East Texas Piney Woods

After spending a few nights at Inks Lake State Park in the Texas Hill Country, we headed east into the Piney Woods. We are near Jasper, TX at an Army Corp of Engineers park called Sandy Creek Park.  It is on the same lake as Martin Dies State Park where we volunteered about 18 months ago. We recalled that Martin Dies would get crazy with scouts and kids on the weekend and chose this park as a quieter alternative. And it's cheaper to boot!!

Site 30, Sandy Creek Park

Folks who have never been to Texas may think of it as a dry desert, but a visit to East Texas will quickly put that notion to rest. This area averages about 60 inches of rainfall a year, and is heavily forested. The Louisiana border is only about 35 miles east of us, so we are definitely in the swampy south!

View of B.A. Steinhagen Lake from our site. 

In addition to towering pines there are many varieties of hardwoods. A large Sweetgum overhangs our site, and when one of these seed pods drops onto the roof it gets our attention!!

Sweetgum seed pods. 

Springtime in East Texas means that the Flowering Dogwood is blooming. It is a beautiful sight. 

We decided to head on over to Martin Dies State Park our first morning to do some hiking. They have excellent trails that cover many different habitats. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit were in bloom. The unusual cylindrical flower has brown streaks inside, but we didn't get close enough to see them. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Threatening weather kept us close to home the next day, but there was still plenty to see and enjoy near our campsite. Southeast Texas has American Alligators in just about every body of fresh water, and Lake B.A. Steinhagen is no exception. This six-footer spent much of its day just out from our site. 

In the quiet backwaters there were lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs. 

This is also Crawfish (Crayfish, Crawdad, Mudbug,...) country. We saws lot of Crawfish "Castles" in the grassy areas around the campground. Female Crawfish burrow deep into the ground to form a chamber which keeps them safe and moist. The excavated material is built up around the entrance and forms a tube called a "castle".  We saw some particularly impressive examples.

I tried to get Teri to stick her finger into this one to lure the occupant out, but she wasn't having any of my nonsense!

One other thing that we've found plenty of here are gnats. They don't bite, but they absolutely swarm your face, especially your eyes and ears. They can make being outside a real challenge. We were spraying ourselves heavily with Off, but it wasn't having much effect. Apparently the gnats aren't too impressed with DEET.  While at the grocery store we decided to buy a bottle of "natural" insect repellent containing essential oils of lemon grass with some vanilla. It smelled great but would it repel bugs? The answer is a big "Yes!".  It works great. We've been out a couple of times and not been bothered by the gnats. We still see them flying around but they no longer land. Success!!

Medella Naturals Insect & Mosquito Repellent

We wonder if it will work on the Black Flies in Maine. We'll report back...

Mark