Our last state park in Texas was Caddo Lake and if you’re a Texan, you should go! It’s a surreal lake with Bald Cypress trees that are submerged in the water.

It was nothing like we’ve ever seen before, beautiful and spooky all at once. At night, there is a symphony of crickets, frogs, birds and who-knows-what-else. We spent two nights there and slept with the rain fly off. In the middle of the night lightning bugs hovered and sometimes landed on our tent like miniature passenger planes taxiing a runway. This biome is just bursting with life and is such a stark contrast to the desert conditions of far west Texas.

While on the lake we took a boat tour on an electric paddle wheel boat named Swamp Thing. Our guide and captain was Jon. We found out later that on several occasions he has had to protect his passengers from curious water moccasins trying to board his vessel with a paddle!

During our tour we learned that it was on Caddo Lake that offshore drilling technology was pioneered there. We saw beaver dens, great large herons and searched for some gators (none found).

It is an amazing state park and if you’re near it or bicycling through, well worth the visit. It is rather popular, so if you intend to go on the weekends, make reservations!