By Brandt Mannchen
Recently, the Houston Sierra Club (HSC) visited Lake Houston Wilderness Park (LHWP) to enjoy the beauty of this wild, almost 5,000-acre park. This is the only City of Houston Park that allows overnight camping via tents, shelters, and small cottages. There are 20 miles of trails that people can hike. People can also trail run, mountain bike, canoe, kayak, bird, fish, and horseback ride.
In human history, Native Americans lived on this land. Nearby, New Caney was begun in the early 1860’s. The land was logged, farmed for corn and cotton, and cattle were raised on the open range. Hogs and syrup from the area were shipped by railroads and wagons to towns for sale.
Champion Paper Company bought the land that is now LHWP in 1946 and managed it for timber until 1981 when the State of Texas bought it for Lake Houston State Park, which opened in 1992. There was a Peach Creek Girl Scout Ranch of about 200 acres which operated until 1990 when the State of Texas also bought it and added it to the park.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department managed Lake Houston State Park until August 2006, when it transferred it to the City of Houston and it became LHWP.
On the HSC’s outing to LHWP we followed Peach Creek for about 2 miles before we had lunch next to the stream, shaded by trees. People were fishing as we lunched on a white sandbar.
We enjoyed the riparian (streamside) vegetation which included River Birch, American Sycamore, Loblolly Pine, Swamp Chestnut Oak, American Elm, Bald Cypress, White Oak, Cherrybark Oak, and other trees and plants.
We saw or heard Blue Bird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Turkey Vulture, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Crow, and Carolina Wren in the trees above Peach Creek. Good views of Peach Creek were seen throughout the hike on the Ameri-Trail. Squirrels could be seen foraging on the ground in the forest.
There is a pedestrian bridge at the beginning of the South Peach Creek Trail which offers a place to contemplate Life, Nature, and relax while viewing the wide, white sandbars that are a part of this tannin-colored Southeast Texas stream.
LHWP is a great place to visit, and the HSC encourages everyone to enjoy its’ beauty and peacefulness.