Partially Closed From Fire

Was my first time here, and got a bit of a surprise at the front gate for the main entrance.  Apparently fire struck recently, and the southeastern portion of the park is closed at the moment.  This includes the Pine Ridge, Whitetail, Bobcat Ridge, Cypress, and Pine Canyon trails as well as the park headquarters itself.  The front gate recommended we use the other entrance on Pope Bend Road, so we drove around to the trailhead there instead.

It looks like we ended up taking the Buckeye, Pecan Bottom,Deep Sandy, Riverside, Bluestem, and Road Runner trails.  With such an extensive trail system, you really need to keep your trail map out and handy at all times.  Even so, I still ended up taking a couple of wrong turns along the way.  Extremely beautiful area with very wide varieties of vegetation.  Saw several armadillos, deer, and rabbits out and about, along with one large snake sunning itself on the trail.  Just a gorgeous area with nice well marked trails.  Only saw two people the whole time we were out, and they were near the trailhead.