Montgomery County Preserve — Attraction in The Woodlands

This would be an excellent place, but they can't be bothered to provide even an outhouse or portolet to pee! The gated sport fields must have some in their little buildings, so if a game is on, maybe one could, in an emergency. The green "entrance trail" (with a map) starts across the road from the ample parking lot. This takes you to the red "Big Oak loop" which goes in a circle. I suggest taking the trail West, then south, with tempting side trails: some marked, some not. @ the dirt road, big oak turns east on it, & soon you see "Panther Paw Pass" trail that circles down with several access trails to Panther Branch creek ( not bad for SE Texas, a dirty stream) then back up to dirt road Big Oak @ MoCo pond or swamp. Big Oak road heads east then north back to parking; passing the "Greenway" trail. If you take the Greenway, you are soon atop a bluff above muddy Spring creek. Don't take the first side trail down; after just a few minutes, take the side trail with a view of a dry, sandy picnic bluff just above the creek (most side trails go to wetter quicksand beaches. Most of this trail has oxbow lakes or swamps on one or both sides. The trail leaves the bluff for a bit where it is narrow, but thrill seekers can stay on top & soon it starts again. After 15-20 min, you cross a meadow where I saw 3 dark doves flying in formation. After this, trail is much more difficult with tripping limbs & trees down across the trail. I-45 is in view. A cloth-ish levee is being built to protect the Exxon campus x-river. I saw a blue kingfisher fly up creek here. This is a good place to turn around, though not much reason to go past the high, dry beach which is less crowded than the beaches of...

The trail map doesn't quite work correctly.. for the life of us we couldn't figure out thr trails and paths. But it didn't matter to us. It was a nice walk. The things to know are:

Biking: There's one main drag to take bikes down. Walking: Tons of walking trails all clearly marked. Bathrooms: None that we saw. Water: There is a big stream and some ponds. Plant life: Tons of different plants and trees all marked to learn while walking. Topography: Very little, quite flat. Dog-friendly: Many dogs on leash. Not good for off leash.

Although it was apparently a busy day at the trail, because it was New Years Day, it didn't feel busy at all.

Very nice. Worth it if you live in Houston or...

This area is not manicured, there is a utility road that leads to Panther Creek. Along the way there are several wilderness paths. Some will take you to real nice sections of Panther Creek and if you are adventuresome you can find where it flows into Spring Creek. Other paths meander through the woods. If you are lucky you can find a Geocache near an old wellhead.

I like taking my water dogs to play here. If you do too, stay away from the area near the bridge, because there are exposed rebars in chunks of concrete used to shore up the banks. Areas downstream of there have plentiful sand banks with wild...