Parks nearby The Woodlands for Rainbow Trout Fishing

Would you like to take your child fishing for fresh water Trout? Or maybe you would like to grab your fly fishing equipment and fish for them yourself. Unfortunately, The Woodlands does not have an agreement with the state to stock them, but two other nearby parks are stocked annually! This year, the schedule you might want to make note of.:

Burroughs Park near Tomball - January 14, 2011. That is today folks! On Huffsmith Road near FM 2978.
Carl Barton Jr. Park Pond in Conroe - January 11, 2011. Off Loop 336 east of I-45; on right east of 1314.


Both locations can be fished now! For adult fishing, these are community lakes and you must abide by state regulations requiring a fishing license and a trout stamp. Read the documentation fully in the link below.  


Full list of stocked ponds for Rainbow Trout (and rules)

Hike through Mercer Botanical Gardens and Arboretum

This is a terrific 300 acre park located within easy and quick reach of The Woodlands Texas. It is situated along the southern bank of Cypress Creek in Precinct 4 of Harris County. The Mercers first planted their 13.8 acre garden in the late 1940's. It was expanded in size by three purchases in the 1980's and 1990's and developed by Precinct 4. Click here for additional history. It took me less than 30 minutes to get there, going south on I-45 to Louetta, turning left on to Louetta, then right on Aldine Westfield Rd and traveling a few minutes to Cypress Creek bridge.  After passing over the bridge you can turn left into the botanical gardens for parking or to the right for the picnic, playground and arboretum parking areas. Just follow the signs. There are plenty of trails on both sides of the road for hiking.  Map.

My hike was very slow since I decided to do some photography in the gardens first. My first task was to photograph butterflies, then some flowers and finally some of the gardens. It was a gorgeous day with a little sun and a lot of moisture from the rain the night before as you will notice on many of the photographs. I will provide many additional photographs in a link below but for now will lead you on a short tour of the facility and explain what I saw.

On passing through the entrance, immediately to the right is the Mercer Center.  To your left will be the Water Lilies pond and the main entrance garden. It is here you will sign the visitor's book and if appropriate, the professional photographer's book. Reference books are available to purchase if you need a field guide; bottled drinks can be also purchased, and a map of the premises is provided free (you may need one). Click here for their online brochure.  It is a nice place to stop for a rest - air conditioning!  In the immediate area, you will be able to observe water  plants and various other plants where butterflies, bees and birds hang out.

Briskly walk the paths in the area and you will observe all sorts of creatures and plants. Most people stop along the way and take a close look. At this time of the year, the water lilies are in full bloom in the pond near the entrance to the Central Gardens. The Central Gardens is the large area in front of the center and gets lots of sunlight. It is kept planted with the varieties of the season, season by season.

I found bumble bees very interesting in the striking colors of the various flowers. With the great variety of blooming flowers, one also sees a variety of bees. And they are busy!!

Then the butterflies -  Sulfurs, Swallowtails, Skippers and more are easily viewed  among the assorted species of plants.  A Ruby Throated Hummingbird expressed an interest in what I was doing as he hovered less than three feet from my eyes in one garden on one occasion.

Here is a familiar butterfly to everyone - the   Monarch. It is easy to get the Monarch confused with a few others in the Arboretum, but at this time of the year, this is the dominant species among about three similar butterflies. A checklist of butterflies normally seen at Mercer is provided by Mercer Arboretum. Click here. Take the list and a butterfly field guide with you (or purchase one there) and you will be able identify many species.

The Sulfur Butterfly family is a special favorite of mine. If you have ever handled one of these, their outer covering comes off in your hands and looks like yellow sulfur, thus the name.

Or you might prefer to search out the Pipevine Swallowtail.

Or the male Pipevine Swallowtail may be your choice. You can feast your eyes on these beautiful creatures on beautiful plants until your eyes become tired of brilliance. For me, after a few more varieties, I was ready for the trail again. 

The botanical gardens are great, so as I trekked out towards the east to find the Bamboo Gardens and its pond, stopping when finding  some unusual flowers like this one, moist from the earlier rains and looking like wet paper.

And this plant. The "flower" of the various Ginger plant species has two types of blooms.

There is a Volunteer Center for those who  help with various projects and maintenance of the grounds. Click here for more information.

As I continue to hike to the right side of the gardens, following the brick path, I come to a place where I can veer off onto a gravel road. This will lead me to the Bamboo Gardens. I pass by the Salvia  and the Endangered Species Gardens, and through the Perennial and Rock Gardens - lots of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Finally we arrive at the Bamboo Gardens. This is truly a beautiful place with the Lily Pond, which was renovated after the storm, next to it. The Botanical Gardens is still recovering from the storm Ike, but hopefully the Japanese Tea room will be reconstructed soon to complete the renovation.   

Now we proceed into the primitive loop. There are several routes to enjoy. On this day, there is only one person on the path, jogging. I see many animal tracks in the wet earth - deer and raccoon, as well as a White Tailed Rabbit.  A weary person like myself can sit down on one of the many benches for a short breather all along these trails and walkways.

There are benches in several small gardens where one can sit and meditate or just read.

I pass by the pond again on the way back towards the center and on through the Lily Garden.  This takes me through the Prehistoric Garden, passing by a bog and through the Shade Bog Garden and Boardwalk (photo right).

Now we leave the botanical gardens and go to the arboretum, picnic grounds and nature trails across the street on the west side of the main road. This area also follows Cypress Creek but towards the west. Here I realize how big this place really is! There is no way to cover it all in one day - not for me on this day. I am carrying a backpack and heavy camera with the temperature about 92 degrees.

