Day Trips

Smith Oaks / High Island (Birding) Fri / Sat (FREE! bus for Sat)

Shangri-La (Botanical Gardens, Rookery—short Boat tour is FULL)

Sacred Spaces (houses of Worship—Friday only) FULL/Sold OUT

Ivory Bill tour (Neches River boat tour, birding) - Saturday FULL / SOLD OUT

Historic Houses (Chambers House & McFaddin-Ward House - Friday Only)

Cattail Marsh (birding, wildlife) Fri / Sat

Cattail March Friday van tour FULL/Sold OUT

Be sure to get your free Grab-and-Go breakfast box from the corridor entrance

each morning before you head out!

(East entrance doors to the conference center)

Smith Oaks / High Island (entry fee)

2205 Old Mexico Rd, High Island, TX 77623

45 minutes from hotel

Meet at 6:00 AM in the hotel lobby/ depart at 6:15 AM by carpool to arrive by 7:00 AM.

A free chartered bus will be available Saturday, April 5 (limited to 40 participants) to transport participants to and from the hotel.

There is a $10 entry fee (Saturday this fee is waived). This location is wheelchair accessible. Established by the Houston Audubon, the U-shaped island in the middle of Claybottom Pond has become a favored roosting and nesting place for thousands of waterbirds. The pond has a healthy alligator population and somehow raccoons and coyotes know they are there. In the spring and summer Herons, Egrets, Cormorants and Spoonbills build their nests and raise their chicks on the predator-free island. Visitors to the sanctuary have a good, close look at the home life of these beautiful birds throughout the breeding season. All year long the island is also used as a night roost by the same species of birds that nest here. They appreciate having a safe place to spend the night that is close to the marshes where they feed.

The rookery has unique catwalks through the treetops so that participants are at eye level with many Songbirds, Warblers, and Buntings. This catwalk was built by Houston Audubon at a cost of 7 million dollars and is as beautiful as it is unique. Multi-level platforms and paths throughout the rookery provide viewing of large populations of Herons, Egrets, Cormorants, and Spoonbills nesting or in flight.

Visit their page for more info here: Smith Oaks and Here: Audubon.org Smith Oaks

See amazing video of the walkway here

Shangri-La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center (free)

2111 W. Park Avenue, Orange, Texas 77630

30 minutes from hotel

Meet at 6:00 AM in the hotel lobby/ depart at 6:15 AM by carpool to arrive by 6:45 AM.

The facility will have special tour hours for GSCCC participants from 7:00-9:00 AM if desired. A free twenty-minute ‘Audubon on the Bayou’ birding boat tour is available on April 4th and 5th (limited to 22 guests). Boat tours are not wheelchair accessible. Guests will have an opportunity to observe their natural surroundings as we navigate Adams Bayou on a slow-paced bird watching adventure.

Shangri-La is a 250+ acre oasis in Orange, Texas located along the waterways of Adams Bayou that combines botanical gardens and an education nature center in a unique way. Imagine a place where you can escape the routine and stroll along garden paths surrounded by fragrant flowers, bird watch for hours, and spend time with friends and family. Shangri La is a program of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation, a private operating foundation that aims to encourage and assist education and to improve and enrich the quality of life in Southeast Texas by providing significant resources for the study and enjoyment of art, history, nature and culture.

Visit their page for more info here: Shangri-La Botanical Gardens

Sacred Spaces / Houses of Worship (Friday Only) (Sold out)

The ‘Sacred Spaces’ tour will feature two of Beaumont’s historic houses of worship; St. Anthony Cathedral-Basilica and Temple Emanuel.

Meet at 6:30 AM in the hotel lobby/ depart at 6:45 AM by carpool to arrive by 7 AM.

13 mins drive from hotel.

Sites are within one mile of each other, and self-guided tours are available at both sites from 7:00 – 9:00 AM. Both sites are wheelchair accessible.

St. Anthony Cathedral-Basilica

700 Jefferson Street, Beaumont, TX 77701

stanthonycathedral.org

Built in 1903, Saint Anthony Cathedral Basilica is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Beaumont. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI elevated the church to an honored title of cathedral basilica, recognizing the historic, artistic and religious significance of the site. The Cathedral-Basilica is designed in the early Christian Romanesque style and modeled after the 12th Century Basilica of San Clement in Rome.

Temple Emanuel

1120 Broadway, Beaumont, TX 77701

Emanuelbeaumont.org

Congregation Temple Emanuel, with a membership of just over 80 families, is a Reform synagogue with membership in the Union for Reform Judaism. The congregation, organized in 1895 met in a wooden building until the erection of the current Temple Emanuel which was dedicated in 1923. The Temple features six 16-foot-high beautiful stained-glass windows designed by Israeli artist, Ze’ev Raban. Ze’ev Raban was to become a leading Israeli artist, an authority on Marc Chagall, and professor at the prestigious Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem.

