Today we drove 305 miles in six hours, to the Magnolia Ridge Campground, a Corp of Engineer campground on the Town Bluff Lake, near Jasper, Texas. This area was hit hard by hurricane Rita. The camp sites have been largely cleared, but the surrounding woods are full of fallen trees and bulldozed debris. And, the lake has been drained! In order to make repairs to the dam and deal with an infestation of hydrilla, the lake has been drained for two years. The campground is aptly named since the surrounding woods are dominated by huge magnolia trees. This is a small campground with only 40 campsites. The campsites are well spread out, separated by about 100 feet. The trailer sites have concrete pads. A separate concrete pad and cover is provided for the picnic tables. Even if the lake was full, it would not be visible from most of the campsites. A cypress swamp separates the campground from the lake. The lake would only be visible from the two boat ramps.
Day 7, Saturday
Today it got real cold. We bundled up and made our own path through the woods (the nature trail no longer exists) and walked around the entire campground on the roads. The park must have been real nice prior to the hurricane and draining of the lake. When the snow and hail started, we retired to the camper for the day.
Day 8, Sunday
We drove to Jasper for some groceries and diesel fuel. On the way back, we stopped at Martin Dies State Park, a nearby state park, to see how they had recovered from the hurricane. At the main campground, they had already cleared their nature trails -- about 3 miles of walking. This park is on the same drained lake. A secondary campground was also visited, to walk more nature trails. After a picnic lunch we looked for the trail head. Though we scrambled through the hurricane debris for a ways, we eventually gave up and headed back to the truck. We first stopped at a fishing dock and watched a half dozen nutria and a few alligators on the exposed bank below the dock. We drove to another spot in the park and managed to find our way to the nature trail. Most of it was clear enough to enjoy. We walked another three miles. Since it was Sunday, we discovered there were only three campers in our campground when we returned that afternoon.
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