January 22, 2026
For my final post about Caddo in East Texas, let’s head to Caddo Lake State Park.
Saw Mill Pond
We visited Caddo in mid-November to see the bald cypresses in rusty orange fall regalia. One afternoon we drove to Caddo Lake State Park for an easy hike, picnic lunch, and boardwalk stroll at Saw Mill Pond.
Prior visitors had etched their names onto a metal post, their rusty scrawls echoing the orange cypresses.
Canoeists threaded through bottle-trunked cypresses in the pond.
Where else but Caddo can you paddle through a forest?
Jefferson
Another day we visited the small town of Jefferson, about 20 minutes away, to explore and have lunch.
We poked around downtown and admired its New Orleans-esque architecture.
VW car art
For our three nights at Caddo, we stayed at Spatterdock Guest Houses in Uncertain. Owner Dottie Carter, a 3rd-generation Caddo resident, is a mosaic artist with a yen for VW Beetles. Several of her art cars are displayed on the grounds, covered bumper to bumper in mosaic tile.
The cars are parked in cathedral-like carports.
Here’s one called Volksfroggen.
Green plates cut into pie sections make clever lily pads.
This car is covered in frogs, frogs, and more frogs.
Each car is an amusing work of folk art.
Walking to the lake, we also passed a metal monkey on a bike…
…and a menacing alligator.
Caddo Lake
The lake here was hiding itself under a layer of bronze cypress leaves. When we first arrived, we wondered if this was water or a walking path through the trees. Oh, it’s water.
A meandering boardwalk outlined with lights — don’t fall off — shows the way through.
Elsewhere, the lake hides under a grass-like carpet of giant salvinia, a lake-eating aquatic plant that the state is battling through regular herbicide spraying. (See Part 1 of my Caddo series; scroll to the end.)
Spanish moss tendrils
Paddling through salvinia. The water’s here somewhere.
Bald cypresses in the water make Caddo Lake a uniquely beautiful place.
I’m glad I finally got to visit and experience its autumn beauty.
This concludes my 4-part series on Caddo Lake. To read Part 3 about canoeing and birdwatching on Caddo, click here. You’ll find more links at the end of each post.
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