Parks I Enjoy In and Around Houston
Page Started: 2/18/2021 Last
update: 4/16/2022
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All contents ©2021- 2022 Richard Dashnau
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I've
been a volunteer at Brazos Bend State Park for 20 years. I've
also enjoyed various other parks in and around Houston. Since I've enjoyed them so
much,
I've decided to share some details of these other parks on this page.
This page will focus onthe description or appearance of the parks. For
closer
descriptions of animals and plants that I've seen there, please visit my other pages.ARCHBISHOP FIORENZA PARK NORTH---------------------------------------------------------
This park was built around a "water detainment" project for Brays Bayou. It covers about 362 acres, according to the website here.
They've finally added a map to the website.
06/05/2021 (posted 6/13/21) I
visit Fiorenza Park frequently . It's pretty close to home, it covers
362 acres, it has about 6 miles of trails and a wonderful collection of
wildlife.
I've known it was connected with Brays Bayou as a
flood-prevention measure for some time. But the varying water levels
brought on by recent rain inspired me to do a bit of research.
Brays
Bayou actually starts about a mile West of this park. It's fed by a
number of tributaries, and continues East, through the Southern
lake. According to what I've found,
the Fiorenza Park basin
is actually one of many water detainment structures that serves to
control water flow from through Brays Bayou as it flows south of
midtown and
eventually flows into Buffalo Bayou about 6 miles East
of midtown Houston. Brays Bayou is about 31 miles long, and is
tremendously complex. If you'd like to see for yourself,
take a look at this Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool. You'll probably be amazed at the complexity of Houston's water drainage system. I was.
A
"water detainment" structure generally holds water temporarily to
control flow; while a "water retainment" structure holds water
indefinitely, often without
further drainage. Although there is
usually water in the lakes at Fiorenza Park, it is probably there
because the design of the downstream spillway at the East end of the
lake
helps maintain a minimum level. The Fiorenza Park basin
is just one of a series of water containment structures along Brays
Bayou as
it travels East to flow into Buffalo Bayou. The series of
images below show how the water level has changed over May-June
2021. Standard handrail height defined by OSHA for
many hand
rail systems is "at least 42 inches". These rails are about 42
inches above the sidewalk, and normal water level is at least 1 foot
below the sidewalk. Look at the
differences in water level over
just a few days! That's because of all the rain we got that
week--and shows how the "water detainment" works. The day of the
last image, June 5th,
was a good day to visit!
05/20/2021
05/25/2021
05/26/2021
05/27/2021
05/29/2021
05/31/2021
06/02/2021
06/05/2021
12/21/2020 This is
archbishop Fiorenza park, taken from near this spot on Google maps, and looking East: Try this link. or these coordinates: 29.716515, -95.634000 You can compare
with the picture directly below.
Long
panorama shot. Click it to see it larger. Downtown Houston is in the
direction of that water tower near the center. Beautiful day! This link should bring the webpage (new 2021) for the park (362.5 acres!)
update 08/23/2020 (material filmed Aug 13 2020) Like almost everyone these days, I've been staying inside. I have stopped driving too far... for purely recreational purposes. I've also been
avoiding parks that
take much time drive to; since we are generally asked to limit travel.
Today I went out to Archbiship Fiorenza Park phase 2(second
time this week!) and I was happy
to see it
wasn't crowded. I walked, but not far, since I wanted to keep
an eye on my car. The
pictures below show the park that day. It's easy to see that there
weren't many people in the park (although
there were many parked near
the playground).
The
next
picture below is to the left of the first one above. The bridge at the
far left is where I was standing when I took the other pictures that
day. 29.719556, -95.628972 should show the spot
on Google maps.
12/02/2017 This is
archbishop Fiorenza park.
If you go near this spot: 29.716590, -95.633297 and then first
look Northeast then circle right to look Southwest... it looks
like this. There's a blue
water tower left of the flat buildings in the center
of this long view. To the left of that is are two white spots.
That is near where I was standing when I took the other two long shots
below this one.
12/25/2017 This is archbishop Fiorenza park.
If you go near this spot: 29.719998, -95.628573 and then look
Southeast to Southwest... it looks like this ( mage below). I've seen a Bald
Eagle in
the stand of trees near the center. To the left of that stand
of trees are more trees next to the lake. Left of those, far back, is a
raised area. That is where I was standing when I took
the long photo
above.
And
if you walk near the telephone pole at the far right, then look
Northwest to Northeast... it looks like this. I've watched
Ospreys fly over, seen Cormorants flying all over here, and
flocks of
White Pelicans feeding here, among other things.
On Google maps, Try this link. or these numbers: 29.720375, -95.628716
BRAZOS
BEND STATE
PARK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
have taken many pictures and video clips of animals living at this
park, and some are shared on my other pages. This is just a
mention of the park itself.7/24/2016 Brazos
Bend State Park reopened this week! Even this long after the
flood, the park shows signs of what the high water had done. In this
long panorama shot, here are two
interesting examples.
40 Acre lake
is almost totally choked by Water Hyacinth. But....Pilant Lake is more
open than I've ever seen it in 14 years! Take a look. Click the image
to see a larger version--then
scroll across.
04/08/2012---Easter
Sunday at BBSP gets very busy. This year, I had time to put a camera on
my bicycle handlebars and do a quick ride on the Elm Lake Trail before
it got busy. I was
experimenting with doing "virtual" trail tours of
the park. I'm not sure if this works or not, but here is an edited
version of the footage I filmed. At suprise unique to the park happens
near
the 6:47 mark. Links to the video are here (files are about
200mb): Elm Lake trail mp4
---------------------------------------
------------------------------------
40
ACRE LAKE!! 11/19/2006
Here
is a picture I shot 11/19/2006 from the top of the Observation Tower at
40 Acre Lake. What an improvement from the summer! Click on the image
for
one that's a little bigger.
08/06/2006--BBSP
finally got some rainfall about 4 weeks ago. There was enough water in
Pilant Lake to allow some filling of 40 Acre Lake by opening the floodgate
between them.
When the water levels equalized, the gate was closed, and
a diesel-fueled water pump was set up to continue filling the lake. The
first image below (FILL THAT LAKE!) shows the pump in action.
The
two images below show the improved appearance of the lake. Compare
them with the two images from 06/18/06 further down on this page.
---
FILL THAT
LAKE!
BETWEEN HOOT'S BENCH AND OBSERVATION
TOWER
NEAR THE OBSERVATION TOWER
That's
some improvement, right? This
changed over 4 weekends.
RUSS
PITMAN
PARK--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
have taken many pictures and video clips of animals living at this
park, and some are shared on my other pages. This is just a mention of
the park itself.
There will be pictures here, eventually.
SCOBEE
MODEL AIRPLANE
FIELD--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February
4, 2006 -- Here are a couple of clips I shot at Scobee Field.
It's a full-sized airfield built for model aircraft hobbyists. These
clips feature model jets with working turbine
engines. SCOBEE02/04/06
A 5MB SCOBEE
02/04/06 B 5MB
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