Monday, January 30, 2017: Texas to Louisiana, Big Thicket

Woke to a beautiful sunny morning with temps in the high 50's.  Great day to get outside.  Packed up the RV and headed north 30 miles to the first National Preserve - Big Thicket, Texas.  Stopped at the visitor center to see a film and learned that this area is unusual because it has so many plants and animals from different zones.  It has pine forests with desert cacti nearby as well as black swamps (they call them baygalls here).  One unique thing is there are five types of carnivorous plants in North America and four of them are found here. Unfortunately, they do not bloom until March, so another item added to the bucket list.

This area had been thousands of miles of virgin forest inhabited only on the edges by native Americans, who did not stay, but enjoyed hunting and gathering here.  Logging began after the Civil War, followed by the discovery of oil nearby in 1901 that started the great Texas Oil Boom, changing the area forever as folks arrived in droves.  Eventually, a number of key conservationists recognized they need to save what was left of the Big Thicket and so it eventually became the first National Preserve, run by the National Park Service.

After the introductory film and looking at their exhibits, I walked the short 1 1/2 mile Kirby Nature Trail that took me through forests of Oak and Beech, then pines and swamps.  Supposed to be good birding, but I was there mid-morning, and apparently most were napping.  All I saw were robins, and heard some cardinals and the insistent tapping of a woodpecker in the distance.  Lots of hurricane damage to large trees.  I did not have to worry about bears and mountain lions here as I did in Big Bend, but they do have bobcats and even panthers, but they are not seen very often.  The biggest animal I saw was a squirrel.

Looked like a lightening strike as the inside was charred 

Up close, the woodpeckers have been busy

These are everywhere in fields and alongside the roads - they are the tailings from crawdads!

It was great to walk in the woods on a lovely day before climbing aboard the Eastbound RV and getting back on I-10.  I stopped mid-afternoon in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Getting across Texas on I10 is MUCH shorter than I20 to I10.

Got a campsite in the small Lafayette city park and enjoyed sitting outside in the 75 degree sunny day.  Tomorrow, I will visit the Cajun Acadian Cultural Center and Vermillionville, both of which are not open on Mondays.