The Big Thicket Reaches the Edge of Beaumont

The Beaumont Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve sits along the Neches River, right next to Beaumont. It covers 14,344 acres of low, wet forest across parts of Hardin, Jefferson, and Orange counties.

This is not a tidy city trail park. The unit has no hiking trails, but paddlers can move through bayou water under cypress and tupelo. Two Texas paddling trails reach this unit.

That mix explains Jefferson County well: refineries and ship channels nearby, with cypress knees and black-water sloughs on the same local map.