Texas & Southern Plains

The primitive area of Davis Mountains State Park in West Texas, across the highway from the park's main developed area, is closed November 7 through 10 for Texas Parks and Wildlife public hunts for aoudad, javelina and feral hogs, and reopens November 11, the Big Bend Times reports. The rest of the park is not affected. The primitive area closes again February 20 to 23 for another hunt.

The Boquillas Port of Entry in Big Bend National Park, the crossing to the Mexican village of Boquillas del Carmen, stayed closed Thursday and Friday, November 5 and 6, after an inspection found about 100 feet of the trail to the Rio Grande covered in slick mud with no safe way around it, the Big Bend Times reports, citing the park. The crossing has been closed since at least October 17, when high water made the path unsafe. Park officials planned another inspection Friday evening to decide whether it can reopen Saturday. When open, its winter hours are Thursday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The National Weather Service has flood and flash flood watches across much of the Southwest's best hiking country as another surge of tropical moisture meets an incoming storm system. In West Texas and southeast New Mexico, a watch runs through Friday afternoon for areas including the Chisos Basin and Lower Brewster County in Big Bend, the Guadalupe and Delaware mountains, the Davis Mountains and the Marfa Plateau. In New Mexico's Sacramento Mountains, the Albuquerque office warned of storms repeatedly crossing burn scars Thursday afternoon and evening, with 1 to 1.5 inches of rain possible.

In Arizona, the Flagstaff office has a flash flood watch from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday for Yavapai County, including Oak Creek and Sycamore canyons around Sedona, and northern Gila County, where soils are still saturated from flooding last week; it warns of flooding in creeks, normally dry washes, swimming holes and recently burned areas, with half an inch to an inch of rain and up to two inches in storms. The Phoenix office has watches Friday for the Superstition and Mazatzal mountains, the Tonto Basin and the Phoenix metro area.

Texas Monthly's two-day BBQ Fest returns to Lockhart, which calls itself the barbecue capital of Texas, on November 7 and 8. Saturday's BBQ World's Fair runs from noon to 6 p.m. around the downtown square, with barbecue joints, the returning Taco Trail of Texas taquerias, cooking demos, live music and an artisan market. It is free to attend; the magazine asks people to RSVP for updates, and you pay for what you eat. The fair benefits Feeding Texas.

Sunday's Top 50 Picnic at Lockhart City Park is the ticketed main event: more than 35 joints from the magazine's 2025 list of the 50 best barbecue joints in Texas, including all of the top ten, serving samples with live music. VIP tickets are sold out; general admission was still available at $140, with tickets for children 6 to 12 at $40 and children 5 and under free, according to Texas Monthly. Vendors are invited by the magazine's editors; there are no applications.

The Weather Service offices in Brownsville and Corpus Christi have high rip current and coastal flood advisories for the Texas barrier islands through Sunday morning, October 18, and a high surf advisory for breaking waves of 3 to 13 feet from Cameron to Kenedy counties. Water is expected to reach or push into the dunes on South Padre Island, so only four-wheel-drive, high-clearance vehicles will be able to drive the beach, including north of Public Beach Access 3. Expect minor to moderate erosion, and stay out of the water if you are not a strong swimmer.

Texas quail season opens November 1, and the state's August roadside surveys point to good numbers, Texas Parks and Wildlife says. Biologists drove more than 3,300 miles of survey routes, and most ecoregions counted more bobwhites per route than their 15-year average, helped by good habitat and timely rain despite a hot, dry summer.

South Texas averaged 10.17 bobwhites per route, above its 15-year mean of 9.92, after multiple successful hatches; the Chaparral and James E. Daughtrey wildlife management areas offer public hunting there. The Rolling Plains came in slightly lower than last year but should still hunt well, with public bobwhite hunting on the Matador, Gene Howe and Teacup Mountain WMAs. Teacup Mountain is a relatively new 11,091-acre area being managed in part for bobwhites.

Texas hunters should see good harvest numbers and a fair shot at quality bucks this season, Texas Parks and Wildlife says. After three straight years of above-average fawn survival, the state's white-tailed deer population is estimated at 5.64 million.

Late-spring and early-summer rain rescued habitat across most of the state. The department expects slightly above-average antler quality in most regions, with the Cross Timbers, Edwards Plateau, Eastern Rolling Plains and parts of the Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie doing best. Pockets of South Texas and the Pineywoods missed the spring rain and should expect average antlers. The Edwards Plateau has the most deer, about 1.97 million, with the highest density around Llano and Mason counties, where the department says doe harvest is especially important. For mature bucks, South Texas and the Western Rolling Plains typically produce the largest.