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About Me

Saba Khonsari a Houston-based freelance writer. Her travels have taken her everywhere from her father’s hometown of Shiraz, Iran, to Kigali, Rwanda, where she lived for a year teaching high school. Though it was thrilling to walk amongst the architectural ruins of Persepolis and hike to see mountain gorillas at Volcanoes National Park, she is a strong believer that beauty and adventure are everywhere and prefers to focus writing about local travels in her home state of Texas. Her stories, articles, and photographs focusing on state parks and other hidden Texas gems have been published in Texas Monthly, Texas Highways, Houstonia and Fodor's Travel. She shared about "interesting places to explore in Greater Houston off the beaten path" on Houston Public Media's Houston Matters. 

Houstonia Magazine •

The Best Texas Family Road Trips Are Within Driving Distance

Houston sits at a fortunate crossroads: Within a few hours in nearly any direction, you’ll find state parks, resort towns, historic cities, and indoor water parks big enough to lose a whole weekend in. Whether you're looking for a quick overnight or a full week away, Texas delivers—and you don't need a plane ticket to get there. Here are some of the best family road trips you can take straight from Space City.
Houstonia Magazine •

Your Guide to a Quick Houston-Area Nature Fix

While other big cities in Texas are lauded for their proximity to nature, Houston is often dismissed as a freeway-choked concrete jungle, but its sprawl holds much more than suburbs and shopping centers. Inside the city limits, thousands of acres of parkland and green spaces thrive, and within a two-hour drive, about a dozen Texas State Parks showcase ecosystems ranging from bottomland prairie to Post Oak Savannah and wetlands—each offering a glimpse of the region’s natural richness.
Texas Highways •

Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary Offers Chance to Camp with Wolves

Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary, which moved to its 15-acre property in Navasota in 2020, is the only USDA licensed wolf sanctuary in Texas. They currently house 11 wolves and wolf dogs (wolf dogs are the product of human-led breeding, creating conflicting instincts in a breed that both cannot be domesticated, nor can be released into the wild). The sanctuary began in 2002, somewhat by happenstance, when the founder Jean LeFevre opened a 3-acre property in Montgomery after taking in a rescued gray...
Texas Monthly •

Stroll the Same Paths Ancient Dwellers Did at Seminole Canyon State Park. Just Don’t Slip.

“It gets in your soul,” Lance Hildreth, a fifth-generation resident of Del Rio, remarked about Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site. I understood his sentiment. Like many visitors, I was drawn to the park by the opportunity to see ancient rock art. Once I was there, the vast canyonlands stirred a curiosity about the layers of Texas history seeping through the land like rainwater through warm limestone (a natural phenomenon that forces you to watch each step when you hike the canyon, even...
Texas Highways •

Go Reptilian at Crocodile Encounters in Angleton

Lurching out of the water to snatch the raw chicken dangling overhead, the full girth of Boots’ stout figure emerged, like a live-action version of Tick-Tock the Crocodile from Disney’s Peter Pan. “You never see an alligator that hefty in the wild,” says our 17-year-old guide, Caden Meyer. At 12 feet, 6 inches, Boots is the largest American alligator at Crocodile Encounter, a crocodilian conservation habitat in Angleton.


A rotating cast of enthusiastic guides led us through the lush, 26-acre...
Thrillist •

The Texas State Park with Its Own Grand Canyon

They say everything’s bigger in Texas, though it’s tough to compete against the Grand Canyon.Palo Duro Canyon State Park still tries. It's 27,173 acres but still manages to feel like a hidden treasure, even to lifelong Texans like my family. It’s certainly more undervalued (and less overrun) than its national park cousin. Despite being a long drive from most major cities in the Lone Star state, Palo Duro is the kind of place that inspires families in matching T-shirts to pose together at the ent...
Texas Monthly •

Lake Somerville Is the Disneyland of Texas State Parks

“Whatever your outdoor passion, you can pursue it here.” So declares Texas Parks and Wildlife’s enticing web page for Lake Somerville State Park & Trailway. Encircling an almost 12,000-acre man-made lake, the park sits smack-dab between Austin and Houston. This vast hub of open-air amusement comprises two units (Birch Creek at 2,365 acres and Nails Creek at 3,155 acres), the 13-mile Lake Somerville Trailway, and the 350-acre Flag Pond, a habitat for migrating birds.Other parks are more showy, li...
Business Insider •

I've taken my kids​, 6 and 12, on dozens of camping trips. I enjoy them more than traditional vacations.

