Some Texas State Parks Close for Public Hunts This Fall. Check the Dates Before You Go

If you planned a midweek trip to South Llano River State Park near Junction, change your plans. The park closed at 5 p.m. Monday and stays closed until 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22. Only permitted hunters are allowed in, according to the park’s alert page.

It is the first of seven closures there this season. The others are Nov. 2-5, Nov. 22-25, Nov. 30-Dec. 4, Dec. 14-17, Dec. 27-30 and Jan. 25-29, each running from 5 p.m. on the first day to 2 p.m. on the last.

South Llano is not alone. Every fall, Texas Parks and Wildlife closes all or part of some state parks so drawn hunters can take deer, exotics and feral hogs. With the general deer season opening soon and the youth-only weekend starting Oct. 30, here is what to know before you load the truck.

Closures on the calendar

A sampling from TPWD park alert pages and its drawn-hunt catalog:

Post Oak Ridge State Park: closed 4 p.m. Oct. 26 to 8 a.m. Oct. 30, Nov. 5-9, Nov. 22-26 and Dec. 20-24.

Davis Mountains State Park: the primitive camping area closes 6 a.m. Nov. 6 to 8 a.m. Nov. 11, and again in February.

Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site: closed noon Nov. 29 to 8 a.m. Dec. 5, and noon Jan. 3 to 8 a.m. Jan. 9.

Choke Canyon State Park: the entire South Shore unit closes 5 p.m. Nov. 30 to 10 p.m. Dec. 3, according to the hunt listing.

Village Creek State Park: closed 10 p.m. Jan. 8 to 2 p.m. Jan. 13.

That is not every park. Dates can change, so check the alert page for any park you plan to visit, or call TPWD at (800) 792-1112.

Flood damage, too

Hunts are not the only reason to check first. At Devils River State Natural Area, the Del Norte unit is closed due to flooding, and sections of Dolan Creek Road are impassable. At South Llano, the river has changed course and "may contain debris and hazards," the park says, and a short trail is closed. Village Creek has three trails closed for storm damage.

Who gets to hunt

The hunters inside won their spots in TPWD’s public drawing. The South Llano antlerless and spike buck hunt, which runs this week and again in November and December, offered 30 permits. It drew 4,200 applicants last year and posted an 88 percent success rate, according to TPWD’s drawn hunt catalog. Each hunter may take three white-tailed deer, antlerless or spike bucks, plus unlimited axis, fallow and sika deer, blackbuck, aoudad and feral hogs. Only centerfire rifles .243 or larger are allowed.

The park’s exotic-only hunts in December and January offered 20 permits and drew 12,342 applicants last year.

The odds are long. Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine has reported that 50,129 people once entered TPWD drawings in a single year, filing 248,855 applications for nearly 10,000 permits. Each year you apply in a category and are not drawn earns a loyalty point, and your entries equal the cube of your points. Two years of points means eight entries.

If you missed this year’s drawings, the $48 Annual Public Hunting Permit opens about a million acres of public land without one.

Why hunt in a state park?

Some visitors bristle at hunting in parks. TPWD’s own magazine laid out the reason years ago: too many deer ruin the land for everything else.

In a 2003 Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine piece, then-South Llano manager Wayne Haley said a survey showed the park was 300 animals over carrying capacity. "Once a tree gets two inches high, it becomes part of the food supply and never becomes a full-size tree," he said. Biologists count the herd and set harvest goals for each park, the magazine reported, and hunts are usually held midweek to bother other visitors less.

That is sound stewardship. The land is a gift to be cared for, not left to ruin. A managed hunt feeds families, protects oak and pecan seedlings and keeps the herd healthy. This year TPWD puts the statewide herd at an estimated 5.64 million. A few closed weekdays are a fair trade.

So plan around the dates, check the alert page the morning you leave, and if you see a closed gate this fall, know there is a good reason behind it.