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Doggin’ Houston: Where To Hike With Your Dog When In The Bayou City

By Doug Gelbert

It was 1900 when Houston got its first park, the Kellem-Noble land backing against the Buffalo Bayou on the edge of town. Sam Houston Park at Bagby and Lamar streets was soon landscaped into a Victorian delight with an old mill, a stream, a rustic bridge, and walking paths. Since 1954 the park has been the home of The Heritage Society that preserves eight historic structures here in the menacing shadow of surrounding skyscrapers. The 19-acre park is a welcome spot to lounge with your dog in downtown Houston.

To stretch out and hike with your dog the call is Brazos Bend State Park, 35 minutes to the southwest. This area at a wide bend in the Brazos Biver is the site of Texas founder Stephen F. Austin’s first colonial land grant from Mexico in 1822. Five years later the land was deeded to Abner Harris and William Barrett who used the advantageous river location to ship cotton. In the years before the state of Texas purchased the land cattle grazed here, pecans were harvested and private hunting parties prowled the woods and swamps. Brazos Bend State Park - one of the largest in Texas with 4,987 acres - opened in 1984.

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