East Texas Road Trip: Exploring Grapeland, Crockett, a Drive-Through Safari & More
Some travel days go exactly according to plan.
And then there are the trips where the water hose freezes, the propane is locked inside the truck, a camel steals your food, everything you want to visit is closed—and somehow you still have a wonderful time.
Our stay in Grapeland, Texas, and our adventures around nearby Crockett definitely fell into the second category.
We were camping at Salmon Lake Park while exploring this part of East Texas, and despite a few mishaps, we discovered beautiful historic buildings, tried some great Texas food, encountered some very enthusiastic safari animals and learned a few more lessons about life on the road.
Camping at Salmon Lake Park
Our home base for this part of our East Texas adventure was Salmon Lake Park in Grapeland.
We’ve done a separate campground review because this place really deserves one of its own. Salmon Lake Park is much more than a place to park an RV. The huge property is filled with historic buildings, old vehicles, cabins, a lake, event spaces and all kinds of unusual things to explore.
During our stay, General even made a new friend.
Sort of.
He encountered a campground cat that didn’t immediately run away, hiss or try to claw him. General was fascinated at first and did all the appropriate dog sniffing.
And then apparently decided the cat wasn’t nearly as interesting as he’d expected.
So much for his new friendship.
We also enjoyed watching a great blue heron that spent quite a bit of time around the lake. A white egret visited too, although it never stayed still long enough for us to get a good picture.
Then Texas Got COLD
When we thought about traveling through Texas, freezing weather wasn’t exactly what we pictured.
Then the temperature dropped to about 24 degrees.
We disconnected our water hose from the trailer overnight so the trailer plumbing would be protected.
What we didn’t do was completely drain the hose.
Guess what happened?
Yep. Frozen hose.
The trailer itself was fine, but we weren’t getting any water until that hose thawed.
Then we had another little problem.
The Propane Problem
Cold weather means the furnace runs more.
And a furnace running more means going through more propane.
Fortunately, we were prepared. We had a spare propane tank.
Unfortunately, the spare tank was securely stored in the bed of our pickup beneath the hard cover.
And the tailgate wouldn’t unlock.
That’s one of those moments in RV life where you just stare at the situation for a minute.
We had propane.
We simply couldn’t get to it.
Eventually Ed took the empty tank off the trailer and we got it exchanged so we could get the heat going again.
Problem solved.
Lesson learned.
When freezing weather is coming, don’t just make sure you have extra propane.
Make sure you can actually GET to the extra propane!
Our First Buttermilk Pie
Not everything about our cold Texas stay involved frozen hoses and propane tanks.
We also tried buttermilk pie for the very first time.
Oh. My. Goodness.
How had we gone that long without trying buttermilk pie?
It was wonderful.
Discovering regional foods has become one of our favorite parts of traveling around the country, and buttermilk pie definitely earned a place on the list of things we’re glad we tried in Texas.
Our First Drive-Through Safari
We also decided to try something completely new—a drive-through safari.
Neither of us had ever been to one before.
Looking back, perhaps the release form warning us that they weren’t responsible for damage to our vehicle should have given us a clue about what was coming.
But off we went with our little cup of animal food.
I had my window down because obviously I was going to feed the animals.
Ed kept his window safely rolled up.
Smart man.
The first camel walked right up to my open window, stuck his head inside the truck, reached completely across me to the center console, grabbed the cup of food and took off with it.
Apparently I wasn’t feeding the camel quickly enough.
He decided to help himself.
We couldn’t stop laughing.
When the Camels Discovered Our Truck
Meanwhile, Ed was taking pictures of the animals from his side of the truck.
Another camel came over and started licking his window.
Funny.
Then it started licking the side mirror.
Still pretty funny.
Then it started chewing on the mirror.
Not quite as funny.
Suddenly all those warnings about possible vehicle damage made considerably more sense.
Since this was also the truck we depended on to tow our home around the country, we decided perhaps we’d had enough safari adventure for one day.
