Sundew Trail: The Perfect Boardwalk In Big Thicket National Preserve

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The last post I have of activities from our time in Big Thicket (not the last of the park though!) was actually the second thing we did: the Sundew Trail.

I’m posting these all out of order (basically all of my travels post-Florida), but that’s ok! This is a short boardwalk trail in the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit of the park. I think we were the only car here, so we had the whole trail to ourselves!

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The first tiny portion of the trail is paved before turning into a wide boardwalk. The whole inner loop is accessible, but the outer loop is not. We only did the inner loop.

There are small signs along the trail with information about the plants, features, and area that the trail is in. The boardwalk was very wet and very slippery, so watch out if it’s wet.

Not too far into the first part of the boardwalk, I noticed something on the right side of the trail that I was VERY excited about: pitcher plants!!

There is a small pitcher plant bog here and we got to see a few here before doing the actual Pitcher Plant Trail. There were only a few, but it was still very exciting.

We also saw quite a few crawfish holes in the muddy water along the boardwalk. We didn’t see crawfish, though we did eat them in Louisiana, but just evidence of them here.

The loop continues, and at the part where it starts to loop to the right, there should be a small trail off the left to continue onto the outer loop.

The second half of the trail was shadier, but just as slippery. There were some beautiful plants and things along this side, but I did enjoy the first side more.

It wasn’t very hot or buggy on this trail, which was really nice. It didn’t take very long to do either, so it was a good choice for getting to see a lot of different sections of the park.

This was my second favorite hike in Big Thicket, of the four that we did. We didn’t get to see any sundew plants on here, the plants that are the trail’s namesake.

And if we did see them, we didn’t realize it, but I think we just didn’t see them. Or at least none that were blooming.

I would definitely recommend doing the Sundew Trail if you’re visiting Big Thicket. It’s beautiful, and you can see carnivorous plants!

I wish there was more to say about this trail, but it’s pretty straight forward. It’s a boardwalk loop, and I love a boardwalk. Especially this one.

National Park Goodies

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Where is the Sundew Trail in Big Thicket?

The Sundew Trail is in the Hickory Creek Savannah Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas, near the Louisiana border.

It’s about an hour from Beaumont, two hours from Houston, 3.5 hours from Waco, and almost four hours from both Dallas and Austin.

How long is the Sundew Trail?

For the inner loop (what we did), AllTrails says it’s 0.5 miles and it tracked us at 0.43 miles, so pretty spot on! The outer loop is one mile, so if you do both, closer to 1.5 miles.