Parks

The Rookery is a tenement for birds, where they gossip, fight and raise their families.

The Catwalk Trail reaches into wetlands and coastal prairie with ponds and sloughs running alongside.

The refuge is a collection of largely primitive stretches of forest and wetlands that roughly follow the Trinity River.

Village Creek State Park lies on the edge of the Big Thicket in East Texas and shares with it a diversity of plants and wildlife that draws comparisons to tropical rainforests. The best view of the landscape is from a canoe, paddling along Village Creek.

The bright yellow, orange and red leaves of Lost Maples State Natural Area are to fall what Texas bluebonnets are to spring. And they draw a similar crowd. Just imagine if the display in New England was limited to about 2,000 acres.

Those expecting colorful, dramatic cascades of stalagmites and stalactites at Longhorn Cavern State Park will be disappointed, but the naturally sculpted amphitheaters and tiered rooms of the caves are equally impressive.

Trails follow woodland paths and snake along shaded creeks but don't look for Lake Houston here.

A trail strewn with cactus and wildflowers leads to a rocky canyon with a meandering stream at its center. It is one of several wild trails at a park more known for its lake.

The landscape of forest, meadow and swamp is an oasis between the railroad tracks and the West Loop.

The park snuggles up on four miles of the Guadalupe River, whose knotty cypresses give way to rocky Hill Country trails.