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A Garden for All Seasons

Roses in the spring, summer and fall. Azaleas of all colors every spring. Tulips before the azaleas. Pansies in the fall and winter. And the list goes on and on. Hodges Gardens has been a treasure of the western Louisiana landscape for many years. Located near Florien,bout 20 miles north of Leesville, home of Ft. Polk Army Base, on LA Highway 171,  Hodges gardens has a colorful history.

Originally the site of a sandstone quarry (who would have thought – a stone quarry in Louisiana!), the sandstone for the jetties in Port Arthur, TX came from this site. Abandoned, the site caught the attention of oil & gas businessman A. J. Hodges, Sr. A conservationist, he and his wife acquired the property and envisioned building a beautiful garden, capitalizing on the large rock formations and sandstone cliffs left from the open pit mining operation. Formal rose gardens were planted, bridges and walkways were added, and a lake was dug to both add beauty to the locale, as well as provide irrigation for the extensive gardens.

Open to the public as a private garden for many years, the Hodges family donated the 4,700 acre property to the State of Louisiana in 2007. Now a state park (www.stateparks.com/la.html), you can stay overnight in one of 9 tent sites, or in the cabins; no RV sites are available right now. (For information, call 1-800-354-3523.) The five mile, paved road around the lake is challenging for the most physically fit, and bicycles are a must. The park service rents boats and canoes for lake use.

We met a couple in their 70’s the last time we camped here, who came once a year with their bicycles to ride the 5-mile route – just to prove, one more year, that they could still do it! Bordering on property owned by Ft. Polk, don’t be surprised if you hear the sounds of war games going on occasionally.

While Hodges Gardens is beautiful, the excellent hiking opportunities nearby make the Gardens a nice home base. Much of the land on both the Texas and Louisiana sides of nearby Toledo Bend Lake is owned by timber companies. They have made available some of the more scenic natural areas for public use. One such hiking trail is worth finding. Canyon Rim Woodlands Trail, owned by Champion International Corp., is located on TX Highway 87, 1.5 north of the intersection of Hwy 87 and R255. Used as a training area for soldiers from nearby Ft. Polk during WW II, the 1.6 mile trail follows the rim of a natural canyon, made by a sandy creek flowing through the area.

Naturally very hilly, we found a variety of walking sticks for our use at the beginning of the trail. It was obvious – use one, return it when you leave. We left the trail to get a closer look at the creek, and found a small treasure, that is, if you are a rockhound. Nice chunks of petrified wood littered the creek bed. What a find! For more information on this trail – www.newtontxnetwork.com/tour/parks/canyonrim.

Not far south of this area, you will find Wild Azalea Canyons. Not to be confused with several Wild Azalea Trails in Louisiana , this wilderness area is a little tricky to find, but absolutely worth the effort; good directions can be found at www.Toledo-Bend.com. Owned by Temple-Inland forest Products, this natural canyon hosts the largest known stand of wild azaleas in Texas. The azaleas only bloom for about two weeks around Easter; but for that two weeks, it is a spectacular sight. Even when the azaleas are not blooming, it is a scenic hike. The trail is very steep and slippery with pine straw. It is not for the physically challenged, and there is no water source or bathrooms. This is truly a wilderness hike! So, be prepared. But the cliffs and the canyon views, along with the creek that cut the canyon, make this a beautiful trek for those who are in fairly good condition.

Returning to Hodges Gardens State Park, you have little choice but to cross over Toledo Bend Dam. A pretty interesting sight, you can get more information about it at www.Toledo-Bend.com. If you camp-in-comfort in an RV, options close to this area include Texas state parks Village Creek in Lumberton, TX, and Martin Dies, Jr. State Park near Jasper. In Louisiana, South Toledo Bend State Park, not far from Toledo Bend Dam, offers both RV and cabin service.

Camping Brings Families Closer

The Army Corps of Engineers operates Campgrounds on some of the most beautiful waterways in the United States. One of our favorites for many years has been Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, Arkansas. Lake Ouachita is a special place for us. Our children, and now or grandchildren, attended summer camp at Camp Ozark, just outside of Mt. Ida. All of their lake activities, such as skiing and riding the giant banana took place on Lake Ouachita. During one of those summers, our son received his scuba license diving in the clear waters.

Twenty-two years ago, when our own children were in summer camp nearby, we tent-camped on a rocky point that extended out into the lake, giving us the feeling we were the only people there. We watched sunsets rivaled by none, and floated leisurely in the cool lake waters next to our campsite. This was Denby Point, a Corps of Engineers Campground in the Ozark foothills on Lake Ouachita.

Denby Point had always been a special place for us. Hiking trails were beautiful. The lake was clean and clear, just perfect for swimming, boating, fishing, or whatever you could figure out to do on water. Arkansas quartz deposits protruded from the high banks of the lakeshore, literally littering the rocky shoreline with crystals. When our granddaughters started going to camp like their father had so many years ago, we knew, having graduated from a tent to a 32 ft. fifth wheel, that Denby Point was a place we wanted to return to.

Here was the plan. We would set up our RV in Denby Point. Our son and daughter-in-law would pick up their girls on the last day of summer camp, and they would all join us for a night of camping and family time in Denby Point. While our granddaughters had camped with us many times, it would be our daughter-in-law’s first time camping with us. This really needed to go well.

And all WAS going well, as we watched the sun start to set and got the campfire started to roast the hotdogs. In the distance, where the sun should be making a spectacular exit, clouds had moved in. You could see lightning, and hear faint thunder. It was a spectacular show; it was a LONG way away.

We were not worried. In what seemed a second or two, the storm was upon us. The wind blew; heavy rain pelted on the RV roof. The lightning flashed like fireworks all around us. Needless to say, the campfire and hotdogs were long, lost memories of what might have been. We were all huddled inside the camper, having quickly rolled in the awning and picked up anything that could fly away. With a really loud, oh-so-close lightning strike, all the power in the campground went black. Flashlights were now the order of the day, and any operations in the RV were on battery power. Dinner turned out to be sandwiches.

It was about then that we learned how frightened our daughter-in-law was of thunder storms.
Finally, the storm passed. The ranger drove around to let all of us know that the bathhouses would be closed until the power came back on, because they relied on pumps to bring water to them. All water was cut off in the campground, so we had to rely on what was in our reserve tank. It was deadly dark outside; with the passage of the storm, the winds subsided, and it got hot.

About midnight, the ranger came around again, letting us know that the power outage was not local, that the entire 5 country region was out, and we probably wouldn’t have power until the next day. About 3 am, our battery power, that had been operating small fans and some limited AC, gave up the ghost. It was a L-O-N-G night.

The next morning, the campground was emptying quickly. Our son and daughter-in-law and family had been out of there at daybreak. As we approached the dump station, we learned it would be closed, as there was no power to pump the waste water. In the end, we still love Denby Point, and our daughter-in-law still loves us!

The moral of this story: Sometimes, there’s just nothing just nothing you can do about it. Things happen!

A great guide to Corps of Engineers campgrounds is Camping With the Corps of Engineers. You can make reservations online at www.recreation.gov.