Big Thicket National Preserve

56 miles today, 1,959 down. Kountze or the Big Thicket, Texas. The scenery has changed again. It looks like a thicket — the trees are tall and dense. It has misted rain all morning which has made everything look mysterious. The headquarters for this national park is 7 miles from here. I ain’t goin’ - it’s raining. Below is an excerpt of the National Parks website.

People have called the Big Thicket an American ark and the biological crossroads of Nor ordinary is not the rarity or abundance of its life forms, but how many species coexist here. Once vast, this combination of pine and th America. The preserve was established to protect the remnant of its complex biological diversity. What is extra cypress forest, hardwood forest, meadow, and blackwater swamp is but a remnant. With such varied habitats, "Big Thicket" is a misnomer, but it seems appropriate. An exhausted settler wrote in 1835: "This day passed through the thickest woods I ever saw. It...surpasses any country for brush."

Major North American biological influences bump up against each other here: south eastern swamps, eastern forests, central plains, and southwest deserts. Bogs sit near arid sandhills. Eastern bluebirds nest near roadrunners. There are 85 tree species, more than 60 shrubs, and nearly 1,000 other flowering plants, including 26 ferns and allies, 20 orchids, and four of North America's five types of insect-eating plants. Nearly 186 kinds of birds live here or migrate through. Fifty reptile species include a small, rarely seen population of alligators. Amphibious frogs and toads abound.