Fish Big Thicket's Waters
Big Thicket offers prime bass fishing territory in addition to a chance to catch white perch and catfish. Visitors can boat fish on Village Creek, Pine Island Bayou and the Neches River, which is home to the prehistoric paddlefish, a protected species in Big Thicket. Boat access to the Preserve is limited to these boat ramps: Dam B (Town Bluff Dam), highway 96 near Evadale, 69 bridge at Pine Island Bayou, and at the confluence of the Neches Rirver and Pine Island Bayou. Shore fishing can be had at Franklin Lake, the pond at the highway beginning of the Woodland Trail, bridges along the southern edge of the Big Sandy Unit and the bridge at the end of Teel House Road in the Lance Rosier Unit.

Get Close-Ups of Carnivorous Plants
Big Thicket National Preserve is home to over 1,000 flowering plants, including 20 species of orchids and 26 species of ferns. Most unique of all, four of the five carnivorous plants indigenous to the U.S. reside in Big Thicket, including the pitcher plant, bladderwort, butterwort and sundew. Aptly named, the Sundew Trail is where you can see two of these bizarre plants, the pitcher plant and the sundew. This trail follows the eastern edge of the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit in the middle of the preserve's network of 12 units. There are two loops: the outer loop is 1.6 miles and the inner loop is .8 miles. This is also a great trail to take in the wildflower bloom from late spring through summer. Another trail affording looks at these anomalous plants is the Pitcher Plant Trail, which can be accessed from a road in the Turkey Creek Unit.

Hike the Enchanted Forest
Big Thicket's woods are so dense that during the Civil War many residents of East Texas fled into the woods to avoid conscription. Nowadays, the woods are smaller and a little easier to get into; one of the best hikes is the 15-mile-long Turkey Creek Trail, which runs north-south along the length of the Turkey Creek Unit. It begins in mixed pine-hardwood forest broken occasionally by sandy knolls, moves through loblollies and short-leaf pines, rolls along into an oak, beech, and sweetgum floodplain forest, and closest to the creek passes through sloughs occupied by huge bald-cypress trees. Look for the characteristic knees of cypress trees poking out of the swamp; no one has been able to explain why the trees grow this way. Hikers should keep in mind that it is very easy to get lost in Big Thicket; care should be taken to stick to marked trails unless one is an expert with a compass and a map. But don't let that stop you from venturing into this curious collection of different forest types.

Paddle The Bayou
The best way to explore Big Thicket's mysteries may be from the water. There are two designated Canoe Trails in the preserve: the Cook's Lake Canoe Trail and the Franklin Lake Canoe Trail. Located in the Beaumont Unit of the Preserve, the Cook's Lake Trail is bounded on the south by Pine Island Bayou and the east by the Neches River, where the majestic bald cypress holds court. The Cook's Lake Canoe Trail follows the bluffs of the Neches River through the Jack Gore Baygall Unit which sits on the western edge of the Preserve. The granddaddy of all backcountry canoe floats in the Preserve (you won't find any white water here) is the 37-mile length of Village Creek, whose languorous waters trace nearly the entire length of Big Thicket. There are no developed water access points along the creeks in the Preserve, but paddlers can launch at most road crossings.

Wildlife Watching
Big Thicket's diversity is not limited to its flora. There are not many places in the world where visitors can see a bald eagle and an alligator in the same day but Big Thicket is one of them. Those brave enough to venture out at night might catch a glimpse of a great horned owl swooping in on a flying squirrel or a mountain lion pouncing on a swamp rabbit. If snakes are your thing, you'll be happy to know that you can find milk snakes, copperheads, cottonmouth moccasins, and timber rattlesnakes all in one place.