Purgatory Creek Natural Area

Getting there: Getting to the upper Purgatory trail head can be a little tricky if you just print out the upper Purgatory trail map since it doesn't indicate the intersection at which to turn to get to the access road. That road turns out to be Craddick Ave. Coming from I-35, turn left at the Craddick intersection and then turn right at the T intersection onto the dirt road for half a mile to the trail head.

I was disappointed that most of the Paraiso Trail was closed during my visit. Much of the trail is closed from March 1 through May 31 each year for Golden Cheek Warbler breeding season. Still, there is plenty of other trails to take up an entire day even with that section closed off.

The official trails are typically wide single track surfaces. A general rule of thumb when coming to an unmapped intersection with trails is to take the single track option and not the double track or jeep trails that probably are used by maintenance vehicles.

The spot marked "Overlook" provides a nice vantage point over the creek's canyon. Though not terribly high, it's plenty steep and provides a bird's eye view of the Malacoda Trail section below.

Later, when hiking the Malacoda section you might be surprised by the very large cavity sitting beneath what seemed to be solid Overlook above. The rock overhang must have been a handy place for Native Americans to seek shelter from storms.

Plenty of birds call the area home, but there's also white trail deer and wild turkey that can be found along the trail. A couple of snakes also slithered off trail and into the brush and up a tree. My best guess was that they were something like a rat snake.

When Dante's Trail comes into contact with the Ovid Trail section things get more complicated in that some unmapped trails seem to proliferate. On this, my initial visit to the area, I turned back and called it a day.