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Brazos Bend State Park is a nature and wildlife area I’ve photographed
for the past six years. There are three different environments in the park, and
you can hike from a grassland prairie, to swampland, to hardwood forest in less
than an hour, or you can spend several hours in just one of these areas. The
photographic subjects are endless!
The park is located about thirty miles southwest of Houston, Texas. It covers
approximately forty nine hundred acres, and has roughly twenty-two miles of
hiking trails that wind around the parks several small lakes, in grassland
prairies, and in the hardwood forest.
The spring and fall is when the park gets most of its weekend daytime
visitors, and campers. I prefer to photograph in early morning hours, especially
on weekends, because the wading birds and animals are feeding, and seem to be
more approachable than in the late afternoon hours. But the late afternoon can
also be just as rewarding. Actually, the best time to do wildlife photography is
during weekdays. Unless you are camping overnight, the park opens at seven a.m.
Friday through Sunday, and opens at eight a.m. Monday through Thursdays. The park
entrance fee is three dollars per person.
Although all of the trails are flat, very well maintained, and easy to hike,
in the summer months carry drinking water with you. I usually carry two
twenty-ounce bottles of water for a five hour hike. The heat and humidity even in
the mornings will make you sweat like you are in a sauna here in southeast Texas.
A sweat towel is a very good idea. I freeze a twenty-ounce plastic coke bottle of
water the night before, and wrap it in my little towel when I start out in the
morning, and in a few hours I can have a drink of ice water, and a cool towel to
wipe the sweat. It’s very refreshing!
The park has several poisonous snakes. Copperhead, cottonmouth water moccasin,
coral snake, and rattlesnakes. I can say that in the fifteen years I’ve
been going to the park, as an angler, and a photographer, I’ve only seen
one copperhead and five cottonmouth snakes, and each time I saw the snakes in
time and was in no danger. I know poisonous snakes are in this area, and
I’m always looking for them, no matter where in the park I’m hiking.
When I get out of my car, I’m looking for poisonous snakes!
If the weather is not in the thirties or forties, it is a good idea to have
some kind of insect repellent. We have mild winters in this area, and mosquitoes
are with us most of the year. Late December through the first of February you are
fairly safe from them, but a week of mild weather will have them out looking for
blood. I spray from my knees to my boot tops on every trip from mid February to
the first freeze, and usually carry the spray can with me in the summer months.
There are chiggers (red bugs) are on every trail! In the spring and summer you
can expect mosquitoes, deerflies, and biting gnats. I use Deep Woods Off spray,
but use whatever works for you.
The only times the park has been closed to visitors, is when the Brazos River
floods and backs up Big Creek into the park, and for the annual white-tailed deer
hunt in the first two weeks of December. This hunt can go extra weeks if the
parks management considers it necessary as they did in 1998. During the deer hunt
the park will open for visitors on Fridays after two p.m., and close again Sunday
night. If there has been flooding in the Houston area it would be a good idea to
call the park and make sure that they are open.
I use 35mm SLR equipment with lenses ranging from 24mm to 300mm.
All of the trails at Brazos Bend State Park that I discuss are identified on
the map you will receive when you enter the park.
The Prairie Trail:
It is across the road from the 40-Acre Lake parking lot. The trail leads to a
wooden observation platform. This area is excellent for wildflowers from early
March to late November. The Prairie Trail is one of my favorite locations in the
spring and summer to photograph closeups of the grasses, dayflower, goldenrod,
passionflower, spider lily, and dewberry vines. Occasionally you can see
white-tailed deer in the area in the early mornings, and late afternoon.
It’s also great for close up photographs of dew covered spider webs on
summer mornings before the wind begins blowing.
Hoots Hollow Trail:
It is located on the northwestern side of 40-Acre Lake Trail. It will be on
the left as you get to where you can see the beginning of 40-Acre Lake on the
right. This is a nice quiet footpath with huge old oak trees covered with Spanish
moss along the entire footpath. The marshlands of Pilant Lake are on the right as
you enter the trail. There is a good chance that you will see white-tailed deer,
feral hogs, great horned owls, and barred owls in this area. This is also a good
area to photograph butterflies at rest in the mornings during the summer
months.
40-Acre Lake Trail:
This is one of the best trails for photographing the wading birds, and the
American alligator. It is also one of the busiest and most used trails in the
park. Photography is best early in the morning when the park first opens, or on
weekdays, Monday through Thursday. From the beginning of the trail (when you can
see the lake on the right) to the observation tower is exceptional for wading
bird photography on both sides of the trail. You will have Pilant Lake on the
left side of the trail, and 40-Acre Lake on the right side. The most common birds
are white ibis, great blue and little blue heron, yellow-crowned and
black-crowned night herons, snowy and great egret, american bittern, blue wing
and green wing teal, anhinga, black-bellied whistling ducks, common coots, and
purple gallinule.
In the late spring and early summer this trail is good for shooting white
water lilies blossom in 40-Acre Lake. Some can come up as close three to four
feet from the shore. Dragonflies frequently land on them, and can make great
subjects to shoot.
The observation tower is a great platform for shooting sunrise, and sunsets.
