Been a couple of years, but I think it is a nice park, especially if you like paddling. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/boat/paddlingtrails/inland/martin_dies_sp/
I'll be there this weekend. I've tent camped there many times (most recently 2 years ago) but this will be my first time there with my popup. I always take a kayak or two, and will again this weekend. I suspect the lake may be pretty low with our current drought, but I plan to paddle anyway. As far as parks go, this is typical east Texas.....muddy water, lots of shade, and a healthy population of alligators. I avoid holiday weekends and always find Martin Dies to be clean and quiet.
I guess it has BDann. I mentioned it to Shane earlier this week, we need to revive our East Texas Bender. Between family, church and work my schedule gets pretty crowded, but with a few weeks notice I can make all the arrangements I need.
I just got home from MDSP Conroejk and had a really nice time. I stayed in site# 7 which is my favorite and I've stayed in a lot of them. #7 is a pull thru, has lots of shade, and a great place to slide a kayak into the water. My second favorite would be #8 which is obviously right next to it. They're both reasonably close to a restroom without being next to it. The park wasn't crowded at all and mine was the only PUP. You mentioned hearing "mixed reviews" and I'd be curious to hear what negatives you may have heard. It's hot, humid, and there are mosquitoes, but this is SE Texas. There is no breathtaking geographical landmark, but I spend a lot of time kayaking and there are beautiful plants, countless birds, and I always see one or more gators. I saw people fishing, but don't know if they were catching anything. I drove by the swimming beach and it was nice, clean and being well used. The staff were friendly, the restrooms are old, but squeaky clean, canoes and bicycles are available to rent if you don't bring your own, so my guess is that you're going to enjoy the park.
If the link works, here are a few pictures of my trip........ http://martindiesjrstateparkweekend.shutterfly.com/pictures/32#31
Absolutely beautiful photography..........nicely done. Got to put that park on my list. Thanks so much for sharing.
The park was great despite the 100+ temps in the afternoon. We stayed in the pull through section in #7. I guess it was the heat, but the whole area was empty except one family. Never been to a SP on the weekend, and been on the water, and had no neighbors as far has I see. That was great! Park police stopped in one evening and checked on us. He said the cabin area was full, mostly due to a large family reunion, but otherwise all was quiet for him. The restroom in our area was very clean, and sharing it with just one other group was awesome. The lake was choppy, and we never got around to doing any canoeing. The trails are great and if the temps were cooler my mountain bike would have been good. Nothing technical on the trails. Overall it was nice just HOT.
Sounds like nothing changed since I was there last week. The loop directly across the water from #7 had several large motorhomes and travel trailers then, but otherwise not much was going on in either unit, Henhouse or Walnut Ridge. I like the quiet, but am always amazed that the park doesn't get more overnight visitors. Popsrock....thanks for your remark about my photos . I've visited this park in every season and think October is the nicest time to camp there. It will never be Vermont, but there are some nice, subtle changes in the foliage, the blazing Texas summer will be over, but the water temps are still plenty warm for paddling and exploring. But if your schedule mandates a summer trip you'll find plenty of shade to keep things comfortable.
We like camping at Martin Dies, Jr. SP too. We camped at Sandy Creek which is a Federal park over Memorial Day weekend since Martin Dies, Jr. SP was full. It is a nice park too. No swimming area, but lots of sites on the water as well. We camped in Site #10, but would like to have been further into the park. It's one park that is definitely off the main road!
I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to give an update. We went to Martin Dies Jr SP over Easter weekend, and I wasn't overly excited. I'd been there once years ago and we had a shelter site next to the fish cleaning station for Memorial Day weekend. We battled with water moccasins in our site all weekend, which was scary with little ones running around. It didn't help that it was hot and miserable, and when we went swimming there was an alligator in the swimming area! But, we finally returned with the pop-up and beautiful weather, and I'm so glad we did! It's a great park. We didn't get a lakeside site this time around (they were full, but we didn't want one anyway due to snakes). Winds were too high for canoeing, but we enjoyed hiking the Wildlife Trail, Nature Trail, and Island Trail. The only snake we saw was a small cute garter snake sunning itself on the trail. The ranger talk at the nature center was incredible! We watched a corn snake eat his weekly mouse and learned all about these great snakes, and we also learned a lot about alligators and got to hold a baby 'gator. This was the highlight of my weekend - he was so cute! What a wonderful surprise. I would definitely recommend this park now. We'll have to go back to do some paddling.
There will be a Star Party at Martin Dies Jr. State Park this weekend, February 15th beginning at 5 p.m. and officially over about 9 to 9:30 p.m., but we won't run anyone off if it needs to go later. There's a full moon that will interfere for most of the deep sky objects, but I think there will still be plenty to see. There will be some activities for middle school and high school kids during the day. We'll be camping there and taking part in the star party. A flier with all the information can be found on the Astronomical Society of Southeast Texas website.
My 4 yo daughter and I visited MD Jr SP last summer (2013) and we had a nice time- it was our first outing with our newly purchased popup and our first Texas State Park. I am from the great Rocky Mountain State of Montana so the piney woods were appealing to me. It was close to home and we had a really nice time. The Mayflies were really bad and dead ones literally covered the ground everywhere. The swimming hole was a bit to be desired but we toughed it out (dead mayflies floating everywhere and no shade trees- the water was super hot too.) The mosquitoes were REALLY bad- I must have come home with over 12 bites on each leg and that was with bug spray. Finally the trails were nice and the camping spots were close but there was hardly anyone there so it was quiet. All that said, we really enjoyed our stay due to the ambiance of the tall piney woods and our site was right next to the slough so with flashlights we were able to spot alligator eyes floating around at night which was really cool. Also, they have canoe rentals available so you can take one around the slough or the lake and even spot gators resting by the banks during the day. We've since decided that our favorite SP so far is Lake Livingston but we've only been there, MD Jr and Huntsville so we have plenty more State Parks to check out!
Camped there last weekend (9/12-9/14/14). Awesome park. Crazy Mosquitoes bug Off helped manage the situation. Those little buggers kept squeezing in to the pup though. We did a two-hour guided canoe trip on Saturday morning and the snake talk/feeding on Sunday Morning. Oh, we also attended the Bat talk on Friday night. We will DEFINITELY be back!!!!
