Dwight D. Eisenhower Park is a large park near Lake Houston and closeby to Alexander Deussen Park. The trail map provided by Harris County (attached to this location on this site) is garbage. It does not show the trails! Instead, all you see is a large, green "heavily wooded" area where the trails are. here is a network of hiking trails that run through the woods, consisting of the San Jacinto Trail (3.2 mile Loop), Palmetto Trail (1.2 mile Loop), Copperhead Trail (0.9 mile Loop) and Observation Point Trail (0.2 miles). Refer to the photo I uploaded to see the network of trails.
On this hike, I took the San Jacinto Trail from the Big Eddy Parking Lot. There is a nice display map at the trailhead and there are prominent yellow pointer signs that show the way. Unfortunately, at a critical junction of the trail and a utility right of way clearing, these pointers are missing. Consequently, I followed the utility right of way clearing because it looked like the trail. This caused me to have to navigate through several low-lying wet spots as well as having to cross a small creek. I eventually found the trail and looped back to my car, but I wasn't too happy about the unplanned detour. Poor signage is one of my pet peeves. One or two $1 directions signs would have prevented this!
Not to be deterred by getting off trail on my previous hike, I decided to hike the Palmetto Trail, the Copperhead Trail, and the Observation Point Trails. The trails run mostly through the woods, although part of it runs along the road. The Palmetto Trail (aptly named) has many nice palmettos on display.
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