It also gives you a great view of Pilant Lake, which is more of a marsh than an
open water lake. At the observation tower take the trail to the right, heading
south, and cross the small wooden bridge, and continue along the trail by the
lake. On your left will be Pilant Slough, and there can be wading birds feeding
in this area as well. Continuing on the trail will take you back into the forest
and the winding trail to 40-Acre Lake parking lot, and picnic area. The area
close to the fishing pier can be very good for wading birds, and alligator
photographs in the early morning.
Trail from the Observation Tower to Elm Lake:
Depending on the water level of the lake and slough, this half-mile walk
between the observation tower and Elm Lake can be one of the most productive
areas for wading bird photography. This area is one of my favorite locations in
the park to photograph wading birds when the water level is low in the summer
months. I start at 40-Acre Lake Trail (the north part of the lake), and walk
straight to Elm Lake. This is also one of the busy trails in the park. Bicyclist
and large groups of visitors use this trail regularly, and it can be a high
traffic area, but in the early hours before the crowd gets up and out, before
nine a.m., you can do some outstanding wading bird photography on this trail.
Elm Lake Loop Trail:
It is very much like 40-Acre lake, just a little larger loop. There can be
wading bird, white-tailed deer, and alligator photography in this area too. Along
with 40-acre lake trail it is one of the most visitor active trails at the park.
There is a lot of bicycle, and pedestrian traffic on weekends after about nine
a.m. When I do photograph around Elm Lake, I usually remain on the western side
of the lake at sunrise and the eastern side at sunset. Tuesday through Thursday
is the best days to do any serious wildlife shooting on this trail, and the south
side of the lake is usually the quietest, because there is a large picnic area on
the north side of the lake.
Horseshoe Lake Loop Trail:
This is a very scenic hike in the hardwood forest that goes around Old
Horseshoe Lake. Spanish moss is draped on every old oak, and there are some very
large old oaks in the part of the park. During the early spring, some years as
early as the second week in February, the red buckeye plants will be blooming.
Some of the spring and summer wildflowers in this area are Turk’s Cap,
passionflower, leather flower, and a wide variety of sunflowers.
I have photographed white-tailed deer, feral hogs, marsh rabbits, and there
are squirrels, opossum, and raccoons in this area. I have been lucky enough to
get an occasional glimpse of grey fox and bobcat in the early morning, but these
are extraordinary sightings in any section of the park, but they are there.
There is a trail that goes north to Big Creek from the northwest end of this
trail. In the fall this is one of the best areas to see white-tailed deer and
feral hogs. This area is very good for photographing fall colors in November
through December.
Pilant Slough Trail:
This trail winds through the forest from the Visitor Center to the south side
of Elm Lake. It’s a very scenic hike that has forest scenery with a swamp
type atmosphere.
Creekfield Lake Trail:
Actually two trails. One is a paved loop that goes around the north end of
Creekfield Lake, and the other is a footpath that winds around the south end of
the little lake. The morning and early evening can be good for photographing
wading birds feeding in the shallow lake area.
Hale Lake Loop Trail:
Hale Lake is the largest of the oxbow lakes at the park. This trail also goes
to the interior of the horseshoe lake. This is one of my favorite areas for fall
color photography.
Red Buckeye - Whiteoak - Bluestem Trails:
This is a network of trails and footpaths in the bottomland forest section of
the park near the Brazos River. The fall colors can be outstanding in the area as
well. There will not be many visitors that go on these trails, if you are seeking
a quiet peaceful walk, and beautiful river bottomland forest scenery, this is the
area to explore. These trails are my favorite places to photograph forest
scenery, and mammals. There are white-tailed deer and feral hogs in this section
of the park twelve months of the year. The footpaths of Red Buckeye trail are my
favorite part of the entire park. The half-mile loop has several places you can
get good views of Big Creek before it ends at the Brazos River. It also has a
healthy population of Golden Orb Web Spider’s along these footpaths. They
are a very large spider and I've seen them feeding on an unlucky anole that has
been caught in their webs.
I whole heartedly concur with Jeff that Brazos Bend is the crown jewel of the Texas State Parks. After 9 years, my wife and I finally got there last December, armed with an 300mm AF-S mounted on an Nikon F5. We had canceled an afternoon trip from Galveston down to Freeport, but got to Brazos Bend after 3pm. The park rangers were excellent in helping us go where we could get the most bang for the buck. (It helped when they saw the heavy artillery along with our Gold Pass.) They sent us to the observation tower overlooking the Fourty Acre Lake. We were not dissappointed when a 12+ foot alligator crawled out of the swamp. In addition, there were plenty of egrets, and in the distance a bald eagle! And finally, the sunset was unbelivable with numerous black birds perched on tree limbs with an almost magenta background.
The commentary above is right on ! I was there a couple of weeks ago and saw a couple of gators, one pretty close, and various wading birds. There were many dragonflies and big big spiders webs can be seen lining the trail to the horseshoe lakes. I am going back again, but with a tripod, a wide lens and a macro in addition to my usual 80-200 f4.
I'd like just to add that I have shots from brazos bend gators that would fit in my 50mm! It's amazing how close you can get. Besides the large amount of birds and the alligators, I've also seen three white tailed deer. Sunset can can provide you some neat photo ops, but the place is also nice during sunrise.
P.S: Sorry Jonathan, I tried to load the picture and my post changed place...
