Lake Houston Wilderness Park

 

Every time I go to Houston, I pass a sign directing me to Lake Houston Wilderness Park. A friend who lives near Houston also recommended it to me. I have been driving by it for almost a year now. I decided to take the exit and go explore. Driving there, I was a bit hesitant. It is in the middle of a rather industrialized town with lots of road construction. The lady at the entrance was nice. The entrance fee is $3 per person, it is not a state park but a City of Houston park. The roads were beautiful. They were lined with mature trees with the sun filtering through the woods. The directional signs within the park could be better, but encourage you to explore. I found a parking area near some bathrooms and a really neat bridge and walked around to explore. It was so cute. Hot, but cute. The bridge to walk over was amazing. I walked over Peach Creek. There were families playing in the shady water in the creek and having a great time. There was a great picnic area overlooking the creek. I went back across the bridge and followed the trail along the creek. There was plenty of access to get down the creek, but my time was almost up. The woods were nice and shady, a great break from the summer heat, but I looped around before the trail ended and cut through a group camping spot to get back to the truck. I decided I had a bit more time and wanted to explore more of the roads. I drove across the one lane bridge and found the road beyond was also essentially one lane. The camping cabins were along this road. I saw a dead end sign so turned around where I could. There might be a lake at the end of the road, that will be for more exploring another time. I drove back across the one lane bridge and saw a couple more trail heads. There is limited parking at one of the trail heads, good parking at the other. I saw a nature center and big park headquarters and followed a couple other roads in the park before I found the exit. The park maps were very hard to read and the trail maps were not very useful to me. I have gotten spoiled with the excellent maps and signs the state parks put out. I will definitely come back to this park when the weather is cooler. It will be a great place to spend several hours exploring. It would also be a good place to tent camp.