Bellaire, TX Outdoor Activities

Crawling through sand dunes, diving into bunkers, charging over wooden bridges—this is what it takes to overthrow Normandy's two-story French house at Survival Game of Texas. This World War II-inspired expanse is one of the facility's many outdoor fields spread across their 47 acres of terrain. On courses designed for beginners, guests duel among wild west-style buildings, navigate a jungle maze, and duck into the huts scattered amid a realistic Vietnamese village. They can also ward off opponents from twin three-story castles featuring spiral staircases, a catwalk, and a napping ogre. Under the watchful eyes of referees, visitors 12 and over duke it out seven days a week, including during Survival Game of Texas's special events, which include seven-hour scenario games.

Each year, the Spring Home & Garden Show gathers home-design experts into one location so that enthusiasts of home decorating and outdoor living projects can catch a glimpse of the latest in domestic products and design. Visitors peruse booths hosted by professionals occupying cozy niches that span the home-improvement spectrum, from landscaping and gardening to organizing garages and building a custom home. While attendees bounce from booth to booth, a lineup of notable industry sages take the stage to discuss the year’s best ideas and products and answer any embarrassing questions that fairgoers might have about where houses come from.

Stone Moves Indoor Rock Climbing's multicolored crags rise from padded floors, creating a safe environment for top ropers, lead climbers, and boulderers alike to practice their vertical virtuosity. Each climbing and lesson package includes rental equipment such as a harness, helmet, climbing shoes, and chalk bag, but does not come with any Spiderman webbing. During the one-hour private sessions, instructors tutor wall scalers on the basic techniques of climbing and belaying, and also cover safety tips before pupils test-climb their new skills. Bouldering walls rise at gradual and sharp angles, allowing novice climbers to achieve their dreams of being stalactites for a day and membership holders to gain unlimited access to the gym's challenging crags.

In its 12th year of fear, The Haunted Trails breed chills and shrieks while daring explorers to tiptoe across acres of mortifying scenes. Nightfall casts a blackened veil over every visit, during which guests grope through darkness and past plumes of fog in search of an end to the madness. Along the route, bloody limbs dangling from branches and scenes mummified in cobwebs set a morbid tone, and grotesque creatures lurking among the trees wait patiently to pop out and politely inform you of an untied shoelace. This season, the terror has spread to a newly established attraction, Nature's Nightmare, and both sights remain open through November 3rd to grant visitors their Halloween fix.

Paintball warriors can prepare for their next big adventure at Pro Edge Paintball, which houses an extensive selection of paintball guns, ammunition, protective gear, and other game accessories. Lonely trigger fingers can find suitable mates in the form of paintball markers from top brands including Spyder, Tippmann, and Luxe. Protective gear such as masks and goggles, pads, and combat-ready pants help clients run fearlessly into enemy fire, and new air-tank systems ensure paintballs fly fast and true. Pro Edge Paintball complements its exhaustive inventory with a repertoire of maintenance services to repair common deficiencies such as a crooked barrel or a pacifistic trigger.

Messages such as Are You Game? and Bang are scrawled in glow-in-the-dark graffiti on the black-lit walls of one of Indoor Tactical Sports’ paintball and airsoft fields. The two-story facility, which declares itself the only indoor paintball arena in Houston, is air-conditioned to a crisp 65 degrees and houses a total of four fields where players can shoot at their friends with no-cleanup Reball paintball pellets or BBs from Airsoft guns. To ensure fair play, one referee for every 10 players patrols the fields and prevents participants from shooting their opponents in vulnerable spots, such as the working screenplay they carry around. In the gear shop, players can rent all the gear necessary to play, including guns, masks, ammunition, and air canisters. Visitors can also buy equipment or bring in personal guns and gear for repairs.