Eastward Bound: Martin Dies, Jr. State Park – Jasper, TX

As we were plotting our continued repositioning east from Austin, we were keeping a close watch on weather ahead. Massive rain storms had hit much of East Texas and Louisiana, and road closures were predicted.

We had also had several readers advise avoiding I-10 between Houston and Lafayette due to lousy road conditions in general. So we were already considering non-interstate routes to our next stop in the New Orleans area.

Looking ahead at a few potential campgrounds a bit further north than Houston, we were noticing most were fully booked up due to Spring Break. And then we spotted a few remaining sites at Martin Dies, Jr. State Park.

It was a bit further out than ideal for a single driving day for us, but it could certainly be a nice stop.

So thus our routing became:

 

Martin Dies Jr., State Park

We had never heard of this park before, but finding new-to-us spots is part of our joy in travel.

We particularly love state parks, and since we picked up a Texas State Park pass last spring that would be expiring at the end of the month anyway – it just made sense to maximize the benefits. (The pass covers the daily entrance fees that Texas adds on top of the nightly camping fee – it’s worthwhile to pick one up if you’re going to be park hopping in Texas for more than a week or so.)

The reviews on Campendium where glowing (our review), and we became enchanted with the idea of a lakefront spot where we might be able to get out our inflatable kayak and launch right from our site. It had been too long!

One of the features of Texas State Parks that we usually relish is that while you can reserve a space, you don’t generally reserve specific sites – they’re assigned when you arrive.

Unfortunately for our long driving day – 259 miles with a bit of traffic coming through Huntsville and Livingston delaying us even further – we arrived just before the office closed. That meant all the awesome sites were assigned out by then.

We took whatever they had, but knew we might have options to switch in the morning.

Our first site, # 145, wasn’t too bad – aside from being mostly underwater due to the recent rains. It was quite spacious, however we had a youth group camped across the way from us. While all very well behaved young adults, that much social activity nearby just wasn’t overly relaxing.

The next morning we took a stroll around the campground to see which spots had opened up. And much to our delight, spot 108 (which the Watson’s Wander folks had raved about in their review) had just opened up!

We called to the ranger desk, and they got us switched over.

It was oh-so-worth the effort to move. The spot is down on a little culdesac, which isolated us a bit from the spring break commotion around the entire park. And, we had an actual *intended* waterfront with a kayak launch!

We enjoyed biking around the park to explore a bit, however most of the trails were shut down due to flooding. But thankfully a little extra water didn’t impact the park’s kayaking trails.

I inflated our Sea Eagle 370 kayak, and off we paddled around the island exploring the cypress groves and sloughs. It was very beautiful, and felt so good to be back on the water!

Sea Eagle Note: We don’t prioritize waterfront spots and kayaking opportunities often enough to merit carrying hard sided kayaks. But our two-seater inflatable kayak has been a perfect companion for the few times a year things align.  It folds up really nicely into a bag and easily fits in our bay storage area. It’s quick to get ready and pack away, usually under 15 minutes.

Is it the best kayak ever? Nope. It certainly doesn’t compete with my old Ocean Kayak Scrambler XT I had before I hit the road. But it’s good enough to scratch our water itch and expand our adventures. We’ve had ours for four years now, and at the ~$350 price point for the compete package – we’ve definitely gotten our money’s worth.

All and all, a nice restful stop in East Texas for a few days to recharge, be active and prepare for our next major driving day into New Orleans! And it did turn out to be a good thing that we routed via Highway 190, as I-10 did get shut down.

We’ll update on those adventures in the next travelogue.

What’s Up Next?

I’m writing this from the rainy panhandle of Florida (Yes! We finally made it to Florida!) where we’ve found a nice spot for Easter weekend. Early next week we’ll reposition down to the Ocala area for a few days, and then make a short drive over to Spring Hill.

Which will complete this 2500+ mile repositioning we’ve been on for the past several weeks.

We’re looking forward to time with family, and preparing for our upcoming non-RV adventure up to Canada!

By the way, if you missed our live broadcast on ‘Planning a Day’s Drive’ last weekend – the archive is now available on YouTube. We shared a bunch of tips and trick for picking campgrounds, keeping flexible, route planning and navigation.