Village Creek State Park, 6/17/14 - 6/20/14

14. Scampsite number 21 in this lush little park.   This is a more recent acquisition for Texas; it opened in the 1990's.  Notable features: benches around all fire rings, big, shady campsites,  large pentagonal tent pads, 1 lovely cabin (former owner's weekend home), good walking trails, and a swimming hole.  It was really hot in the afternoons, so we went into Lumberton for air-conditioned antiquing and lunches.  We also visited Big Thicket National Preserve and hiked a couple of trails there too.  The trail system at Big Thicket is huge and we will be visiting there again because we didn't feel that we did it justice.  Village Creek has 25 electric sites and 16 in the Creekside Walk-In area.

Village Creek SP.

Scampsite #21.

Village Creek.

Palmetto State Park, 6/7/14 - 6/8/14

13.  This park visit was a last-minute decision based on our disappointment in the Yoakum Tom Tom Fest and nearby camping.
We had heard about the Tom Tom Fest from a BBQ cookoff we stumbled upon - one of the cookers had awards from the Tom Tom Fest, so we were intrigued.  Saturday we drove to Yoakum and went straight to the private RV park to drop off the Scamp.  The park was buggy and hot, but we were on a mission. When we got to the festival, we discovered that the BBQ cookoff had already happened, so there wasn't much going on at that point.  (The website didn't have a detailed schedule posted.)  So we decided to get the trailer and head homewards or come up with Plan B on the road.
While studying the maps, I remembered that Palmetto was on our way home, so we called the Ranger Station to inquire about availability, got the last available site, and headed into Gonzales' HEB for dinner fixings.  Once we got the trailer set up in site #5, we hiked a couple of trails and then made dinner.
Sunday we hiked another 2 trails before we left the park.
Palmetto is a lush, shady, swampy riverfront park.  It's small, but gorgeous and was built by the CCC in the late 1930's.

Scampsite #5.

A swamp along one of the trails.

CCC-built Refectory.

CCC-built water tower, bottom.

CCC-built water tower, top.

Explanation.

Artesian spring near the tent sites.

Mother Neff State Park, 5/24/13 - 5/26/13 oops 5/25/13

12. Texas' FIRST state park!!  We camped (sans Scamp) at site #7 with our friends Jen and Jeremy.  There are lots of CCC buildings, including a stone water tower.  We hiked the trails and saw lots of birds, armadillo, fox, skunk (far away fortunately), 2 rabbits, and heard coyotes and Barred Owls "caterwauling" in the night (spooky)!  We brought our screen shelter (it was hot) and cots to sleep on and during the second night the weather completely changed: a thunderstorm rolled in, so the 4 of us huddled in their tent and played 5 Card Draw, hoping it would stop soon.  We had seen the storm coming, so had put a lot of our stuff and the dogs in the car already, but after it let up, we realized that our cots and shelter were soaked, so Aaron and I packed those up and came home a day early.  Jen and Jeremy stayed since their tent was pretty dry still.  One recommendation: camp as far away from Park Road 14 as possible - it's an arterial cutoff road with a lot of traffic.
*Mother Neff has had a lot of work done on it since our visit - camping away from Park Road 14 may not be an issue anymore and part of the work was supposed to fix the flood-prone campground.  We definitely need to go back!
Mother Neff is close to Belton, which is a lovely little town.  Belton is a county seat with a beautiful courthouse, restaurants, shops and Salado Creek flows through the center of town.

Site 7.

Hiking trail through a meadow.

CCC-built rock water tower.

Entrance to the park.

Called the Rock Tabernacle now, it was built as a Club House by the CCC.

Fort Parker State Park, 3/14/1/4 - 3/15/14

11.  We camped here, in Scampsite 19, on our way home from Atlanta State Park.  It's on a small lake that is dammed up by the CCC's efforts in the late 1930's / early 1940's.  We hiked a trail with the dogs as soon as we got there.  There are a few screened shelters, cabins and campsites - it's a relatively small park.  The lake has a boat ramp and the CCC-built Activity Center.

Scampsite 19.

CCC Activity Center.

The Fort Parker Lake dam.

Atlanta State Park, 3/9/14 - 3/14/14

10. We spent most of Spring Break here because we knew there would be lots to do.  We hiked all the trails, and used our Scampsite #52 as home base for exploring the area.  The park is very pretty but had just had a controlled burn and spring hadn't quite sprung yet, so much of the ground was barren and black still.  We celebrated our first anniversary here.  The lake is pretty, and big, and most of the campsites are on it.  Campsite #53 is definitely the biggest in the park - it would be good for a big group of tents.

We explored Jefferson and celebrated our anniversary at the Stillwater Inn.  We did the bayou boat tour and learned about the history of the river and how it made Jefferson a trade hub early in Texas history.  We found 2 wineries in the area, a fledgling brewery in Jefferson and lots of antique shops.  In Texarkana we visited the Federal courthouse that straddles the state line between Texas and Arkansas, a pretty park and some antique shops.   Linden has the only Antebellum courthouse in Texas, but it was being restored when we visited as courthouse tourists.  We revisited it to see the interior because we love to go inside the courthouses.  We also visited the historic courthouse in Daingerfield, which we missed on our first pass.  It redeems Daingerfield's otherwise dreary courthouse situation!

Scampsite 52.

Wright Patman Lake, where Atlanta SP is located.

Scampsite 52. 

Scampsite 52 in the morning fog.

One of the trails in Atlanta SP.

View of the boat landing in Jefferson.

Texarkana Federal Courthouse and Post Office.

Enoch's Stomp Winery.

Linden Antebellum courthouse.

Mission Tejas State Park, 3/8/14 - 3/9/14 & 10/5-7/18

9. We camped here on our way out of town for Spring Break.  We knew we'd only be staying the one night so we didn't even unhitch the trailer from the car in Scampsite #9!  Sunday morning before we left, we hiked almost all of the trails and saw the old Rice House, the CCC bathtubs (yes, 3 stone pools where the men bathed and rinsed!), the pond, and of course, the replica mission church.  The CCC developed Mission Tejas in 1935.  It's a small park with only 15 campsites, but it's a beautiful park with short and lovely trails.

Mission Tejas is near Rusk, which has the Texas State Railroad, an old steam train that run to and from the town of Palestine.  There is a gorgeous park with probably the longest footbridge in the US through it.  The bridge used to cross a valley and creek to connect the downtown business district and the courthouse to nearby residential areas before streets were paved.

Rice House.

One of the CCC bathtubs. 

The pond.

Scampsite #9.

Replica mission church built by the CCC.

RETURN TRIP, 10/5-7/18

We revisited this park for our friend's birthday weekend!  I'll post those pictures below.  

Scampsite #8.

The pond, at dusk.

The pond at dusk.

The pond at dusk.

 

Scampsite #8.

 

The Mission replica is at the top of the hill behind our Scamp.