Big Thicket National Preserve - Visitor Center — Attraction in Silsbee

I was impressed that they are open from I think 7...730am till like 500pm everyday ,they have a very nice facility tucked just off of hwy 69. they have 5or six units to hunt that are close to the golden triangle ducks hogs deer squirrels .... But you can only get 1 permit for 1 unit they give away these permits and would like for you to fill out a kill sheet and send back to them at the end of season if you go to these units plz make sure that you have your gps tracking device and make sure I works well in that area I try to remember to bring a roll of ribbon and flag my first time in rather I have gps or not ribbon can be tricky to so make sure you put enough out that your sure you can't miss your trail spray a little scent killer on the ribbon when you put it out if you have it ... plastic smells so use scent killer try to put first flagging where only you know where trail head is so noone can see it from road or trail lots of game on these units so make a couple of trails because you'll want pick the trail that you'll be walking into the wind or cross wind get you a summit viper climber and use supplied harness pretty some you'll be able to experience some awesome action always follow there rules and regulations and don't mess with Texas's Big thicket Wildlife...

Big thicket is pretty neat. There is no cost to visit, hike or camp. You do need a permit though which you get at the ranger station to overnight. They want you to let them know where you will be. We tried the Big Sandy area which is more secluded. Now I know why. It was pretty much marshy swampy forest, we thought this might be the case so we brought mosquito head nets and camped in hammocks. When it rained in the evening the bugs let up and it wasn't so bad. The frogs sung us to sleep. Watch out for a very high level of ticks and dress accordingly. I would almost more recommend as a day hike and exploration rather than camp. We ran across a brown snake but no other wildlife so to speak of. You can hear roads nearby unfortunately but this is a result of the persevere shrinking and shrinking over time as the rest of the world encroaches it wasn't overly...

We had some family time to celebrate the first day of Summer. First, we drove out to the Visitor Center, got a map, and toured the exhibit room. Then, we drove about 2 miles to the Kirby Nature Trail. There's a paved parking lot and enclosed restrooms, but no water fountain (you can get filtered water by the bathrooms at the Visitor Center). The trail is visibly marked and easy to traverse, despite strewn, fallen leaves and tree roots. We took the first outer loop, but not the second, as our younger children were tired. It took our family of 5 about 90 minutes with breaks. We thoroughly enjoyed the various bird songs and the rustling of the tree leaves in the gentle breeze....