Huntsville State Park
Huntsville State Park is a popular destination for Houstonians willing to make the ~45 min-1 hr drive up north to explore a Texas state park.
Cost: $7 for adults – Make sure you reserve tickets online. The park ranger at the entrance told us we were lucky to get one of the remaining available spots the weekend morning we visited!
Ecology: The park is ~2000 acres large, so you can easily spend all day here hiking, biking, camping, or kayaking. The ecology here is wooded, flat, with plenty of shade for those hot summer days. We spent about three hours hiking here before it got too hot to handle around noon (this was late September).
We started off the day by driving to the CCC Lodge (point of interest 4 on the trail map) near Lake Raven. Both of us were surprised at how beautiful Lake Raven is. After a few minutes taking photos and soaking in the view and cool breeze, we decided it was time to start hiking.
The Chinqapuin is the second longest trail within the state park. At 6.8 mi, it makes a large loop around the park. You can easily drive up and park at different portions of the trail, which is what we did.
Our first stop was flatwater ponds (point of interest 6) off the Chinqapuin trail. The description on the map was “a unique wetland in the middle of the forest.” Unfortunately, there was no wetlands at this spot, just more wooded forest. Definitely disappointing! Either 1) the wetlands had dried up in the heat, 2) we didn’t know how to read a map, or 3) the trail map was just wrong. I still don’t know which of the above was the problem, but, nevertheless, we turned around, went back to our car, and drove to another stop to continue hiking.
The last half of the morning, we hiked the Dogwood Trail, crossed up to Prairie Branch loop, and took the Chinqapuin trail back to our parking spot. I wish these three trails were better marked. We had to play very close attention to our handy trail map to make sure we were headed the right way.
Eventually we made it to the portion of the Chinqapuin trail that connects into the Sam Houston National Forest. After taking a few steps into the National Forest (to cross it off the bucket list), we headed back to the car.
We closed out the day by heading to the Huntsville Sam Houston statue to take a quick photo before driving back into the city. Would highly recommend!
Learn more about Huntsville State Park at: https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/huntsville
Trail map: https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/park_maps/pwd_mp_p4505_0044d.pdf
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Find this Park in: Texas State Parks Itineraries, Best Parks for Hiking , Top Outer Loop Parks