Highlights of the park's yearly offerings include the A Simple Christmas celebration, Prairie Heritage Days, and the July 4th Bike Parade. In addition to the weekly hikes, educational programs, and other amenities offered by Park staff and volunteers, Brazos Bend plays host to a growing number of annual events and festivals. Outside of scheduled programs, the Volunteer Organization also staffs and maintains a Nature Center containing live individuals representing many of the park's venomous and nonvenomous native snake species, baby alligators, and a host of educational displays and activities. In addition, a rotating assortment of crafts, story time and other educational programs are offered each week. Popular programs include bird and photography hikes, alligator and snake education programs, and guided hikes of Creekfield Lake. The Texas Parks and Wildlife staff and the Brazos Bend State Park Volunteer Organization put on a variety of education programs on a weekly basis at the park, and actively conduction outreach efforts in the local area. The park offers numerous Scouting programs, an orienteering course and is a popular spot for geocaching. Like in much of the upper Gulf Coast located along the northern vanguard areas of the Central Flyway migratory route, bird watching in Brazos Bend is a popular activity, especially during the migratory seasons. Popular activities include hiking, fishing, and wildlife viewing. Its recreational opportunities revolve around enjoyment of its diverse ecosystems and species. The most noteworthy and popular residents of the park are the relatively large population of American alligators.Īlthough it contains recreational day-use areas (including a dining hall, campground, and picnic areas) Brazos Bend is by primary character a natural park. Mammals such as the white-tailed deer, nine-banded armadillo, raccoon, and North American river otter are found in the park. Highlights of the park's numerous inhabitants include over 300 species of resident and visiting migratory birds such as black-bellied whistling duck, snowy egret, great egret, American white ibis, yellow-crowned night heron, northern cardinal, American coot and great blue heron. Brazos Bend contains areas of coastal prairie, bottomland forest, and a wide range of wetlands including open and semi-open lakes and transitional marshlands.
The park is a haven for a diverse mix of native wildlife and plants covering an equally diverse range of ecosystems. Today the park is run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, with the assistance of an active non-profit volunteer organization.Īn American Alligator along the Spillway Trail. In 2009, the park celebrated its 25th anniversary with a variety of special events and recognitions. In 1984 the park was officially opened to the public, its lands having been donated to the state several years previously. While significant modifications were made to the land within the park in the past, the current management strategy is to allow, in balance with the recreational elements of the park's mission, the maintenance of a natural landscape. A low-elevation levied walkway surrounds the perimeter of some of the larger water bodies (Elm Lake, 40 Acre Lake, etc.). Over the years, improvements were made to the various water bodies in the park for both recreational and flood management purposes. The park's current nature center is built into a structure previously utilized as a hunting cabin. The land passed through a variety of landowners' hands, resulting in some of the existing structures on the park grounds, including a brick cistern.
GEORGE OBSERVATORY SERIES
Pre-Columbian inhabitants included a series of Native American groups, most notably the Karankawa. The park is open year-round, with the exception of several weekends a year during which it is closed for controlled hunts to manage the white-tailed deer population.īrazos Bend State Park occupies land bordering the Brazos River and includes within its boundaries low-lying areas left over from the River's previous meanderings. 29☂2′44″N 95☃5′42″W / 29.37889°N 95.59500°W / 29.37889 -95.59500īrazos Bend State Park is a 4,897-acre (1,982 ha) state park along the Brazos River in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas (with a Needville postal address), run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
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