Lake Jackson Wilderness Park

I had passed by it many times before, never knowing it was there, but this book brought it to my attention and I seized 57 post-work minutes yesterday to explore part of it.

This is the type of density I like to see in hiking trail parking lots:

A little Texas history thrown into the mix doesn't hurt either:

A typical upper Texas coast bottomland, the trees were a cathedral of Spanish moss:

I had slow-going, however, because of my visceral dislike of these things, which web across trails and about which I've written before:

Buffalo Camp Bayou above the spillover associated with the regional surge-control levee:

Unfortunately the bayou is choked by this plant which appears beautiful individually but which is highly invasive and devastating to area waterways:

I was struck by the diversity of plants on this trail, some familiar such as the ubiquitous native yaupon holly, which is one of my favorites:

And palmetto, although this is the first one I've ever seen actually fruiting:

But there were trees there that are not as commonly seen:

One of which produces this brain-ball type of seed thing:

I found these remains near the parking lot and couldn't decide whether it was animal or human that had rendered them.  I'm thinking perhaps feral hog due to the stoutness of the bones, but I don't know much about mammalian biology:

Because I had limited time and because it's banana-spider season, I only got about a half mile down the trail, but I intend to revisit this spot in the future.