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Since its dedication ceremony in October 2022, the Olmito Nature Park has quietly been taking shape on 40 acres of native thornscrub a 15-minute drive from Brownsville.

The park, featuring 3,200-linear feet of waterfront on Resaca del Rancho Viejo, is situated on land donated to Cameron County by Frank M. and Jane E. McKinney in 2019. It’s located just west of I-69E and just south of Hayes Road.

Joey Lopez, county commissioner for Precinct 2, gave The Brownsville Herald a tour of the project recently, pointing out various amenities during a stroll along a portion of the park’s graveled 2.2 miles of trail, which is almost finished. Several blue-roofed picnic shelters have been built at various points along the trail, which also features emergency call kiosks in certain spots.

A pavilion has been erected near the children’s play area, which features a plush, all-weather surface dominated by a massive sea turtle play sculpture. A large visitor parking lot has been built near the park’s main entrance on Hayes Road, with a constable substation already operational nearby.

“It’s just to make sure somebody’s always watching,” Lopez said. “It’s a big piece of property, so we want to make sure that it stays intact.”

Rounding a bend on the trail, he pointed out a short path leading to one of the park’s two fishing piers. The pier offered a scenic view up and down the resaca. From it were visible two gazebo-style bird-watching stations and a kayak/canoe launch with a floating dock, near which is dedicated vehicle and kayak-trailer parking.

Also near the launch will be a concession where visitors can rent kayaks and paddle boats, Lopez said.

“It’s one of our deepest resacas,” he noted. “It’s about eight to 10 feet in the middle.”

An avid fisherman himself, Lopez said the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has committed to stocking the resaca with bass and bluegill “to have a good, healthy fishery in there.”

“Parks and wildlife is really, really excited,” he said. “They’ve been out here a couple of times and they can’t wait for us to get it open. They’re saying that they really feel that it’s going to be one of their number one parks in Texas.”

Thirty RV camping sites will be available to rent, with a 30-day stay limit, to help generate revenue for park upkeep, Lopez said. The RV area will be accessible via Graybill Avenue, off Merryman Road just west of the I-69E.

“We’re hoping with that revenue and with the concession revenue at the kayak launching area … we’ll be able to maintain the park without having to put any extra money into it,” Lopez said. “We’ve got a lot of parks but very few of them are income-producing, and it’s starting to weigh on (the county parks system). It’s a big enough property and we’ve still got a lot of the nature and the resaca and everything.”

The RV portion will feature comfort stations with showers, with additional comfort stations scattered along the trails throughout the rest of the park.

Wildlife is abundant throughout the 40 acres. Lopez said he even spotted nilgai — a male and two females — when he first explored the property, though he imagines construction scared them off. Great kiskadees were sighted flitting through the trees during the recent tour, and chachalacas are in abundance, according to Lopez.

“We do have a lot of chachalacas here,” he said In the afternoon you can hear them going crazy. … Right now we’re trying to get some bird feeders to attract more birds.”

Lopez, who had a hand in the park’s design, described the land donation by the McKinneys as “a blessing.” Also making the project possible was approximately $1.2 million from TPWD, $200,000 in the form of a recreational trail grant and another $52,000 for the kayak launch/dock, he said. The Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation also kicked in $500,000 for the project.

Olmito Nature Park will also feature a nature center, though that will have to wait until phase two thanks to higher cost of construction and materials, Lopez said.

“We’re running about $1.2 million short there,” he said.

Lopez is confident the funds will come through, however, noting that the county is exploring various options including another TPWD grant. He estimates the park will be totally finished within a year, and said some type of grand-opening event for phase one could happen as soon as late November.

“Right now the trail is almost 100% complete, he said. “All the fishing piers are done. The children’s playground is done. … It’s looking really nice. It just needs the final touches.”

The post Jewel in the crown: Olmito Nature Park in Cameron County nearly complete appeared first on MyRGV.com.