The Campground at Matagorda

LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority) is the conservation and reclamation district that operates the Matagorda Bay Nature Park.

This 1,600 acre park was acquired by LCRA in 2001.  The area was undeveloped back when we lived in Houston and still has no hotels or big condos. There is nothing much close by. Get fuel either leaving Houston coming down or leaving the Corpus area coming up. The closest easy diesel station going north is outside of Angleton. The tiny backroads are beautiful and safe. I’ll add a road map soon. Forget the highways, you’ll miss all the good stuff.

Although Texas Parks & Wildlife is responsible for this park’s campground reservations, you cannot make your reservation on the Internet. They must be phoned in at 1-800-776-5272, or direct to Austin at (512) 389-8900. Your Texas Parks Pass does not apply here, and the phone menu is long and tedious. Be prepared to wait. The place is often booked solid on the weekends and virtually empty on week days.

Find the park campsite map HERE. There are just five of the big pull thru sites, but the back-in premium sites aren’t bad at all.

For Visitor Information, services, fishing guides, attractions and general information you can call the park office directly (979) 863-7120.

Descriptions will always be clockwise starting at upper left.

1) Park office, Beauregard in the background.  2) Looking north up the Colorado from office.   3) Beauregard later that day when the park was all full. 4) Looking south toward the Gulf.

Pull thru site 66 could easily fit 3.75 Beauregard’s. They are silly big.

1) Looking west  2) Looking east.  3)  Our neighbor the 2010 Airstream.

4) A big group of college buddies come down once a year to go crabbing. Here are the premium back-in sites completely filled with 40’ & 42’ rigs.

1)  The nice path along the river with fishing piers.  2) The premium sites from the office.  3)  The beach and the big pier with the Nature Center in the background. (The Corps of Engineers owns and maintains this enormous pier, which allows excellent salt water fishing) 4) The boys heading toward the beach.

Walk way out on this pier at night for a view of the stars that will leave you breathless.

But speaking of breathless, if you have respiratory issues or known sensitivity to Red Tide, check the Red Tide status before you go.

The Milieu

While quickly sorting through pictures for the Matagorda RV Park overview post I ran across this charming example of the park’s ambiance. This boy was dancing with his little sister.

The park is remote.  Everyone there was local.  I actually heard someone say their friend had just arrived “all the way” from Houston. The place fills up on the weekends. There were kids, but nice kids. Virtually everyone had a dog, yet they were all socialized, leashed, NOT yappy and the owners were exemplary at poop patrol.

During our second weekend a big, extended family set up camp right on the river and hauled out tons of expensive fishing gear, chairs, lanterns and what not…. then proceeded into town for the entire evening with absolutely no worries that anything would be stolen.  Old Texas manners at their finest.

The Magic of Matagorda

 

The Sunsets

The Surf

The Sand

The Sunsets

The Sky

The Colors

The Serenity

The Shadows

The Kayaking

 

The Big Fishing Pier

The Fishing

The Shelling

Did I mention the Sunsets?

The Night Sky is magnificently dark thanks to this remote location, far from city light pollution. If anyone has an 80mm short tube refractor scope they are not using and would like to donate…

Since we live on an imperfect planet, here is the evil magic.

The rip currents, the dead wildlife, the small fish killed and wasted by fishermen seine netting for bait, and last but not least the mosquitoes.

No fires allowed. There was an outbreak at Aransas Wildlife Refuge, quickly extinguished, that filled the sky for a time. The squiggles in the sand are snake tracks. It is encouraged that all fish remains, even the shells from your fresh dead shrimp, be thrown back into the river to support the ecosystem.

The Birds of Matagorda

The Texas coastal county of Matagorda boasted the highest number of bird species counted in the USA during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in 2007.

Some really serious Birders counted 235 species in one day! This could never happen for me, since I rarely get up before the crack of dawn and I can’t tell my Whimbrels from my Godwits…yet.

One can visit the Matagorda County Birding Nature Center. This complex has 34 acres that sit right on the Colorado river and offers nature trails, wetlands, woodlands, native prairie, gardens, boardwalks and bridges. Or one can sit in a lounge chair at the Matagorda Bay Nature Center RV Park and let the birds fly to you. Your choice.

The RV Park has various fishing piers, wetland kayaking, 70 FHU sites, (many are right on the Colorado) a nature center (mostly for kids) and 22 miles of drivable, walkable beach with pretty shells. Full details on the RV Park in a future post, but be aware that the few pull-thru sites are HUGE and although not directly on the water, allow a lovely view out the front window if you’re in a big Class A.

Enjoy the Birds, and please feel free to help identify.

Spoonbill

Willet

Snowy Egret

 

Boat Tailed Grackle

Ruddy Turnstone juvenile (?)

Collared Dove

Gulls.

Clapper Rail (or possibly King?) Chicks were black.

Willet #2

Snowy Egret. Look at those silly feet.

Common Terns ?

Tri-colored Heron, Sanderlings, Semipalmated Sandpiper.

European Starling? There was quite a large flock.

Killdeer

Long billed Curlew

White Ibis

Brown Pelicans

Curlew

Overview of environment.

Zoom!

White Ibis

Little Blue Heron

Fishing.

Heron flight.

And scores of others, too fast, too tiny, too elusive to capture.

What a Birder’s Paradise.

There were gallinules, coots, cormorants and many different passerines. The herons were everywhere. Most of my pictures were blurry, unidentifiable or lost.

The alchemy of Duke, surf, sand, wind, memory card accidental erasure and somehow getting the camera color settings on “EWWWW” all add up to a noxious combination. A photographer I’ll never be. Good thing I can cook.

The Wrong Turn

 

Yikes.

Sure hope these tracks were created by something that FLOATS!

Or else some one had a very bad day. Talk about rolling blunderz…

Goose Island State Park, Texas

The Great Texas Grey Crested Biddie

Apparently laying an egg or something…

The call of this rare bird is a screeching “Watch! WATCH WATCH !!!”

Especially while the Driver is attempting the rather interesting entry into Goose Island State Park. The CB antennae were complaining with a “bwoing- bwoing-bwoing” as they snagged on the branches of the old live oaks. A loud, breath-catching “ker-THUNK” was the big spot light getting whacked. It survives unscathed. Be sure yours is pointed down before entry. Toad can remain hitched until you reach check-in.

Here is the view through the windshield as we thread Beauregard into the Park.

Oh boy….Look what’s up ahead. “Watch! WATCH, WATCH!”

We made it safely, albeit slowly. It can be done. Be unafraid.

This wonderful metal spoonbill graces the entry to Matagorda Bay Nature Park, which has a super easy entry and great FHU sites, but since I’m still too busy to blog, <<don’t know how to make maps, awaiting return of EE>> Details will come eventually.

Note: The Driver came up with my new moniker. Nice, huh.

The Whopper

Too busy to blog. Still scaling, filleting and freezing this whopper caught off the jetty.

I guess this guy used better bait.