Parks I Enjoy In and Around Houston
Page Started: 2/18/2021    Last update:  6/18/2024
This page was born 02/18/2021.  Rickubis designed it.  (such as it is.)  All contents ©2021- 2024  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.

02/25/2024  Brazos Bend State Park  A beautiful day, where there were many things to see (as usual). I started back towards my car about 2pm. 
This was Pilant Lake and the Observation Tower at  2:15 pm.
 

 40 Acre Lake at  3:00 pm. I was standing near the middle of the East loop, looking generally to the Southwest. Note
the sign at the right edge of the picture.

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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