A Nature Lover's Slice of Paradise: Purtis Creek State Park, Texas

My wife and I travel a lot by car here in the US. She loves bird watching and I enjoy watching all sorts of wildlife as well as fishing. On one of our road trips we needed to take a short break and "smell the roses". We discovered this little park on a map and decided to detour and check it out. Didn't find any roses, but we did find a gem of a place!

Purtis Creek State Park is located near Eustace, Texas. It is an almost perfect little lake, a fisherman's paradise. Surrounded by a nature lover's dream of beautiful flowers and a nice selection of birds, small wildlife and, whitetail deer, it is enough to tempt any nature lover to call in sick at work and head out early to enjoy it's many temptations.

The bass are huge in this little gem of a lake, as is evidenced by the picture on the local bulletin board at the park. In fact, the Texas wildlife officials encourage anglers who are skilled enough to land one of these monsters to donate it to their special bass spawning program sponsored by Toyota. One can only imagine what landing a 13 plus pound largemouth bass would do to a poor hard working fellow's spirits!

This little park numbers about 1,500 acres and was created out of old farm land. The park was opened in 1988. Indians once inhabited the area and an old and well used stage route from East Texas passed by what is now the south border of the park. The busiest times at the park run from about March to November. The park is especially set up to aid those who like to fish. Small boats such as canoes and kayaks can be rented here. In the park's store other necessary fishing items can be bought. More information can be found at their website. (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/purtis-creek)

On the day I visited the park the weather was slightly cool and windy but very enjoyable. The many birds on hand thrilled my wife who loves to watch birds. It provided a very relaxing break for two travel weary folks needing to breathe a little fresh air during the midst of a busy schedule.

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Though Clint Bowman is a known lover of the great Okefenokee Swamp of South Georgia, he does sometimes travel throughout the US and the world. Often on these trips he enjoys stopping off and sampling the offerings of various state parks and wildlife parks. Some of his "swamp writings" can be found in an eBook and in print on Amazon.com. His most recent book is titled “Okefenokee Tales”.