Lake Corpus Christi State Park

Lake Corpus Christi is a reservoir on the Nueces River, 18,256 acres of water in brush country between the coast and the ranchlands, and the state park beside it keeps one of the last stands of South Texas brush around it. Families have come here for more than eighty years.

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 886, one of the companies that built Palmetto State Park, built several buildings and bridges here in the mid-1930s, along with Park Road 25. Only one of its buildings stands now, the refectory. The rest of the park is for using the lake. People swim, with no lifeguards, paddle, water-ski and fish from two lighted piers, one of them 400 feet long and wheelchair accessible, or from two boat ramps. Anglers take largemouth and white bass, crappie, three kinds of catfish and sunfish. You need no fishing license to fish from the shore or a pier in a state park. The park no longer rents boats, and alligators live here; read the park's alligator safety tips.

The brush and water make the park a stopover for Neotropical migrant birds, and more than 200 species have been recorded. Camping runs from water-only sites to full hookups, with screened shelters and cabins. An all-terrain wheelchair is available on request. September is usually the wettest month.