Hiking the Big Thicket

2020 Submission to the Piney Woods Journal

Many signs along highways in southeast Texas point toward the Big Thicket National Preserve.  I had long wondered about this particular national preserve in contrast to more familiar preserves and parks in north and south Louisiana.  My occasional trips to Houston, Austin and elsewhere in Texas had left me little or no time, though, for side excursions then to explore this huge preserve that occupies much of Hardin, Liberty, Tyler, San Jacinto, and Polk Counties. Somewhat like the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana with its five separate and widespread districts, the Big Thicket National Preserve has nine land units and six water units offering different potentials for visitors. Some units of the Big Thicket are in or very near Beaumont, while others are 50 miles or more from Beaumont to the north and northwest.

The Big Thicket’s more than 100,000 acres spread north into dense pine forests where logging operations were long a dominant regional economic force.  Yet the many units gathered into Big Thicket National Preserve have been called one of the most biodiverse areas in the world outside of the tropics.  This national preserve and one in Florida were the first national preserves in the US National Park System and were established in 1974. 

The first stop for me was the Preserve's headquarters located eight miles north of Kountze, Texas and about 30 miles north of Beaumont via US 69/287.  The visitor center there appeared to be larger with more displays and learning resources than typically found in state and national parks in the South.  Given the many preserve units and different opportunities spread across it, taking an hour or more to decide upon initial places to visit and explore seemed wise. 

A few miles east of the Preserve headquarters and near the intersection of Village Creek and Turkey Creek was my next stop.  The short Kirby Nature Trail connects to another short trail called the Sandhill Loop.  The two trails offered me a brief and easy hiking introduction to the Preserve.  The narrow Village Creek Corridor Unit just to the east and south of this location has a paddling creek trail.  Tannin from decaying plants causes parts of the poorly-draining bogs and sloughs to assume the color of coffee.  You might get lucky and see roadrunners and armadillos, as well as one of my favorite birds, the beautiful painted bunting, here and elsewhere in the Preserve.  A colorful flora that I suddenly spotted along one trail was a healthy-looking flameleaf sumac. 

Cell phone apps like PlantSnap can help even poorly informed, largely “want-to-be” naturalists, like me, identify interesting specimens.  I got PlantSnap to help me as a beekeeper to identify additional plants upon which my honey bees tend to forage and pollinate.  I didn’t realize at the time that this app would be so helpful in expanding my knowledge of plants that I encountered on nature hikes.

My prime goal on this initial trip to the Big Thicket Preserve was a particular attraction.   Apparently four of the five known species of carnivorous plants in the United States could be found in certain units of the Big Thicket.  The bladderwort, butterwort, sundew, and pitcher plants can thrive in the nitrogen-poor soils of wetlands there.  It seemed that my best shot at finding some of these carnivorous plants was about seven miles north of the Preserve headquarters in the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit and along the aptly-named Sundew Trail.

It would have been impossible to miss sundews and pitcher plants along this trail, but the brightly colored, moist blooms of the sundews were largely missing in mid-November when I was there.  The pitcher plants were much more impressive at that time and much easier for me to spot and photograph than sundews, bladderworts, and butterworts.  Sundews and pitcher plants attract insects that alight on what appears merely to be dew on the plants, only to get stuck fast to these secretions.

Another large part of the Big Thicket National Preserve, to its far northwest, is the Big Sandy Creek Unit.  The Big Sandy Trail there is a multiuse trail allowing horses and bicycles, while the Beaver Slide Trail showcases ponds formed by beaver dams. Loblolly pines are much in evidence within this unit. 

Bordering to the north of this particular preserve unit along US Highway 190 is the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation, the oldest reservation in the state. The two original tribes resided in adjacent areas in Alabama before migrating to this part of Texas in the 1770s and 1780s. Key dates for the Alabama-Coushatta were 1839 when the Republic of Texas recognized the tribes’ claim for land and 1987 when Congress restored their federal recognition.  Lake Tombigbee Campground on the reservation offers visitors cabins and camp sites and quick access to a few units of the preserve, as well as reservation attractions.  

Just a few miles south of the Preserve headquarters nearer the town of Kountze are signs and buildings associated with the Texas A&M Forest Service and its Olive Scott Petty Arboretum.   This arboretum is still under development and intended to serve educational, aesthetic and scientific research purposes.  The land for this arboretum was a gift from Scott Petty in remembrance of his father, Olive Scott Petty who died in 1994.  The Petty family had long been associated with timber and lumber interests in this part of the state and wanted the property and arboretum to tell the story of Texas’ great forests. Donations of $100, $200 or more are being accepted to plant a tree in memory of a loved one and be listed as an arboretum donor.

The Big Thicket National Preserve has such varied ecosystems within its many units that you can spend time in palmetto and hardwood forests, cypress and bottomland floodplains, estuarine wetlands, arid sandhills, or longleaf pine uplands.  You just need a whole lot of time to be able to claim that you have experienced much of what is available for exploration in this national preserve. 

If you have a special nature or wildlife area that I haven't already described in a previous PWJ issue, or even a particular environmental topic or concern that you believe might really interest PWJ readers, please let me know.  I'll certainly respond and consider this for the future.  You can reach me at steve-payne1@live.com. My blogsite can also be accessed at https://outdoorandenvironment.blogspot.com/2020/ if you want to scan the 40 or so previous topics and articles that I've submitted to the PWJ in the last four or five years.