When it comes to a family vacation, there is nothing I love more than cramming our SUV with various gear, driving away from our house in the middle of the city, pitching a tent, and sleeping on the ground next to my entire family. The sleep is often mediocre, we all end up smelling a bit ripe by the time we leave, but the time away together surpasses any other travel experience.In the fall of 2020, during the height of pandemic hobby acquisition, our family of four set out on our first car campi...
Texas Monthly •

Most Dinosaur Tracks Are Hidden on Private Land. At Government Canyon, You Can Stroll Alongside Them.

Driving into Government Canyon State Natural Area is like entering a time portal. In this 12,244-acre preserve on the northwestern fringes of San Antonio, visitors can walk alongside 110-million-year-old dinosaur tracks, an 8,000-year-old rock midden left by ancient Texans, and a 140-year-old cottage built by German settlers—all on the same trail. Hikers wander across forty miles of trails atop the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone, which is responsible for providing half the city’s drinking water....
Texas Highways •

Get Lost in the Pine Forest of Bastrop and Buescher State Parks

The Texas State Parks system marks its 100th anniversary this year. With 89 parks, natural areas, and historic sites to choose from, visitors can experience all kinds of outdoor activities. Each month, we’re highlighting one of these activities based on the season and special occasions around the state.
Usually, December in Texas is mild enough for tent camping, but our family happened to book a weekend in Bastrop State Park with a biting cold that nipped at my kids toes through their heavy boot...
Texas Monthly •

Taking It Slow at Goose Island State Park

You might think you know what to expect at a Texas beach park: fresh salt air, the languid sound of water lapping on the shore, and a pretty sunset. Goose Island State Park, just north of Rockport along the St. Charles and Aransas Bays, has all that—and it’s also a master class in the Gulf Coast’s ecological diversity. Somehow the petite park encompasses live oak and red bay woodlands, pockets of coastal prairie, tidal flats, salt marshes, and grasslands in a compact 321 acres. This varied lands...
Texas Monthly •

Swing by Texas’s Smallest State Park to See Three Million Bats Soar From an Old Railroad Tunnel

Twenty minutes from downtown Fredericksburg—on a long, winding stretch of Old San Antonio Road that snakes past historic country schools, a vineyard with safari tours, and at least one ghost town—lies Old Tunnel State Park. At just sixteen acres, it’s the smallest state park in Texas. (The largest, Big Bend Ranch, in far West Texas, sprawls for more than 311,000 rugged acres.) But what Old Tunnel lacks in size, it makes up for in personality. After spending a pleasant summer evening there recent...
Texas Highways •

Brazos Bend State Park Provides Family-Friendly Adventure

On a rainy afternoon in December, our family set up camp in a soggy spot near a flooded campsite at Brazos Bend State Park. It was our first visit (and only our family’s third camping trip), and we were determined to give it our best attempt. Another family was packing up as we arrived, so we got permission to move sites. We lifted our tent and walked it over and down, like a game of Tetris, to a spot that did not require wading through standing water.
Located just outside of Houston, Brazos Ben...
Business Insider •

I've gone on 32 trips in 5 years with my 2 kids. I've learned to focus on the good memories instead of the perfect vacation.

I've spent a summer backpacking across southern Europe, lived and traveled in East Africa for a year, and made an exhausting trip to Costa Rica with a toddler. I consider myself a seasoned traveler and am used to traveling with my kids at my side.In fact, I've made 32 trips with them over the past five years: 11 of these trips involved flights, 20 were camping trips, and one was a local road trip. However, it was a summer transatlantic flight to meet my parents in West Yorkshire that took me dow...
Texas Monthly •

Meridian State Park Offers Delights for Every Age

My family and I are only eighteen state parks in to our goal of visiting all 88. No matter what weather, adventures, or misadventures await, we always find something to enjoy. At some parks, this requires patience and creativity. This was not the case on the April morning when we arrived at Meridian State Park, fifty miles northwest of Waco. Like any good host, Meridian greeted us with fresh flowers—an almost immoderate bounty of bluebonnets. My family was intoxicated by their fragrance and char...
Texas Monthly •

I Fell in Love With Camping at Stephen F. Austin State Park

“I love you guys! Can I sit in the middle?” my four-year-old announced, as she hauled her chair to the campfire. My husband, Ben, cooked hot dogs while our ten-year-old and I huddled close by and snacked on chips. Our conversation turned to fire-building strategy and reminiscing about our previous camping trips. It was a cold, rainy Saturday evening in November, and we’d driven an hour west of our home in Houston to camp overnight at Stephen F. Austin State Park. After refreshing the forecast al...

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