Armand Bayou Nature Center

One of the largest urban wilderness preserves in the country, tucked between NASA's Johnson Space Center and Pasadena. It protects three disappearing Gulf Coast habitats in one walk: forested wetland, restored coastal tallgrass prairie, and Armand Bayou itself, one of the few un-channelized bayous left in the Houston area. The Discovery Loop starts on an elevated boardwalk through the wetland forest and runs past the prairie platform to an 1800s farm site and a bison viewing platform. Red-shouldered hawks, tricolored herons, purple martins and white-tailed deer are regulars, with alligators, river otters and turtles along the bayou and American white pelicans in winter. It sits on the Central Flyway, so migration can be excellent.