Parks

Fort Boggy is an adorable little park with a 15-acre lake that's better described as a pond. With budget cuts, it's now only officially open on weekends.

At Huntsville State Park, a dense East Texas forest surrounds the 210 acres of Lake Raven. Tall, lanky loblolly and short leaf pines dominate the park's forest canopy. But oaks, sweetgum, sassafras, red maples and dogwoods are scattered below, and black willow, river birch, water oaks and elms congregate in the park's creek bottoms.

McFaddin is home to tens of thousands of wintering waterfowl, migratory songbirds and the largest collection of alligators in Texas.

Two sets of falls and a blaze of wildflowers in the spring highlight this park just a stone's throw from downtown Austin.

A collection of rooms where you walk from wildflowers to ferns to tropicals.

Broad fans of dwarf palmettos spread across the forest floor, giving the park a prehistoric feel. Although a "dwarf", the plant rises as high as eight feet from its underground stem, and its fans spread as wide as three or four.

Sabine Woods Sanctuary, an isolated stand of trees on the coastal plains between Sabine Pass and Bolivar Peninsula, is a haven for neotropical migratory birds.

A sister refuge of Brazoria with several, short scenic hikes, extensive wetlands and the state's largest Live Oak tree.

The park remains in rehab after Hurricane Ike, a new boardwalk now stretching to the beach. If you ignore the facilities under construction, the beach and nearby wetlands still call birdwatchers, fisherman and beachcombers. Certainly, the birds don't seem to mind the construction.

Two dozen ponds from a fish hatchery were let wild here to create a unique park adjacent to the larger Sheldon Lake.