Big Cat Refuge

Mountain Lion Photo by Wendee Holtcamp

City Cats

Bobcat Photo by Dave Menke, USFWS

Features

Graham's Painted Birds and Dead Outlaws

Just over an hour northwest of Fort Worth, the Texas Prairies and Pineywoods Trail buckles up into mesas with long-view bragging rights to big oil, big cattle and big history. It is a landscape that witnessed the cowboy and Indian dramas celebrated in Technicolor classics like The Sons of Katie Elder and The Searchers, the blazing of the Goodnight-Loving partnership and trail, the birth of the Cattle Raisers Association, wagon raids, jail breaks, massacres and more than one trail of tears.

Artificial Wetlands Serve as Water Filter

As soon as I step in the shallow wetland, my boot gets stuck in thick mud and I lose my balance. "Oh my gosh! I'm gonna fall!" I say to Darrel Andrews, with the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD). I fall backwards, my jacket drenched. I'm cold and wet, but it was my idea to slog through the marsh, so I'm not about to quit before we look around.

Climb Rocks at Lake Mineral Wells

The screened shelters set atop stone slabs stair-stepping into Rock Creek make the best stand-in for a shaded summer lake house. Great fishing, quiet no-wake boating (rentals available) and serious rock climbing make Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway a compelling hideaway that is both retro (camp store) fun and enthusiast-worthy (equestrian trails and horse camping).

Jefferson: Cypress Trees and Swamp Shacks

The lessons won in three days' exploring in and around Jefferson are sure: the family who (ghost) walks together stays (close) together; fried catfish is fried catfish is fried catfish, not; and the Caddo Lake you imagine you know today is not the lake you will meet tomorrow. All of which is to say, the once-bustling river port of Jefferson and the East Texas wetlands that surround it are not been-there-done-that destinations. You just never know what you might discover - or what, from gators to specters, might discover you. Day 1 In a notably damp, warm spring, the wildflowers...