I think my order is as follows: plenty I still need to get to.
1) Lost Maples
2) Pedernales
3) Guadalupe

Thanks for not putting Garner at the top. It gets too crowded too often.

I love going to state parks, but I'm not overly enamored with any that I've been to in the last several years.

Even though I haven't been there since I was a tiny kid, I'll say Palo Duro for now.

Big Bend Ranch

Caddo Lake State Park

Big Bend Ranch
Mustang Island
Colorado Bend

Inks Lake

I'll say Guadalupe River/Honey Creek. I worked there as a park ranger in high school checking in campers, cleaning bathrooms, fixing broken stuff, etc.

Then years later, I drew a hunt in the park and hunted it in the snow. That was the same day I found out my wife was pregnant with our first baby. Pretty amazing hunt/day. I didn't take/can't find any pics of the spike I shot that morning, guess I forgot since the GW helped me haul him.

20 years ago, I would have said:

1. Bastrop
2. Pedernales
3. Inks

Now the good ones get so crowded. God love people for taking their kids out and enjoying the parks. I wish they could enjoy them with a little less people to share the space with.

I haven't been to inks in a long time. Is there any hiking? I don't remember.

Need to get out to Colorado bend too.

I have an affinity for water so those are my favorite.

Lost maples is where we would day trip for my mom's bday mid November so I have always enjoyed it.

Brazos Bend
Caprock Canyon
Dinosaur Valley

The obvious

Lost Maples
Palo Duro
Brazos Bend

Few of the more lesser known ones

Palmetto State Park
Davis Mountains
Stephen F Austin (at least when the golf course was till there)

Tyler State Park
Lake Mineral Wells State Park
Inks Lake

Do state historic sites count?

1) Hueco Tanks

Im not going to slight my favorite park simply because a LOT of other people love it too:

Garner is the most popular for a reason. I've spent approaching year of my lifetime at it, so far. Much of that was when the aquifer was higher and the crowds more moderate and less prone to trash the place on weekends, and the teenage me loved the summer crowds: the more crowd, the more girls to meet in the crowd, after all. But, we discovered also that the off season from past Labor Day to before Memorial Day is much less crowded and very nice, and more family friendly. You can get entire areas of the park to yourself in winter after the public hunt is over.

My second would probably be inks lake. I have a boat and it's nice to be able to beach it at certain lakeside camp sites.

I also like lost Maples and Pedernales Falls for the hiking.

A recent favorite of mine is Big Bend Ranch. Wonderfully remote and the long drive and desert isolation keeps it wonderfully uncrowded. At night you can see stars better than possibly any other place in Texas. The near certainty of actual paint scratches deters the mall crawlers, so you have many trails and campsites completely to yourself.

Bastrop and Buescher state parks are close by me, and they are great for hiking and biking. The park road that connects them is a nice stretch of hills for a good biking workout with some good views until the trees grow tall again from the Bastrop Complex fires.

South llano and Guadalupe River state parks are nice but they both are unfortunately fairly small and have a relatively short stretch of River access, so if they draw a crowd, if feels very crowded by the water.

Old Tunnel State Park

I haven't camped there in a long time but I've fished Huntsville SP a lot and it's an underrated place IMHO. Lake Raven in the park is a gem- clear water, lots of lily pads, great fishing, and since the whole lake is a no-wake zone it stays pretty unpressured.

It also has the extra excitement element of inadvertently paddling over a 9' alligator resting on the bottom, which is always exciting when it decides it wants to be somewhere else.

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I haven't camped there in a long time but I've fished Huntsville SP a lot and it's an underrated place IMHO. Lake Raven in the park is a gem- clear water, lots of lily pads, great fishing, and since the whole lake is a no-wake zone it stays pretty unpressured.

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Huntsville State Park gets hammered with boats and kayaks on weekends.

Camping reservations on weekends are now hard to come by as well.

It think the reservations are so cheap make and easy to cancel that a lot of people just book every weekend that they "think" they might want to go camping.

River Bass said:

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I haven't camped there in a long time but I've fished Huntsville SP a lot and it's an underrated place IMHO. Lake Raven in the park is a gem- clear water, lots of lily pads, great fishing, and since the whole lake is a no-wake zone it stays pretty unpressured.

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Huntsville State Park gets hammered with boats and kayaks on weekends.

Camping reservations on weekends are now hard to come by as well.

It think the reservations are so cheap make and easy to cancel that a lot of people just book every weekend that they "think" they might want to go camping.

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The weekends part is key. I'm fortunate that I can frequently fish during the week as my career affords me that flexibility.

As for the gators, I wonder if they were as prevalent in the 80's because we camped there a lot when I was a kid and we swam in there a good bit and that concern was never raised that I can recall.

Living in corpus christi we were hamstrung by driving distance at times, after having moved to san antonio, enjoying the state parks more often was a big plus. The annual pass is well worth it.

They've never had an incident there. They are certainly there, I have seen them. They are probably well conditioned to disregard people and stick to nice crunchy turtles and bass and catfish and maybe raccoon or water bird now and then.

River Bass said:

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Quote:

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I haven't camped there in a long time but I've fished Huntsville SP a lot and it's an underrated place IMHO. Lake Raven in the park is a gem- clear water, lots of lily pads, great fishing, and since the whole lake is a no-wake zone it stays pretty unpressured.

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Huntsville State Park gets hammered with boats and kayaks on weekends.

Camping reservations on weekends are now hard to come by as well.

It think the reservations are so cheap make and easy to cancel that a lot of people just book every weekend that they "think" they might want to go camping.

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Its not as easy to make throw away reservations now. The state makes you pay for all nights you stay up front and if you fail to cancel you forfeit the entire fee, not just deposit.

Astrobo said:

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20 years ago, I would have said:

1. Bastrop
2. Pedernales
3. Inks

Now the good ones get so crowded. God love people for taking their kids out and enjoying the parks. I wish they could enjoy them with a little less people to share the space with.

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See everywhere. State parks, national parks, Disney world, ski resorts, you name it. There's too many people in this world.

Like yogi said: No one goes there anymore, it's too crowded.

Big Bend State Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon could be national parks.

Colorado Bend is an awesome park.

Guadalupe
Pedernales
Davis mtn.

Heading to Davis tomorrow for a weekend family trip