{"id":11538,"date":"2020-04-30T19:24:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T19:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11538"},"modified":"2020-04-30T19:24:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T19:24:48","slug":"state-parks-reopen-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11538","title":{"rendered":"State parks reopen to the public"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Jeff and Pam Bradley pose at the Resaca de la Palma State Park off New Carmen Avenue, west of Brownsville and southwest of Olmito. <\/em><\/strong>Photo: Tony Vindell \/ LFN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By TONY VINDELL
<\/strong>LFN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parks run by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department are now open to the public after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he was easing some of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They reopened on Monday, April 20 after they were off limits to visitors, staff and volunteers since April 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although visitors can now go in the outdoor facilities, there is a catch as people must register and pay the daily fee online as no in-person transactions are held in the parks\u2019 visitors centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TPWD has three main parks in the Rio Grande Valley: Resaca de la Palma in Brownville, Estero Llano Grande in Weslaco and Bentsen Park in Mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly Malkowski, manager at the Resaca de La Palma on New Carmen Avenue, southwest of Olmito, said registering online applies to all state parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf visitors did not register,\u201d she said, \u201cwe will instruct them here as they can do it on their phones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visitors\u2019 center is partially open as the gift shop is closed until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The park hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. The park number is 956-350-2920.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Park users must wear face masks, keep a distance of six feet apart and be no more than five people together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, April 22, Port Isabel residents Jeff and Pam Bradley were among the first three visitors on the first reopening day at the Resaca de la Palma Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is our first time here,\u201d Jeff Bradley said. \u201cWe moved from San Antonio about a year and a half ago and have been familiarizing ourselves with the area. We love it down here. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Estero Llano Grande, the hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day of the week. The telephone number there is 956-565-3919.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bentsen State Park, however, operates under a different system. The park peak months are October through May and its offseason is from June through September. For more information, call 956-584-9156.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information about the parks can be obtained by going to the TPWD website at www.tpwd.texas.gov<\/a> or through their social media platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By TONY VINDELLLFN The parks run by Texas Parks & Wildlife Department are now open to the public after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he was easing some of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. They reopened on Monday, April 20 after they were off limits to visitors, staff and volunteers since April 7. Although visitors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-11538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11545,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11538\/revisions\/11545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}