Caddo Lake, Lake O’ the Pines, and Jefferson, TX (2021) 

Every few months, I’ve been describing weekend or holiday destinations for PWJ readers.  My goal has been to select unique cities or towns within an easy day’s drive that could serve as a base for nearby outdoor and nature expeditions.  

With the beautiful weather in early November, a trip to Jefferson, TX offered opportunities for viewing the changing colors of late autumn leaves. Jefferson is well known as a regional tourist attraction. Its cobblestone streets, historic homes, beds and breakfasts, shopping, and entertainment appeals make Jefferson a festive place for family getaways.  Walking its downtown streets can bring memories for some of us of small-town America in the late forties and fifties.  If you spend too much time during a visit in the town itself, though, outdoor lovers will miss some wonderful venues within a short twenty or thirty-minute drive.    

Many small or county parks, several larger state parks, and a national wildlife refuge can be found in the pine and hardwood forests around Jefferson.  For this article, I’m going to focus on sites that are near Caddo Lake and Lake O’ the Pines, just east and west of Jefferson.  The two large lakes are generally regarded as among the best fishing and boating attractions in Texas.           

Let’s start with the Caddo Lake State Park. This park is west of the lake and along Cypress Bayou.  A natural logjam created Caddo Lake long ago.  The diversity of habitat (lake, cypress swamp, marsh, lowland hardwoods, and upland pine and hardwoods) is home for a wider variety of species of plants and animals than elsewhere in the state.  At Caddo Lake State Park, you can fish, kayak or paddle, hike, geocache, picnic, and camp or book a cabin.  The Caddo Forest Trail and Pine Ridge Trail there take hikers through different habitat levels.  The changes in elevation along these over mile long trails require a level of stamina or fitness for hikers wanting to do a complete circuit.  One of the rewards for this physical exertion is seeing a still-standing, natural-rock pavilion constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. 

I brought my hybrid bike on this trip hoping to find a suitable spot for biking one day while I was there.  Caddo Lake SP didn’t offer that much for bikers, but the adjacent Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge certainly did.  I admit that I was quite surprised at what I found at this refuge, since I hadn’t done much research on it before arriving.  The layout of the refuge was puzzling to me with its many parallel and well-paved roads through what seemed a dense pine forest.  In a couple of hours of relatively fast biking along these roads, I encountered many more deer than the two individuals that I saw. Since the refuge HQ was closed that day, I didn’t learn until consulting my cell phone later that afternoon about the refuge’s unusual history.  

A young member of Congress named Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) persuaded the Army to build a new ammunition plant near Jefferson and closer to the small town of Karnack.  The Longhorn Army Ammunitions Plant operated there from 1942 until 1997 and manufactured munitions such as TNT, incendiary devices, and eventually rocket missile motors.  The facility at its peak had over 400 buildings, its own power and water treatment capabilities, and was designed for rail movement of supplies, inventories, and finished military items.  In 1998 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service requested that the no longer active army site be provided to them for the purpose of establishing a national wildlife refuge. Portions of these thousands of acres of land were declared an EPA Superfund site for remediation before the Caddo Lake National Wildlife was formally opened to the public in September 2009.  

On the opposite side of Jefferson lies Lake O’ the Pines.  This large, picturesque lake has many county parks and marinas all along its long shoreline.  The county parks there have boat ramps and picnic tables.  A few, like Brushy Creek State Park, have more extensive facilities such as boat rentals, pavilions, and cabin and camping options.  Buckhorn Creek Park, adjacent to the big dam for the lake has a particularly majestic vista looking down to the lake from above.   

As impressive as the many parks and marinas along the big lake, my recommendation for a visit is Daingerfield State Park located just north of Lake O’ the Pines. This state park is on a beautiful 80-acre lake called Little Pine Lake.  The park store rents paddle boats, paddle boards, canoes, kayaks, and a flat-bottom boat, with life jackets and paddles included.  You don’t even need a license to fish from shore, the fishing pier, or a boat there.  

Like Caddo Lake SP, Daingerfield SP has hiking trails over widely contrasting habitat.  The elevation along its Mountain View Trail reaches 535 feet and is even more demanding than the climb at Caddo Lake SP.  Another hiking option at Daingerfield SP called the Rustling Leaves Trail is an easy 2.4-mile route around the lake. 

  

My few days in the Jefferson area were active ones.  I only wish more time was available on that trip.  I was sorely tempted to travel a short distance to the west of Daingerfield and to Lake Bob Sandlin State Park, near Pittsburg, TX.  A ranger at Caddo State SP told me that Lake Bob Sandlin SP was her favorite state park in Texas.  If it’s a better outdoor venue than Caddo Lake or Daingerfield SPs, that’s saying a lot.