Prohibition is the law of the land. Bootleggers are running booze, flappers are pushing social mores, and the Great Depression is brewing. None of that concerns Johnny and James Hayes, though. All they can think about is a giant catfish. Everything about this photo, taken by their father, Dallas Times Herald photographer James (Denny) Hayes, is period-perfect: the knickers, the caps, the cans of worms, and the cane poles. While we don’t know where in Dallas the photo was taken, the city—home to about 200,000 then—was growing rapidly. It’s a Texas that no longer exists, a place of sweet memories. Both boys later became photographers themselves. But on this day, there are fish to be caught, and little else matters.
June 4, 2019 | By John Lumpkin
Could there be a better way to experience a town comprised of at least 70 percent saltwater than to get to the water as fast as you can? With 41 square miles of Redfish Bay inside its city limits, Aransas Pass offers just that—
a self-described “Saltwater Heaven” building on its revival after Hurricane Harvey’s destruction in 2017.
May 30, 2019 | By Joe Nick Patoski
There are few places in and around Texas where the visible fish—plus dolphins, peregrine falcons, and brilliant-pink roseate spoonbills—outnumber the people viewing them. The Laguna Madre is one of those places, the only body of water in the state that truly qualifies as extreme.
March 21, 2019 | By Becca Nelson Sankey
San Angelo is ready to reclaim its title as the oasis of West Texas. Following a banner rainfall of 34 inches in 2018, the in or near the city have risen to levels not seen since the 1990s.
November 28, 2018 | By E. Dan Klepper
The Texas badlands east of the Pecos River and along the state’s border with Mexico bristle in thorn-covered plateaus and jagged limestone canyons. But after spring rains, the country often reveals a softer side, blushing with Texas sage blooms. The sage grows on both sides of the Rio Grande, clinging to crevices, thriving among the flats, and populating the rocky shores of Amistad Reservoir, home to Amistad National Recreation Area and ground zero for the most important shared resource in badlands territory—water.
October 30, 2018 | By
Fishing is intrinsic to Port Aransas. What would you expect from a town that was once named Tarpon because the fish were so bountiful that even President Franklin D. Roosevelt was drawn to these waters? Over-fishing reduced the tarpon population years ago, but this year’s anglers will find ample opportunities to cast for flounder, kingfish, shark, mangrove snapper, ling, and Spanish mackerel.
April 26, 2018 | By
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.
March 19, 2018 | By
Independence Creek Preserve
30o 28′ 28.86″ N
101o 47′ 137.30″ W
An overlook at The Nature Conservancy’s Independence Creek Preserve in Terrell County reveals an awe-inspiring view of the spring-fed creek and surrounding terrain—a convergence of arid desert mesas, woodlands, and prairie grasses.
May 10, 2017 | By Susan L. Ebert
No coastal highway passes through Matagorda. But when you follow Texas 60 south from Bay City to its terminus where the Colorado River empties into the Matagorda Bay, prepare to be beguiled.
August 18, 2014 | By Terri Schexnayder
Casting my line into the water, I smiled to think I was no bigger than the little girl across from me when I last tried my hand at fishing.
March 4, 2014 | By
Sportfishing rules at Lake Fork. In fact, the reservoir—which lies on the Sabine River 70 miles east of Dallas—ranks among the country’s top trophy bass lakes.
Published 10 times per year by the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas, encourages travel to and within the Lone Star State and tells the Texas story to readers around the world.
