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 Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park - Mission, Texas Posted by:  JimmyEv
N 26° 11.254 W 098° 22.786
14R E 561973 N 2896604
In the chapparal along the banks of the Rio Grande River is one of only two state parks in the Valley. It used to be crowded with families, but now caters almost exclusively to birders and hikers.
Waymark Code: WM3NE7
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/24/2008
Views: 131
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Hiking, road biking, primitive camping and birding - those are the activities available in this 760-acre state park. Access to the park is either by foot, by bicycle, or by tram. There aren’t any signs, but you park in on the east side of the road, across from the visitors’ center (the funky looking building to the west of the road). The best way into the park is by foot or bicycle. The tram is supposed to run a circle of the park every hour, but it doesn’t operate on Monday and Tuesday; and on a Thursday seemed to just sit at the visitors’ center without moving.
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 The roof of the visitors' center is made with rainspouts
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The visitors’ center is pretty cool, a funky-looking ‘green’ building that captures rainwater for irrigation. The area around the center is lushly landscaped, attracting literally hundreds of butterflies. There’s a gift shop and café, as well as exhibits on birding.
There are just about four miles of paved roadway now closed-off to all but park vehicles and bicycles. The roads are flat and wind through riparian forest and some thornscrub forest, making a pretty pleasant ride, mostly in the shade. There are four hiking trails within the park, taking you through two vastly different landscapes - Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest and Rio Grande Riparian Forest. Whether you bike or hike, you’ll most likely see one of the elusive Green Jays fluttering around.
The 1.2-mile Resaca Vieja Trail meanders through Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest - dry terrain, with many acacia trees - to a dry resaca. There are lots of turtles crossing the trail, and what seemed to be a snail graveyard. A small overlook at the end of the trail looks into the dry bed of the resaca and the riparian forest that remains from when the resaca was the Rio Grande’s channel. The north portion of the loop is a primitive track, but well maintained; the south portion is wide and graveled. If this is your first trip into the Tamaulipan Thornscrub Forest, it’s kind of eerie. The short trees with their dead branches and withered bark make the entire landscape look eerily like a set for an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
The Green Jay Trail skirts a more recent resaca, this one still filled with water, from the former boat ramp, across the open, abandoned camping area, to a bird blind specifically set-up to attract Green Jays. And it does attract this elusive bird indigenous to the Valley - if you’re very quiet (maybe that’s why they got rid of the camping?). Taking off from the Green Jay Trail is the short Kiskadee Trail. This trail is paved (yet bikes are prohibited) and cuts through what used to be the RV camping area. There’s a bird blind at the end, but you’re just as likely to see a pack of boars as birds. By combining the Green Jay Trail with the Kiskadee Trail, you can do an easy and pleasant 1-mile loop through the riparian habitat.
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In the back of the park is the 2.17-mile Rio Grande Trail. Even though the trail is nearer the river, the ecosystem is still Tamaulipan Thornscrub until you get very close to the river. With lots of cacti, It actually seems to be more arid than the Resaca Vieja Trail. The big attraction of this trail is the Hawk Tower - a huge boardwalk that goes up and up into the air until it’s high above the tree tops. At the bottom there is an explanation of what parts of the sky you can expect to see which birds in, so you can be on the lookout while climbing. The trail itself is a wide dirt path with many twists and turns around the cacti. It was once excellent for mountain biking, but now no bicycles are allowed - this park is for birders, silly. Not until the very end does the trail enter the riparian forest lining the Rio Grande. There is an overlook on the banks of the Rio, then the trail loops back. |
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All year around, this park used to be full of families, fishermen, picnickers, mountain bikers, and campers. But then the state turned most control of the park over to the World Birding Center. The folks at the World Birding Center have poured money into the park, building a new visitors’ complex and a hawk tower, and the hiking trails are well-maintained. But you can’t drive into the park anymore; the families are gone, along with the picnic tables, the grills, and the camping spots; no fishermen are seen; and mountain biking has been banned. The birder folk have built some primitive campsites, but, at $18, those are the most expensive in the Texas State Park System by 125%. It was painful watching the expression on a Scoutmaster’s face after being told how much the camping cost. The end result is a park used almost exclusively by birding Winter Texans five months of the year and not used by the locals - it’s virtually empty in the off-season, which runs from April through October. |
 Resaca Vieja Trail
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Park Type: Day Use and Overnight
Activities:
Hiking, primitive camping, birdwatching
Park Fees:
The daily fee for adults is $5. Children 13 and under are free. We usually get the annual park pass for $70 which enables us to bring in guests for free and get discounts for camping.
Background:
Donated to the state to preserve the native landscape.
Date Established?: 1944
Link to Park: [Web Link]
Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed
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Visit Instructions:
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