Going to Big Thicket National Preserve

What to do in Big Thicket National Preserve

The "Big Thicket"—now there's a resonant name, one that conjures images of Grimm Brothers' fairytales and Blair Witches. But in this 83,000-acre swath of East Texas's Piney Woods, truth may just be stranger than fiction: Dank, dark, and overgrown, the Big Thicket is a maze of swamps, rivers, and impenetrably dense forests, a place both weird and wonderful. There aren't many undiscovered gems left in the National Parks and Preserves system, but Big Thicket is one of them.

Big Thicket is a naturalist's dream, a remnant of primeval forest that's been called an "American Ark" for its biological diversity. The last Ice Age greatly influenced this region by "herding" species from four different biological systems into one relatively small area. Southeastern swamps, eastern forests, central plains, and southwest deserts all...

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