Photos shot for the July 2018 issue
The Year of Epic Texas Challenges
Texas' vast and diverse landscapes and array of outdoor pursuits offer thrills for participants and spectators alike. Each issue of 2018 will feature an event to challenge even the most extreme athletes and sportsmen. We hope you'll enjoy reading it from the comfort of your armchair or perhaps be inspired to try a new pursuit.
Making Waves
Competing in Cedar Hill's open-water contest is no lazy lap at the pool.
Les Mejia is ready. After only three months of training, the stay-at-home grandmother stares intently at the inflatable yellow and red buoys floating in Joe Pool Lake, memorizing the course for the 750-meter swim race. This will be her first race in nearly 40 years. She looks calmer than she feels.
“I’m excited, but I just want to be in the water now,” Mejia says. “The waiting is driving me crazy.”
In a sense, she’s been waiting for this race, the Open Water Swim Challenge and Aquathlon at Cedar Hill State Park, since her days on her high school swim team.
On this July day, she is finally competing again — and she isn’t taking baby steps.
Deep in the Gulf
Dive down to visit our own coral reef and meet the creatures cruising there.
The Gulf of Mexico laps against 367 miles of Texas coast. We build fanciful castles along its beaches, attach kites to surfboards to fly across the waves and lean against pier railings to cast at shadows beneath the foamy saltwater. Those with boats (and stomachs) capable of longer sea travel head out to the snapper banks, but even then, we’re just skimming the surface of the ninth-largest water body on the planet.
Join Melissa Gaskill and Louie Bond on a journey through the surprising habitat that exists Deep in the Gulf.
- Texas Treasure Threatened - The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
- Building More Reefs - TPWD's Artificial Reef Program
- Life at an Artificial Reef - Species encountered at reefed rigs
- Swimming with Sharks- Tagging sharks in the Gulf
- Roar of the Lionfish - Invasive species a formidible foe
Keep Texas Wild
It's not just for kids. If you like nature-related topics in an easy-to-read format, you can find three years of our popular Keep Texas Wild issues and the teacher resources to go along with them.