Ivory Bill ~ Neches River boat tour ($ / Sat only) FULL/SOLD OUT!

5390 Pine Street Beaumont, TX 77703

18 minutes from the hotel.

Meet at 6:15 AM in the hotel lobby; leave in a carpool by 6:30 AM to arrive at 6:50 AM. The boat will depart at 7:00 AM, and the tour will last approximately 90 minutes. The boat is not wheelchair accessible.

There is $20 per person fee, and to accommodate photographers, the tour is limited to 25 participants. No tripods are allowed on the boat.

Travel on the Ivory Bill pontoon boat up and down the Neches River for a scenic sunrise tour, and travel back into the Big Thicket on one of the nearby bayous. The boat operates on the open river and can navigate the shallows of cypress-lined backwater channels. Learn about the unique ecosystems along the Neches River with their dense bottomland forests of hardwoods and pine trees. The area is home to more than 200 tree species, 47 mammals, 300 birds and many reptiles and amphibians.

Visit their page for more info here: Ivory Bill Neches River Adventures

Historic Houses of Beaumont (Friday Only) (free)

Meet at 6:30 AM in the hotel lobby and leave in a carpool by 6:45 AM.

Sites are within ½ mile of each other, and self-guided tours are available at both sites from 7:00 – 9:00 AM. The McFaddin Ward House is wheelchair accessible, but the Chambers House Museum is not. Tripods and flash photography are not permitted at either historical home.

McFaddin Ward House

1906 Calder Ave. Beaumont, TX 77701

11 minutes from the hotel

The McFaddin-Ward House was built in 1905-06 in the striking and distinctive Beaux-Arts Colonial style. The structure and its furnishings reflect the lifestyle of the prominent family who lived in the house for seventy-five years. The house served as a beautiful backdrop for the frequent entertainments and elegant parties the McFaddin’s hosted. In 1919, the McFaddin’s’ daughter Mamie married Carroll Ward, and the couple moved into this house with her parents. They lived their entire lives there, making few changes to the house or its décor after 1950. Throughout much of Mamie McFaddin’s adult life, she kept a diary documenting social events, consumer habits, and daily routines, with mentions of noteworthy family events and happenings around Beaumont, in the region, and the world.

Photos courtesy of McFaddin-Ward House

Visit their page for more info here: McFaddin-Ward House

Chambers House Museum (free)

2240 Calder Ave. Beaumont, TX 77701

11 minutes from the hotel

Built in 1907 by a local lumberman, the Chambers House is listed as a local historical landmark. C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers moved into the home with their two young daughters, Ruth, 11 and Florence, 16 months old in 1914. The house was remodeled extensively in 1924 and never changed or modernized again. Nearly 90 years of family possessions were found in the home upon Florence Chambers’ death in 2004, many dating to the time of the 1924 remodel. Employees of the heritage society will be present in period costume for photographing.

Visit their page for more info here: Chambers House Museum

Cattail Marsh (free)

5305 Tyrrell Park Rd., Beaumont, TX 77705

10 minutes from the hotel / Self-guide (both days) and Van Tour (Friday only VAN IS FULL/SOLD OUT)

Meet at 6:30 AM in the hotel lobby. Depart at 6:40 AM by carpool to arrive by 6:55 AM.

Cattail Marsh is open every day for self-guided tours, but a free van tour of the levee trails (limited to 14 passengers) will be available on Friday, 4/5 beginning at 7:00 AM. The van will travel the Cattail site loop and stop to allow people to step outside the van to photograph scenes, birds and wildlife. Site is partially wheelchair accessible although van is not.

Cattail Marsh includes 900-acres of scenic wetlands along with a boardwalk that features two covered platforms, providing access to incredible views of the wetlands’ abundant wildlife. Cattail Marsh is a wildlife refuge for a variety of aquatic mammals and more than 290 species of birds annually, including: pelicans, egrets, roseate spoonbills, ducks, ibis, doves and red-winged blackbirds. More than eight miles of gravel levee roads are found within the Marsh and allow for a variety of recreational activities, including jogging, biking and horseback riding.

Starting at the beginning of the boardwalk, the Wetlands Education Center offers a "birds eye view" of the marsh. Equipped with meeting space and wrap around deck, this education center is the perfect escape to learn about the marsh.

Cattail Marsh is located inside of Tyrrell Park. The entrance to Tyrrell Park is on Babe Zaharias Drive. Once inside the park, follow the signs to Cattail Marsh as the road loops past the golf course and stables. Restrooms and picnic facilities are available throughout the park; however, there are no restrooms at Cattail Marsh. Tyrrell Park has a nature center, botanical garden, golf course, horse stables, walking paths, and other recreational facilities.

Visit their page for more info here: Cattail Marsh