Tyler – Texans are used to open spaces. But as the population of the big towns in Texas continue to grow, getting away from the concrete jungles of the Space City or Big D is something the souls of the Lone Star State need once in a while. Fortunately, you can find your own Fortress of Solitude just a few hours away from town, where lanes of traffic get replaced with serene lakes that are surrounded by the sounds of native birds. “It’s very calm out here,” said Boyd Sanders. “You can hear lizards rustling in the leaves. Claws of woodpecker going up a tree. It’s very, very peaceful. It’s really nice.”
Boyd has been a Park Ranger at Tyler State Park since 2007. “My primary job is to explain why these places are so special, why we need places like state parks,” said Boyd. “And I get to show them from the littlest critters to the grandest trees out here and enhance their experience in the park.”
The son of a sailor, Boyd was born in Tyler but moved around the country with his Navy dad until one day, he got to come home. “The day after I graduated, my truck was pointed to Texas,” said Boyd. “It was time to get home.”
While getting back home to the Lone Star State was high on his list, being a park ranger wasn’t. That is, until he got the job. “I don’t know, I never really thought about being a park ranger, but got the job here and wished, ‘man, I should have been a ranger a long time ago,’” said Boyd.
With a workplace like this, who can blame him? “I tell people I have a room with a computer, but all this out here, this is my office,” said Boyd.
Tyler State Park sits on 935 acres directly north of Tyler. “We have tremendously huge parks and we have little tiny parks,” said Boyd. “This fits right nicely in the middle.”
While most Texans know the topography of our state includes pretty much every sort of landscape, this is all foreign to foreign visitors. “We have people coming from all over the world here and don’t realize Texas has trees,” said Boyd.
What some Texans don’t realize is that these trees actually provide a plethora of seasonal colors. The elusive fall foliage that folks in our part of the world don’t get to see too often. “We all enjoy it, even the staff does, because of how pretty it is,” said Boyd. “We just drive around the park, look at trees. It’s just that expectation of what’s coming. You know it’s going to be beautiful. And then when it starts to turn, there’s a bit of an excitement for that.”
As the crisp fall air cuts through the colorful leaves, you can’t help but stare at the sensational colors and wonder if it’s the serene saturation that’s mesmerizing you, or the complete sense of peace and quiet in these parts. “We’re going to get a beautiful change that really, to me, rivals the stuff that you see up in the northeast on the Appalachian Trail and all those places,” said Boyd.
With hues of gold, red, maroon, or just a random tree changing colors in a sea of green, there’s beauty everywhere you look. “One day it seems like a tree is green. The next day it seems like it’s bright gold. And the next day the leaves are gone,” explained Boyd. “Kind of what it seems like, but it’s a slower process than that. It all kind of depends on how many hours of daylight we have and how cold the temperatures get as to how the trees react. Some of the sweetgums turn a real deep maroon. This is absolutely gorgeous, but the black tupelo trees just turned fire red, and that’s probably some of my favorites.”
Besides the beautiful landscape, the buildings also bring out sightseers. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 40’s, they look nothing like you’d usually see in a state park. “It is more modern,” said Boyd. “Sort of toward the end of the Civilian Conservation Corps time or later in it, some of the young architects were kind of getting tired of the national park rustic. That’s that real pretty log cabin look or stone cabin look. Something that the buildings were made out of the natural resources around the area and looked like they grew out of the natural resources from the area. These are more inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School, so it’s a more modern style. It’s made to complement the landscape and not hide in the landscape.”
While unique and historic, it’s safe to say the natural beauty here steals the show. But you do have to be there on time to catch it. “Starts kind of the end of October,” said Boyd. “Our peak is typically right around Thanksgiving, and then it still has color usually in the first week or so of December. Once these trees are kind of done, it’s time for Christmas.”
So enjoy an early gift before the holiday season and unwrap yourself in the East Texas beauty of Tyler State Park. “To see the beautiful views and to get off the concrete and asphalt, they need to explore,” said Boyd. “They need to get out in the woods, they need to get out in the trees. We were made for this. We weren’t made for high rises and concrete. We were made for woods and being outdoors.”