We headed for the exit while our mirrors were still attached.
It was certainly memorable!
Exploring Crockett, Texas
From Grapeland, we drove over to Crockett, Texas, which was only a short drive away.
We’d found several interesting places we wanted to see.
Unfortunately, we apparently picked the wrong day.
It seemed as though practically everything was closed.
That’s just part of travel sometimes. You can research all the things you want to see and still arrive on a day when the doors are locked.
Fortunately, we could still see some of Crockett’s historic treasures from the outside.
The Beautiful Downs-Aldrich House
One of the places we stopped was the Downs-Aldrich House.
What an absolutely gorgeous building.
The elaborate gingerbread details immediately caught our attention. It’s the kind of historic house that makes you want to stand there and keep discovering another architectural detail every time you look at it.
Unfortunately, no one was there when we visited, so we weren’t able to tour the interior.
Even so, we were glad we stopped.
The exterior alone was worth seeing.
Davy Crockett Spring
We also visited Davy Crockett Spring.
It’s a small park, but it has a wonderful Davy Crockett mural along with the spring itself.
When you’re traveling through small towns, we’ve found that it’s often these little stops that make a trip interesting.
They may only take a few minutes to visit, but they give you another glimpse into the history and personality of the area.
A Tex-Mex Dinner in Grapeland
Back in Grapeland, we had dinner at Three Chili’s, which was described as a Tex-Mex restaurant.
We had never actually had Tex-Mex before, so naturally we had to try it.
The food was excellent.
But we also loved the building.
The restaurant was located in what had once been an early-1900s department store. The tables displayed old newspaper articles from the period when the store was operating.
While we waited for our food, I wandered around reading the articles.
That’s exactly the kind of place we love finding while traveling—somewhere that combines good food with a little local history.
Gathering Wild Pecans in Crockett
One of our more unexpected souvenirs from Crockett was free.
Pecans!
Pecan trees grow throughout this part of Texas, and we found pecans lying on the ground near a railroad museum we had hoped to visit.
The museum was closed, naturally.
Because apparently that was our theme for Crockett.
But there were pecans!
I filled my pockets and took my treasure back to the camper.
Unfortunately, quite a few of them had apparently been on the ground too long and weren’t any good by the time I cracked them open.
Still, I ended up with about half a cup of perfectly good free Texas pecans.
I considered that a win.
Sometimes the Mishaps Make the Best Memories
Looking back, this part of our trip really was a comedy of errors.
We had a frozen water hose.
We couldn’t get to our spare propane.
The camel stole our food.
Another camel tried to eat our truck.
Half the places we wanted to visit in Crockett were closed.
And most of my free pecans turned out to be bad.
But you know what?
We had a great time.
That’s something we’ve learned again and again since we started traveling full-time.
The perfect days are wonderful.
But they’re not always the days you remember.
Years later, you’re much more likely to laugh about the camel that stuck his head through your window and stole his own lunch.
Things to See Around Grapeland and Crockett
If you’re traveling through this part of East Texas, we’d definitely give yourself some time to explore.
Some of the highlights from our visit included:
- Salmon Lake Park
- A drive-through safari
- Historic Crockett
- The Downs-Aldrich House
- Davy Crockett Spring
- Local Tex-Mex
- Historic buildings around Grapeland
- East Texas wildlife
- And, if you’re lucky, a few pecans!
Just remember to check operating days and hours before heading out.
We learned that one the hard way.
Our East Texas Adventure
Grapeland and Crockett may not have been destinations we’d dreamed about visiting before becoming full-time RVers.
That’s part of what makes this lifestyle so interesting.
Traveling slowly through the country gives us a chance to discover places we might otherwise have driven right past.
Sometimes we find an incredible historic building.
Sometimes we discover a new favorite food.
And sometimes a camel sticks his head through the truck window and steals our lunch.
You really never know what’s waiting just over the hills.
Continue the Journey
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