State Parks

Mustang Island State Park is the smaller cousin to thePadre Island National Seashore just a few miles down the road. In addition to about five miles of Gulf of Mexico beachfront, it borders on an extensive bayfront that attracts a wide variety of birds.

Choke Canyon State park lies on the shores of the 26,000-acre Choke Canyon Reservoir, created by a dam on the Frio River.

Goliad State Park is nestled in the woodlands of a bend of the San Antonio River, but its focal point is the white tower of a restored Spanish mission and the presidio down the road that once defended it.

Lake Livingston State Park hugs the shores of one of the state's largest lakes - 83,000 acres of water accumulated behind a dam on the Trinity River. The lake's broad stretch of open water looks more like a bay, surrounded by a typical East Texas landscape of loblolly pines and water oak.

The East Texas Pineywoods of Martin Dies Jr. State Park rest on the shoulder of the B.A. Steinhagen Reservoir and the creeks, sloughs and marshes that surround it. Its landscape varies from cypress bayous dripping in Spanish moss to majestic pine forests.

Caddo Lake State Park is in far northeast Texas, but you'd think you were in a Gulf Coast bayou, with its maze of murky cypress sloughs, trees dripping with Spanish moss, and ... alligators.

Martin Creek Lake State Park sits on a peninsula and island of a small lake. A short nature trail loops around the island, while longer and more elaborate hiking and biking trails weave among the hills nearby.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department took the wrappings off a renovated Daingerfield State Park just two years ago, and it still has that new park feel. The developed areas have a manicured, but natural appearance that blends into the wild surroundings.

Lake Bob Sandlin State Park is cut from a pine and hardwood forest on the banks of a 9,400-acre lake. An extended trail (4.5 miles) crosses through most of the park, traveling along a lake cove, crossing the park road into the forest and open up on a picturesque Trout Pond.

Tyler State Park is a serene lake surrounded by a series of sometimes challenging hiking and mountain biking trails that wind through a dense East Texas forest.