I park in the arboretum parking lot and start the trek along the creek. The path takes me through the Jake Roberts Maple Collection. Since I love trees, this area strikes me as especially great! Maple trees lined both sides of the pathway!

Now we head into the trail loops to see a variety of bogs, a swamp and various natural forest areas. An impressive dried up swamp of Cypress trees are in the Bald Cypress Pond (right).

A large pavilion can be rented for Bar-B-Ques.This is located of course in the picnic area, near the children playground equipment. There is parking here also.

There are picnic tables close to the playground equipment with nearby grills. This family park is well equipped and well kept.

Additional Photos click here - I recommend viewing them as a slide show using the full screen option

Mercer Gardens website

Rob Fleming Park - one of the best

This is one of my favorite parks even though it is so young with mostly child and teen-bopper trees. I am going to take you on a virtual tour of this park. It isn't one you can photograph with just a few photos. We have to walk through it for various reasons, to understand it. First we park in the large parking lot. There are two options, but for the park itself, park from the Gosling end. The first thing you will notice is no doubt the pavilion. It is fashioned in typical Texas style with stone. I love this place! The photos are larger than presented within the blog, so you can click on any of them to see something larger. This pavilion, like the others in The Woodlands parks system, can be reserved electronically at the parks and recreation website - click here if you wish to reserve it: Reservations for Pavilions. When approaching the pavilion, on your left will be a number of small pines and other trees clustered together as a forest. The pines will grow into some sizable trees within the next ten years. Some of the others will lag behind. Behind those trees is the new elementary school currently under construction. As you walk further, you enter the kids play area. And discover along the way one of the most fascinating exhibits in The Woodlands. This is my kind of display!!!! It is the tree stump cross section (constructed of concrete) of a tree born in 1510. It is not real and fabricated with a theme of Texas history. Selected years are annotated on the tree's bark rings. As you know, one bark ring equates to one growth year. Of course I did not count these. That would be a good job for a young person to do - to verify to himself that this fabricated tree has that many rings! Now we walk towards the back of the pavilion to see the green grass field and continue to view the bluebonnet field behind it. Along the way on the sidewalk, we turn to look back at the pavilion with a tortoise in the scene.

Green field

Bluebonnet field. We will add another photo later when they bloom

We continue to follow the walking path towards the west into another planted tree area where we find picnic tables and charcoal grills. This one has two tables, convenient for a large family or two families picnicking together. As we continue west, we find the pond with a fountain. Like a number of other Woodlands parks, the pond has the tranquil sound of flowing water. Reedy vegetation planted along the pond in the future will provide a shoreline similar to Reedy Pond, and will produce a fish friendly ecology. The native rock is also appreciated here. One gets the same feel of Texas as in the pavilion. Note that the park is also dog friendly, that is, poop bags are provided on site. Please use them when you bring your dog! As we walk to the western end of the pond, we see the native stone, a pier and places to hang out. Walking on past the pond we enter a woody area of native trees, with gardening enhancements to enjoy. There are park benches to rest weary feet. This is another place to hand out. We look back and can see the water fountain on the pond. Passing out of the woods, we enter a parking area on the east side where the Aquatic Center is located. We will save this for a future article.

Playground at the Aquatic Center

Now we return to where we parked, on the street side of the park. Notice across the street is where the new YMCA will be built. The sign says early 2009 but no construction has started, so we will have to wait a little longer before we see this facility available. To our right, we come upon more tree plantings. I notice a variety of trees here, something dear to my heart. We also make note that directly across from the parking lot where we started, is the trail head for a long walk in the natural forest. This will be another future article. So our tour is complete. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did when I photographed it.
Getting there: From I45, take Woodlands Parkway exit and go west until you reach Gosling (about 4 miles), then take a left south on Gosling; cross the Spring Creek bridge and immediately afterward take a right turn.
From anywhere on Gosling, turn just south of the Spring Creek bridge onto Creekside Forest Dr. Take the first right of the round-about and you will see the park on your left. From Kuykendahl, turn east (if you are heading south, away from The Woodlands, that is a left) on Creekside Forest Drive. Follow it until you reach the park on the right. You cannot find the park on Google yet.
GPS coords: 30.14344, -95.51186
On Creekside Forest Dr

The 2009 Rainbow trout release in Burroughs Park is upon us

Just like 2008, the next release of 2000 trout in Burroughs Park is approaching. This year it will be January 16th, 2009. Each year Texas residents are invited to fish for these rainbow trout with lures. You may keep five. Children under the age of 16 do not need a fishing license. Although those fishing off of the bank in a state park are also exempt from needing a license to harvest fish, a fishing license IS required for this adventure. Burroughs Park is not a state park, so folks, bring one if you are over 16. Most are rather small fish but can be fun to catch.

Related links and references:
Burroughs Park
Record trout caught at Burroughs

2008 Rainbow Trout release to Burroughs Park pond

The next release of 2000 trout in Burroughs Park will be January 11th, 2008. Each year Texas residents are invited to fish for these rainbow trout with lures. You may keep five. Children under the age of 16 do not need a fishing license and those fishing off of the bank in a state park are also exempt from needing a license to harvest these fish. Otherwise, a fishing license IS required. Burroughs Park is not a state park.

Related links and references:
Burroughs Park
Lonestar Outdoor News - Stocking schedule
Record trout caught at Burroughs

Introduction to the Parks blog of The Woodlands Texas

I will be visiting many parks, taking photographs and commenting on their uniqueness. I hope this has value for residents and potential residents alike. You can see the pictures more clearly and in more detail if you click on the one you want to see in its entirety. For The Woodlands parks, you will notice that each is characterized by its designed role. Using this criteria as a filter, you can filter oout all posts except those pertaining to Village parks, for example, by clicking on "Village".