Piney Woods
Caddo Lake
The only large natural lake in Texas: 25,000 acres of bald cypress, Spanish moss and paddle trails you navigate by numbered boat road.
Explore
268,596 square miles. Start somewhere.
Lakes and rivers, state parks, road trips, small towns, barbecue and the wild outdoors — the places that define Texas, mapped by region.
Water
Lakes & Rivers
Spring-fed swimming holes, cypress bayous and reservoirs big enough to lose a weekend in.
Public land
State Parks
Eighty-nine parks, from granite domes to canyon rims — and how to actually get in.
Drives
Road Trips
Two-lane routes worth the tank of gas, mapped stop by stop.
Places
Small Towns
Courthouse squares, dance halls and the towns that still make their own bread.
The table
Food & Barbecue
Post oak smoke, breakfast tacos, Gulf shrimp and the long line as a way of life.
Wild Texas
Outdoors & Wildlife
Bluebonnet season, spring migration, dark skies and the animals that stayed.
Regions
Seven Texases
Hill Country
Limestone, spring-fed rivers, live oaks and wine roads.
Gulf Coast
Barrier islands, bay towns, shrimp boats and salt air.
Big Bend
Desert mountains, dark skies and the river that made the border.
Panhandle & Plains
Canyon country, caprock and horizon in every direction.
Piney Woods
Cypress swamps, pine forest and East Texas quiet.
Prairies & Lakes
Blackland prairie, courthouse squares and big reservoirs.
South Texas
Brush country, ranch land and the birding capital of America.
Featured places
Worth the tank of gas
Hill Country
Enchanted Rock
A billion-year-old pink granite dome north of Fredericksburg that groans at night as it cools — and rewards a 425-foot climb with the whole Hill Country.
Panhandle & Plains
Palo Duro Canyon
The second-largest canyon in the country opens with no warning out of flat Panhandle wheat: 800 feet deep, 120 miles long, banded in red and white.
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