We parked at the small parking lot of the site, a clearing surrounded by huge pines, and started on the path with the sign "Pitcher plant trail".   As we walked in the shade of the canopy, we noticed the chared bark of the pines, up to about six feet up the trunks, which told us that the site had been recently burned, to clear away invasive woody plants and make room for the new growth.  Ferns covered the floor.

The path changed to the start of a wooden boardwalk, and we caught our first glimpse of what was to come.   With every turn of the boardwalk new vistas of thousands of pale trumpets opened up.   On the partly overcast April day of our visit, the scenery with the vast populations of S. alata is breath-takingly beautiful and in the silence has an other-worldly quality.

The eyes are drawn down to patches of bright yellow.  Hundreds of gorgeous tiny flowers of bladderworts (Utricularia subulata) are poking up from a glistening red-and-green carpet of pink and red sundews (Drosera capillaris, brevifolia), with wet, green strands of long-fiber sphagnum all around.   Here and there, delicate Rose Pogonia orchids.  There were tall pines in the background, young pines sparsely spread among the seas of pitcher plants, and small and huge magnolias everywhere.

The variation in the S. alata plants is stunning.   Large, green, bulbous pitchers veined in red are the majority.   Some have huge, overhanging lids. Among them stand out clumps of immature plants with red-pink pitchers with neon-green/yellow lids and lips.  Sit down on the wooden benches of the boardwalk, or lie down on it, and let your eyes travel on the sea of lids of the Sarracenias in all directions, and let your ears hear the sounds.

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Directions:

From US Hwy 69, in Warren, TX, turn east on CR1943.  As soon as you drive over Turkey Creek, look for the brown US sign proclaiming "Pitcher plant trail".  Turn right (South) on the dirt-road and drive (slowly, checking the road-side ditches out, looking further into the forest,) until you see another brown US sign proclaiming "Pitcher plant trail".

Turn right (West) into the small parking lot.   Follow the third brown US sign proclaiming "Pitcher plant trail".   Keep your eyes open, and look all around you, sloooooooowly...