Hurricane Claudette LbNA #5462 (ARCHIVED)

Go to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge, pull into the Wildlife Interpretive Center, pay the fee ($3-$5), and pick up a map. Drive on down the park road until you see the sign for the ‘Bay Overlook’. Park there, and following the trail, go into the gap in the overhanging canopy of a large oak tree. (If that gap is not passable at the time, you can go around the outside of the tree area, and come into the canopy through the back.) Inside the natural enclosure is a convenient bench, as well as some informational signs and a cement floor underneath. Stand at the base of the tree trunk and notice where the tree limbs touch the ground all around the tree, much like the waves of a hurricane surround the eye of the storm. Facing the ocean, which you can see through a gap, count the third configuration of branches touching the ground. That should be at a compass reading of 140*. Where the limb meets ground, there is a box in the sand, beneath thick leaves and small broken branches. This stamp commemorates the most recent hurricane to the area.