We made a quick camping trip to
Huntsville State Park in
Sam Houston National Forest last weekend. It is odd that the park is only 90 miles from my house and I have only been there 3 times. For some reason I really like to go to new places and travel on new roads all the time. We did go on a few new roads - we took a road from
Scenic Drives of Texas on the way over and we took part of the
Texas Forest Trail on the way home.
We saw lots of wildflowers starting to bloom including bluebonnets:
Baby Blue Eyes
Lovell Violet
And whatever this one is:
These were everywhere but I'm not sure what they are, either:
We drove through the town of Anderson that once housed an arms factory in the Civil War. Not much is left in the town except the courthouse built in 1891 which looks way too big for the tiny town.
A few miles up the road we stopped in Richards for lunch at the City Hall Cafe:
As we drove on, I told my wife to watch the trees because I had read the change was rather sudden. As I told her to watch the trees, we were surrounded by oak, sweet gum, and others. Minutes later we looked up and were deep in a pine forest. It was pretty interesting. There were bikers everywhere. It looks like fun to bike through the small forest roads. I just wish bikers didn't have to have their bikes tricked out to be so noisy. It really is annoying when there is a constant stream of noisy bikes breaking the silence.
I was really tempted to just hike out into the forest and camp but I knew a playground and some other kids would keep the boys entertained when they weren't poking around in the forest so we just stuck with the original plan. We stopped at
Stubblefield Lake Campground on the drive over. It was packed - more like a parking lot than a park. We passed by two other national forest campsites, Cagle and Kelly's Pond on the drive. I knew Cagle would be overflowing as well and Kelly's Pond, though primitive, would likely be full of ATV riders. So on we went to Huntsville to where we had a reservation. They were full as well so I'm glad we had a reservation.
I set up camp while my wife and our boys explored the playground and made friends. I enlisted my 4 year old to help me erect our behemoth of a tent.
While the 2 year old and my wife took a nap, the 4 year old and I went for a hike-and seek.
The dogwoods were in bloom as well as the Southern Blackhaw, which smelled like perfume in the air.
Later we got the campfire going much to the glee of my 4 year old. We were more than a little concerned about fire because last November at a camping trip our 2 year old fell in the campfire causing us to abort the camping trip and make a middle-of-the-night drive to the hospital to treat his 2nd degree burns. It was a freak accident as my wife and I and a visiting park ranger were all sitting around the fire - so there were 3 adults around the fire and he still managed to fall in just as my wife was reaching to catch him. He is amazingly healed despite the large burns he received - no visible scar on his hand and his bottom just about healed. He seems to have gained a healthy respect for the fire because he kept his distance the entire time. He still assisted the four year old in collecting sweet gum balls and pine cones to toss into the fire from behind the yellow rope perimeter we set up to keep them safer (crossing the line meant big trouble).
We slept very well as the temperature got down to a perfect-for-camping 50 degrees. The next morning we had cold cereal for breakfast - my new favorite camping breakfast. We never eat cold cereal at home and on a camping trip it means instant breakfast with no cleanup. A large breakfast is nice but we just wanted to relax. After breakfast my wife went back to snuggle up in her sleeping bag while I took the boys on a hike, Tonka trucks in tow.
The park's lake, Lake Raven, is very pretty and fun to throw sticks in so we discovered.
There are also lots of dwarf palmettos in the park - a testament to the park's location at the Eastern edge of the Big Thicket.
Back at camp the boys had snacks...the 2 year old seeing how much he could fit in his mouth at one time as the 4 year old assisted.
Around noon we packed up and headed out. I could tell it was spring break because the campground was still full and more people were arriving as we left - a stark difference to the usual weekend when the park is deserted by noon on Sunday. That was it, just a quick overnighter. Just thought I'd share.
