Mother Neff State Park

I visited Mother Neff Park recently, traveling with my husband. Expecting to stay in an older park, we were pleased to see the new section we encountered after being directed to a second entrance. We drove very slow when looking for the second sign. I think it would be passed if a driver traveled at a normal speed. The entrance is between two hills and it made me wonder how many accidents occurred while people were pulling a long camper and making the left turn.

Luckily, Ranger Yvonne stopped by our campsite to inform us about signing in regulations since we arrived after the front office closed for the day. Yvonne is a former Mother Neff volunteer who just recently became a ranger. She seemed to love her job and quickly came up with some unusual facts about her work-place.

Items of interest:

Mother Neff is usually referred to as the oldest state park in Texas. It started with 6 acres of land that were given in memory of Mother Isabella Neff at the time of her death (in 1921). In 1937, 192 more acres were added to the park; most of them deeded by Pat Neff, former governor of Texas and Mother Neff’s youngest son. Yvonne mentioned that Pat Neff also started the Department of Transportation In Texas and got funding to build the first roads in Texas parks. In 2012, 150 more acres were added to Mother Neff State Park. It's a little less than 400 acres now.

I wasn’t able to stay long enough and hope to visit this area again in the future. I would love to see a Golden Cheeked Warbler, an endangered species bird which Yvonne said nests in the park. She stated that this bird’s nests have been found in only 22 counties in the world: different sources said they breed only in Texas but have been seen In California, Mexico and the Virgin Islands.

The Golden-Cheeked Warbler

She also mentioned the 3 ecosystems in the park:

Blackland prairie

Riparian Canyon

River Bottom


I walked down a path leading to a pond and found a few more pieces of trash here than at Somerville Park. I'm pleased at how clean the parks have been. There were a couple of shredded plastic bags, which led to more pieces to pick up. I found what my husband called a "spent shotgun shell".  It was the first bullet I saw while "keeping America beautiful" by collecting trash.

I close while looking forward to visiting the park I plan to write about in May.
I always travel to the state parks with my husband. I write about what I observe but want to thank him for accompanying me since I wouldn't make the trips without him.