December 31, 2023
We had intended to explore a route through part of the Davy Crockett National Forest today, but I didn’t want to have to drive that far for what would turn out to be a fairly short loop through the woods. So, we instead opted to drive some of our favorite roads in the Sam Houston National Forest, which is much closer to home. (We’ll get around to the Davy Crockett route another day.)
One of my goals was to look for opened forest service roads. As I have explained in earlier posts, many of these side roads are closed for most of the year (sometimes longer). A forest service road is off-limits to motor vehicles when the gate is closed.
We started on Forest Road 213, which begins on Four Notch Road south of Huntsville, Texas. The front portion of this road is open year-round, but the back portion is sometimes closed. There are several camping sites along this road, and today there were a lot of campers and hikers.
The back portion of FR 213 was opened, so we drove as far as we dared just to see what there was to see. FR 213 ends at a couple of jeep trails. On a previous visit we went down these two trails a short distance, but they were very wet and muddy and I hadn’t brought my recovery equipment. So, we turned back. (Well, I actually drove backwards on one because it was too narrow to make a turn.) The jeep trails were covered in deep puddles today from a recent storm, so we turned around at the end of FR 213.
We turned off of FR 213 onto FR 223. There are several deep creeks along FR 223, and most of the road is surrounded by dense woods. It ends on Four Notch Road.
Turning left, we continued to FR 200, which passes Wise Events & Catering (formerly, Karoly Ranch). We turned right onto FR 207, which is also called Big Woods Road, and then left onto FR 202. FR 202 is my favorite road in the Sam Houston National Forest.
Unfortunately, none of the gates to the spurs on FR 202 were open. I was particularly hoping that the gate to FR 202M would be open, although I’m not sure it ever is. FR 202M is what I call the Enchanted Path. I’ve talked about this road in Sun Dappled Forest and Dusty Spiderwebs (Part II) and Pecans, Tractors, and Dark Magic.
One of these days–hopefully very soon–I’m going to hop that gate and see what’s down there. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.
On our way to the edge of the national forest we came across something unexpected. I’m not going to reveal what it was, though. It, and similar finds, will be detailed in a future post. (And no, it wasn’t another Bigfoot.)
We were close to TX-150, so we took it into New Waverly, and then took I-45 back home. The round trip took just under three hours, most of which was spent driving around the forest.
Looking back, we had some fun adventures in 2023. Hopefully, 2024 will bring us even more!
No Warlocks?