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The Lone Star Hiking Trail is a long-distance trail, popular with thru-hikers, that leads through the Sam Houston National Forest and is located just a few hours' drive from Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. There are ten sections of trail broken up by road crossings where there are usually free trailhead parking areas. The trail is popular among thru-hikers, who seek to hike the ...
- The Basics
- Scenery
- Terrain
- How Hard Is It to Navigate on The Lsht?
- Getting to The Trailhead
- Which Direction Is Best to Hike The Lsht?
- Why Hike The Lone Star Hiking Trail?
- Climate and Weather
- Gear Suggestions For A Lone Star Hiking Trail Thru-Hike
- Camping on The LSHT
Length: 96.4 miles Expected Completion Time: 4 days (24.1 miles per day) to 10 days (under 10 miles per day) Difficulty: Easy Location: East Texas, 70 miles north of Houston Trail Type:Point-to-point Return to top.
Most people expect nothing more than industrial agriculture from Texas. However, the LSHT has the luxury of meandering through many diverse ecosystems, past expansive lakes and cow meadows, and even through swampy, jungle-like hubs of flora and fauna (not to mention the incredible wildflowers that start peeping through the pine needles in the early...
Do you know that feeling of relief on a thru-hike where you’re finally on flat ground for a few precious minutes and then it’s back to a steep descent once again? On the LSHT, that moment of luxury can last the entirety of your hike because this trail is flat, easy, and provides plenty of tree cover from the big ol’ Texas sun. Aside from a few stee...
You’d have to really be trying to get lost on the LSHT. It is marked frequently with white blazes, is maintained very well, and has plenty of signage along the way. The paper guide I used to prepare for the trip was Karen Borski’s The Lone Star Hiking Trail: The Official Guide to the Longest Wilderness Footpath in Texas 2nd edition and I took scree...
The LSHT is accessible from 15 trailheads that all have free parking, require no permits, and are listed on Google Maps as simply “LSHT Trailhead #(1-15).” The easiest way to thru-hike this trail is to leave your car at one terminus, hop in a 40-minute shuttle to the otherand begin your hike. Easy peasy! Read next – 5 Things You Should Know About t...
Choosing to hike this trail east or west-bound won’t affect your overall experience. I met a handful of west-bound thru-hikers on my journey and only one hiker heading in the same direction as me. I chose to hike eastbound because that is the way the mile-markers along the trail are set up. Ending at the eastern terminus also made my drive home a b...
I’ve hiked both the Colorado Trail and the Appalachian Trail in the past and the LSHT has some major advantages that almost made me turn around at the terminus and head right back into the woods to hike it again. (Unfortunately, my stomach had other ideas, mostly focused on the closest available fast food). If you’re struggling to choose gear for y...
The most ideal season to hike the LSHT is January – April. The late spring/summer months in Texas can be brutal due to biting bugs and temperatures routinely climbing over 90 degrees. I don’t recommend October-December because deer-hunting spans the entirety of these months, and that presents some challenges such as camping in designated campsites ...
If you hike this trail during the most ideal months (January-April) you probably don’t need to bring anything outside of your usual thru-hiking kit. I recommend treating all your clothes and hiking shoes with permethrin to keep biting bugs at bay before hitting the trail. There’s no constant bear threat (though you should always hang your food), bu...
Though you won’t need any special permits to hike the LSHT, if you hit the trail during deer-hunting season, you must camp only indesignated hunting campsites. They are all marked in the guidebooks I linked to and are typically between 5 and 10 miles apart. Dispersed camping is permitted the rest of the year with the following exception: camping is...
Lone Star Hiking Trail : (936) 344-6205. This 129-mile National Recreation Trail meanders the breadth of the Sam Houston National Forest passing through the eastern edge of the forest near Montague Church on FM 1725 close to Cleveland, Texas to the extreme western edge near Richards, Texas. Sections of the trail cross private property and ...
- Spring and fall
- Spring and fall
The Lone Star Hiking Trail Club, Inc. was formed in 1995 on National Trails Day and is affiliated with the American Hiking Society. Our mission is (1) to educate the public about location, use and needs of the hiking trails of Texas, with emphasis on the Lone Star Hiking Trail, and (2) to provide volunteer assistance for maintenance and improvement of hiking trails.
- It’s an ecological tapestry minded by humans. On the LSHT you’ll find diverse ecosystems. You may hike through a pine forest into a swampy area dotted with dwarf palmettoes.
- It can be thru-hiked in a week – or less. Vic Hay thru-hiked the Lone Star in October, hiking west to east with a friend. She described her trip for me
- It may be home to varmints and monsters. I was on a group hike with LSHT Club members a couple of years ago. When we stopped for a break we got to chatting.
- It gets smoky from time to time. In the spring, prescribed burns are done throughout the Sam Houston National Forest. Burns keep the forest healthy, but an experience last year gave me pause.
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The North Wilderness Trail is 2.2 miles long and can be used as a shortcut, rejoining the LSHT at mile 8.0, and cutting out 2 miles of hiking. If you choose to take the North Wilderness Trail, you will encounter two 1 D*R*O*P*S creeks. 3.95. Clear Water in low volume spring feed creek. 4 D*R*O*P*S. 5.1.
