The Big Thicket is the name given to an area now of scattered forests but at some time in the early Texas days was a large region of a heavily forested area of Southeast Texas. This area now represents a small portion of the mixed pine-hardwood forests within the Southeastern area of the US.

In 1974, the National Park Service established the Big Thicket National Preserve within the region and it is now recognized as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Although the diversity of animals in the area is high, with over 500 vertebrates, it is the complex mosaic of ecosystems and plant diversity that is particularly remarkable. Biologists have identified at least eight, and up to eleven, ecosystems in the Big Thicket area.

More than 160 species of trees and shrubs, 800 herbs and vines, and 340 types of grasses are known to occur in the Big Thicket, and estimates as high as over 1000 flowering plant species and 200 trees and shrubs have been made, plus ferns, carnivorous plants, and more.

The Big Thicket has historically been the most dense forest region in what is now Texas.

The East Texas Big Thicket is now just a shadow of what it was when I first explored those forests more than half a century ago when camping with the Boy Scout troop.

In fact, much of the Big Thicket Forest in Texas has been cleared to make way for the ever expanding sprawl of urbanization and the developing housing communities, of which there seems to be no end.

In February of 1963, I joined the Scouts, a time of my life began from which I have an endless recollection of wonderful memories. The memories that stands out foremost for me are those of my going with the troop on monthly weekend camping trips, many of which were in the Big Thicket forest.

And the one location that continues first in my recollections is that campground where troop 810 would often camp; that campground is Double Lakes Recreational Area in the Big Thicket Forest Preserve.

When I would go camping with the troop, we would find a clearing in the forest, dig a latrine and fire pits, set up tents, find deadwood, chop firewood and cook meals with the fire coals using a cast iron Dutch kettles.

Yes, many are the wonderful memories of those days with the troop in the forest, but those times are all but gone, because camping with Scout troops now is done in the developed campgrounds instead of the aforementioned troop method done in the sixties.

Yes, the memories abound of those days.

The forest is located in southeast Texas as a disjuct collecting of small patches of forest scattered over a large area.

6102 FM 420, Kountze, Texas 77625

Although indigenous people lived and hunted in this forest nomadically, no permanent settlements have been found prior to when the Alabama-Coushatta arrived in the 1780s. Even the Spanish explorers and missionaries would avoid the area, routing their steps further west and north of this thickly wooded area.

Lake Livingston State Park

Martin Dies Jr. State Park

Village Creek state park

The Big Thicket Basin

After a weekend at the home of my brother Barry, I pack out this morning and drive north out of Baytown, then east on the Ten and finally north into the Pine Belt ecoregion, more commonly called the Texas Piney Wood.

My first stop is at the Big Thicket National Preserve.

Upon Arriving, I set up in campsite 24 so that I will be close to the Shower House. Then, I begin preparing my evening meal.

I awake first at five thirty am but go back to sleep because it is still dark and I want to walk to the lake before I leave the campsite. Then at six-thirty, I walk to the lake take a photo and then walk to the mens room before returning to the jammer and drive out of the campsite.