The park occasionally offers ranger- or volunteer-led birding tours that are free with your park entrance. 

Bird feeding occurs in the birding area every year from November to March between 8am-10am. 

Lake Corpus Christi State Park is operated by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It is a 356-acre park located near Mathis, Texas. It is approximately 45 minutes from Corpus Christi and 1.5 hours from San Antonio. This site has marshy water edges that lead to dense stands of Tamaulipan thorn scrub habitat. Entrance fees are $5 for each person 13 years or older, free for each person 12 years or younger. Several passes and discounts are offered for a variety of visitors. 

On the border

The Karankawa and Lipan Apache Indians once lived in this area. It was the site of several settlement attempts in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Nueces River was the disputed boundary between Texas and Mexico after the Texas Revolution. The Rio Grande became the boundary at the end of the war between the two nations. This area officially became a part of Texas in 1848.

Damming the Nueces

In January 1929, the construction of La Fruita Dam across the Neuces River formed a reservoir called Lake Lovenskiold. The dam failed in November of that same year. President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal paid to rebuild the dam in 1935. The new reservoir was named Lake Corpus Christi.

By the 1940s, silt was filling the lake, reducing its storage capacity. Landowners in the proposed flood pool opposed a new and larger dam. Lawsuits delayed construction for many years. The local water supply district finally won a favorable court decision. The present dam was completed in 1958.

Lake Corpus Christi is now one of the largest artificial bodies of water in Texas. The lake covers 21,000 acres, with a capacity of 300,000 acre feet at the spillway elevation of 94 feet above sea level.

Civilian Conservation Corps Project

Lake Corpus Christi State Park is a 356-acre park located in San Patricio, Jim Wells and Live Oak counties, southwest of Mathis. The state leased the property from the city of Corpus Christi in 1934 (until 2032) and opened the park later that same year.

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 886 developed the park between 1934 and 1935 on a cove of the lake. CCC buildings included a bathhouse, park residence and a refectory (a room used for communal meals); only the refectory remains. CCC men used cast blocks of local caliche for the Mediterranean-style building. They cast the blocks in various sizes, and then laid the blocks to resemble cut limestone.

Learn more about the CCC’s work here on The Look of Nature: Lake Corpus Christi

Lake Corpus Christi State Park is operated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It is a 356-acre park located near Mathis, Texas. It is approximately 45 minutes from Corpus Christi and 1.5 hours from San Antonio. This site has marshy water edges that lead to dense stands of Tamaulipan thorn scrub habitat. Entrance fees are $5 for each person 13 years or older, free for each person 12 years or younger. Several passes and discounts are offered for a variety of visitors. 

Kiskadee Trail - rated as easy, approximately 0.10-mile one way. This short trail leads directly to the park birding area where birds are fed by park staff from November-March. The trail can be slippery and muddy after rains.

Longhorn Trail - rated as easy, approximately 0.6-mile one way. This trail features stands of thorn scrub with several road cut-throughs. The lake is visible from a distance around the midpoint of the trail. The trail can be slippery after rain.

Catfish Point Trail - rated as easy/moderate, approximately 0.95-mile loop. This secluded trail offers the best nature viewing in the park along with some slight inclines and declines. The midpoint of the trail opens directly onto the lake for excellent views. 

Accessibility

The 400-foot long lighted fishing pier with side railing and the nearby restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Access them via a cement route from the parking area.

The Pavilion in the Mesquite Camping Area and the attached restrooms have a wheelchair accessible cement route from the parking area. The Mesquite Camping Area Bathhouse is ADA accessible, with a wheelchair accessible cement route in and out.

Cabins #13 and 25, and Screened Shelters #6, 7 and 18, have wheelchair accessible routes from the parking area. The ramps are surfaced with hard-packed caliche.

The park has an all-terrain wheelchair that can access the shoreline, trails and the 400-foot ADA Fishing Pier (made possible through a generous grant from the Austin Blake Howell Foundation). The wheelchair is loaned out to visitors free of charge from the park office.