The Five Texas State Parks Closest to Dallas

I am proud to announce I have officially visited the five Texas state parks that are closest to Dallas! I have spent a lot of time scavenging Pinterest and Google for details on State Parks near Dallas, and to no one’s surprise, I didn’t turn up many results. I finally got on the Texas State Parks app myself and mapped out which parks were closest to me for the most convenient adventures. A few of them I had already been to, but a few I went to just for the sake of this blog post. (I love going to new state parks, so this blog post was a perfect excuse!) While there is only one state park near Dallas… if you are willing to drive about an hour, you have a few options as to where to take a hike or a camping trip! I’ll tell you what your options are, starting with the closest state park to Dallas! In this post I’ll show pictures and talk about our experience at each park. I’ll save some of the information to my highlights on Instagram for easy reference! Scroll to the end of this blog post for my personal park awards to determine which state park suits you best!

 #1: Cedar Hill State Park: 18.3 miles away from Dallas

The first thing that comes to mind when I think “Cedar Hill State Park” is that they are fair weather fans! This park is a whimp when it comes to the rain! Just kidding…. kind of. I’m sure they have good reasons and safety measures to back this up but I swear, this park shuts down all trails if there is so much as one drop of rain that touches ground within a 10 mile radius. Good thing it’s not too far away because I’ve made the drive a couple times just to get turned away under the sun due to so called rainy weather. Pro tip: call before you go. Regardless, I keep coming back here because it is so convenient and family friendly.

There are plenty of trails here, so you have options on how to use your time. You can picnic and play at the beach, hike a long trail, or even knock out a few of the smaller trails. Cedar Hill State Park has a few renowned  bike trails. My kids and I hiked a 3 mile bike trail (The DORBA short trail) last time we were at the park. It was on a weekday, so we hardly ran into anyone, but I wouldn’t recommend hiking a bike trail on a weekend as I imagine it gets pretty crowded with wheels.  I have yet to bring my bike back here but I really want to! This particular trail looked really fun and doable for someone like me who is definitely a beginner in the mountain biking department.

At Cedar Hill State Park, we also like exploring the historical Penn Farm, and letting my kids dig in the sand and splash in the water at the beach. Note: I just checked the website and the beach is currently closed due to rain… see what I mean? (But again, I understand they do what they have to do in order to keep their environment and their guests safe.) If you do go to Cedar Hill just to learn that their trails are closed, check out Dogwood Audubon and Cedar Ridge Preserve nearby! Both are also in Cedar Hill and are fun places to get your nature fix. 

#2: Lake Tawakoni (Tuh-wok-awnee): 61 miles away from Dallas.

Maybe I just got lucky with the time of year that we visited Lake Tawakoni, but holy freaking beautiful. Ok, I’m not necessarily just referring to the park itself, but driving through flower covered farmland to get there… I had to pull over and soak it in! Go in April! So pretty! I met up with a friend here and we hiked Spider Web Trail. Actually, let me look up the real name of the trail we hiked… It’s called the “Spring Point Trail,” but it is home to one of THE LARGEST SPIDER WEBS EVER DOCUMENTED! They have a “memorial,” if you will, where the web once stood. Go visit! Or just look it up. It’s disgusting. After our hike we let our kids play in the sand and in the water at the beach. We didn’t fish ourselves, but we watched people come in off their fishing boats and they had literally buckets of fish. BUCKETS. If you’re into fishing, take a boat into (onto?) this lake! Lake Tawakoni State Park has about 5 miles of trails so I definitely want to go back and hike more. 

#3: Purtis Creek State Park: 62 miles away from Dallas

We visited Purtis Creek State Park on a warm day in November when we just needed to get out of the house! The trail heads here were somewhat difficult to find IMO, so we just hiked the first trail we found where the entrance was clearly marked. I believe it was the “Beaver Slide Nature Path.” It was nice. My kids enjoyed playing in the bird blind but defeated the purpose of it with how loud they were, scaring away any wildlife in the vicinity. Along the trail, we came across some super cool lakeside primitive camping sites. If I were to go back to any state park to camp, this would be it!

After we hiked, we drove to the other side of the creek for a picnic at the playground. It was too cold to swim, but we walked along the shore, and my boys had fun at the play structure and even made a couple friends. Near the playground, there were Kayaks available for rent. Looking back, I don’t know why we didn’t do that. Hmm… that would have been fun dang it!

#4: Ray Roberts Lake State Park: 64 miles away from Dallas

Ray Roberts Lake State Park was our first Texas state park experience ever! We visited Ray Roberts Lake one September day, just a couple weeks after we had moved from Salt Lake City to Dallas. We had mentioned to a stranger that we were looking for outdoor opportunities here and they suggested Ray Roberts Lake, so we went! Coming from actual mountains, I was still trying to figure out the whole “outdoors in Dallas” thing at this point and was trying to wrap my mind around the fact that these “hikes” have no incline, but I was like “okayy, I see this, I can get on board with this I think.” We hiked through a random trail to the lake, I honestly can’t tell you what trail it is, but then we spent some time playing at the beach and swimming afterwards.

I recently went back to visit this park, and they had redone the beach and playground area! It was awesome! Unfortunately we didn’t hike this time, so I can’t tell you much about the trails, but hopefully that changes soon! This place would make for a perfect day or overnight camp location with friends! Take note: Ray Roberts Lake State Park consists of three different sections. I’ve only been to “Isle Du Bois,” which is where this beach and park are located.

#5: Cleburne State Park: 65 miles away from Dallas

It’s a bummer that Cleburne State Park is so far away because I think it’s my favorite state park of the five closest to Dallas! I think I liked this one the best for a few reasons: The hiking was uphill, it was very green even though we went in February, and there were plenty of opportunities for play along the trails. The Spillway Trail is a must if you visit this park! The Spillway Trail is only a mile and a half round trip hike that takes you right along the hand-carved spillway (waterfall) and up to the lake. We spent a lot of time at both places.

There wasn’t really a beach at the water’s edge, but that didn’t stop my kids from throwing rocks or building a mini dam. The spillway only has water flowing through it at certain times throughout the year. It was mostly dried up when we went in February. The little water that was there looked pretty gross, but still appealing enough for rock-skipping. I would love to come back when the water is higher- I bet it’s so pretty! But the perk of hitting the low-water is that you have more freedom to climb up and down and explore the spillway. After our hike, we drove to the beach and playground. The beach wasn’t much, but there were kayaks available for rent. The playground was definitely one of the better playgrounds I’ve seen at a Texas State Park. It was a fun break for my kids to freely play here. 

If you’re wondering what State Park on this list is THE BEST one, this might help you out! Solely my opinion based on my experiences but here’s what I have to say: 

Best hiking: Cleburne State Park

Best primitive campsites: Purtis Creek State Park 

Best campsites: Ray Roberts Lake State Park

Best fishing: Lake Tawakoni State Park

Best beach: Lake Ray Roberts State Park

Best biking: Cedar Hill State Park

Most convenient/ family friendly: Cedar Hill State Park or Ray Roberts Lake State Park

Best views/prettiest: Cleburne State Park or Lake Tawakoni State Park

Any other awards I should give out? Let me know! 

P.S. I hope to get blog posts like this out about every major city I visit! What city should I do next? Probably Fort Worth because there is a lot of overlap between Dallas and Fort Worth State Parks. Hopefully I can do a post on state parks near Austin and Salt Lake soon too! What other big cities would you like to see? In a perfect world I could travel anywhere for these posts, so dream big! Thanks for the read!