Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge is a series of green and wooded trails as well as hunting trails sprawling across Liberty county in Texas. We visited three different areas of the park and left a lot left for you to explore!

HQ Address: 601 FM 1011, Liberty, TX, 77575

Website: http://www.fws.gov/refuge/Trinity_River/

Admission: Free

Boar’s Den Trail (2.2 miles)

Approximate Coordinates: 30.276941, -94.795759

We knew it would be a great day when we got the car immediately bogged down in the dirt parking lot. Thanks to some Houston monsoons, the mud ate up the front-wheel drive car… We barely escaped.

When you pull up to the parking spot make sure you go nice and slow to find the gravel path. There is no markings and parts of the short drive are rutted. Proceed with caution, and go with a buddy if it is muddy/recently rained.

There were plenty of mosquitos and other wildlife… in the wildlife refuge. We only had one close encounter with a family of boars that wanted nothing to do with us and immediately ran off. We only saw two but it sounded like many more than that.

Overall I wouldn’t recommend this trail if you’re only going to pick one. It was difficult to find, not marked at all, and pretty uneventful. That being said it was a nice little walk away from the city.

McGuire Public Use Area (3.1 miles)

Approximate Coordinates: 30.176174, -94.786558

This trail was much easier to find and a lot more fun!

This one of the more exciting moments. On the property to the left we could hear 5-10 gun shots per minute, dogs barking, and hogs squealing. We were glad to walk by quickly.

This trail was drier than Boar’s Den but had still some muddy spots. One of the benefits of the McGuire Public Use Area is the two different turnaround opportunities during the main loop so you can hike less than the three miles if you desire.

I’ve been educated that the above picture is a crawfish mound. Weird!

Lots of natural beauty in the wildlife refuge. These areas are often ignored because lack-of-information to the public. People simply don’t know that large areas of national land are set aside for us to enjoy.

Like I stated above, this trail was a lot of fun and you can see I took a ton of pictures!

The bridge led to the hunting area where we decided to head back. Not sure if anyone else was out there but it was not worth finding out.

Champion Lake Public Use Area

Approximate Coordinates: 29.921541, -94.799069

The last stop on our awesome trip. A small trail and butterfly garden next to two boat ramps. And the only place we saw other people all day!

Review and Recommendations

Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge is a nice breathe-of-fresh-air coming from Houston. It is only an hour away and has many different areas to explore.

I would recommend that you don’t visit it immediately after a hard rain like we did. Circumstances forced us only to be available that day but ideally we would have waited for drier trails. Live and learn.

If you are traveling with young children or people who enjoy a little more refinement this is not the trip for you. It is relatively rugged and 99% natural. If mobility is an issue I would skip Trinity River.

However, as the photos hopefully show, this is a beautiful place to visit and full of wildlife. It is a small glimpse into what this land would look like without any civilization, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Happy trails!