Goose Island, TX report

Location, Goose Island State Park, Rockport, TX

This is written in retrospect after spending a week at Goose Island State Park with son Tim and his family. It was a great week with the grandkids. There was no internet and no cell service (at least no Verizon cell service), so no blog during our stay.

The park is located just north of Fulton, TX, a short distance from Texas Hwy 35. It has a mixed camping area for tents and RV’s as well as a beach area with each site having a shelter. You do need the shelter because of the wind which blows most of the time. All sites have water and electricity which makes camping in Texas State Parks much nicer when the weather turns inclement. Which it did while we were there.

It rained twice during the week so we had lots of inside activities. We did try fishing from the pier in the park but the big ones weren’t biting this week. There are not a lot of kids’ activities in the area so games were played both inside and outside.

Matthew with hermit crabs.

We had a campfire every night (except when it rained), went out for a sea food lunch one day and for pizza one night. We also had Blizzards at Dairy Queen a couple times and slept late most mornings.

The campground is located in an oak grove with lots of brush between the trees. This makes all the perimeter campsites fairly private. The oaks bordering the road into the campground and the roads in the campground can be hazardous to large RV’s as we saw happen to one RV as it left the campground. Most of the trees are marked with orange reflectors to warn you about the hazard.

There was a very large oak tree across from our site and nearby in the old town site of Lamar, is a really large oak tree estimated to be 1000 years old.

 

We spent one day at Aransas Wildlife Refuge north of Rockport. While here we checked out the visitor center and saw a turtle crossing the road. It was rescued by a Ranger.

We drove to the Whooping Crane observation area and walked up the tower overlooking the estuary where we have seen Whooping  Cranes the past. We were not disapointed as a pair were visible using binoculars.

Later, we drove a 16 mile road and saw an Alligator, deer, and an Armadillo. Earlier, some of us saw a very large wild pig feeding in a swampy area.

Armadillo crossing the road.

It was hard leaving the Grandkids after spending 4 weeks with them. We hope we get to see them before next year as they are growing up so fast.