Honey Creek State Natural Area

I went and did the tour. In my opinion it was not worth it. I wanted to see Honey Creek and I understood that it was a guided tour. I went in knowing that, but feel disappointed now that I've gone. TPWD has wrapped this up in red tape to ensure that some of us don't enjoy going to see a pristine creek. The tour is estimated at 2.5 hours on the website. Ours took 3. This tour could be 1 hour round trip, but isn't for reasons unknown. You meet up with your guides who are master naturalist volunteers. I have nothing bad to say about the guides, except that they went a bit slower than they should have. They are nice and knowledgeable and doing their best to give you the full experience. The experience is what I have a problem with. Instead of taking you down to see the creek, you are guided on a pointless meandering walk through the woods to see things you quite possibly aren't interested in for over 2 hours before getting to the creek. This walk could be accomplished in about 45 minutes of real walking, but you have to stop constantly to discuss trees, dirt, rocks, birds, aquifers, rain, etc, etc, etc. These stops happen sometimes every 10 steps, with occasional walks of up to 100 yards to the next stop and discussion. Each discussion ends with time for questions, of which there were few. 2 hours and 15 minutes to get to Honey Creek. After over two hours you finally make it down to the creek. At this point the guide will give you about 10 minutes to be at the creek while they talk the entire time. When they finish talking they expect you to head off back to the parking area. About 10 minutes is all we got at the creek. You have multiple stops to discuss trees and rocks that last longer than 10 minutes on your way to the creek. Even though you get to walk near the creek for about 150 yards, the area of the creek that you are allowed to explore is about 20 yards total. Maybe less. As quoted on the TPWD website, the creek is 1.5 miles long. You get to see 20 yards up close. Not worth the type of tour I had to go on to see it. When you've finished your short visit to the creek it's time to leave. You walk up a hill and along a dirt road back to the parking area. The walk back took maybe 20 minutes uphill to get back to where you started. 20 minutes is how far away you started. I understand that there are people out there that want the master naturalist class and to learn about everything related and unrelated to Honey Creek. I am not one of those people. I did not know going into this that my time would completely wasted, and in my opinion not well respected, because I wanted to see the creek. I think many people would rather have a short version of this tour where you could walk down the 20 minute path to the creek, spend 20 minutes exploring, and walk 20 minutes back. Our tour took 3 hours and we spent 10 minutes at the creek. While the website does let you know this will be an educational tour, I think they really understate the extent of what they are about to do to you. I personally think they should offer two versions of the tour to choose from. An hour long walk to and from that gets to the point, and a 3 hour master naturalists education course. I would be curious to hear which one becomes more popular. I rate 1 star due to the lack of Honey Creek on your Honey Creek tour and the amount of aimless walking you are forced to do just to give the naturalist time to talk. This walk should be short, but is not. Don't get me wrong, I love to hike. Big hikes, difficult hikes, leisurely hikes, I like them all. I did not like this hike. You stand around and walk 10 steps at a time and waste your whole morning. I felt punished for wanting to see state land that should be more accessible to the public. I would have rather hiked any other trail at Guadalupe River State Park. The end.

Enjoyed a great guided natural area hiking tour provided by volunteer Guide Mr. Funk! Definitely a worthwhile learning experience, with Guide very knowledgable of areas geology, flora and fauna.

Honey Creek State Natural Area is not for everyone, me included. Not only do you need a reservation but tours are only offered on Saturdays and fill up quickly. The natural area is within Guadalupe River State Park so make sure you get a pass here as well. I would have preferred to take this hike myself instead of with 10 others who stopped to ask questions every hundred yards. It is pretty but not part of the park I’d need to visit again.

LOVED the guided tour! Highly recommend. The guides were so nice and willing to answer any questions. Every now and then we'd pull over and the guides would point out different plants, explain how certain rocks and geodes came to be, and would point out unique aspects of Texas wildlife with interesting anecdotes. You start off at the Rust House, which is full of history and original wallpaper (!!), and the guides are happy to answer any questions. Even just standing in such a space was really cool! I recommend showing up early as the line to get into the park can get a little long, bringing snacks, and wearing a hat and hiking boots.

First of all, my guide's name was Laird, and he did an outstanding job of providing flora and fauna information as well as history. I've done a few state-park guided tours, and this was the best one thus far. Well worth making the reservation to do this tour. Guadalupe River SP is nice, but Honey Creek is the best part of the area IMO. Highly recommend the tour.