Lake Mineral Wells State Park

A choice on a whim paired with low expectations became one of our favorites.

March 17, 2020 was an accident of a day. Kaylee and I were supposed to be back in College Station in class, and, well let’s face it, most likely working a baseball or softball game that evening. It was a Tuesday after all. Instead we found ourselves in Flower Mound, TX with Kaylee’s family after coronavirus had added an extra week of spring break and moved all classes online for the remainder of the semester. Me being who I am, I did not complain, this was a blessing. Other than the fact that there was a very contagious virus moving across the globe.

We had been cooped up inside for basically a week in Flower Mound, so we decided we would check out another state park. All of the sitting and doing nothing inspired us to make an adventure out of state parks, and just the night before (on Monday the 16th) we had officially set our goal of visiting all of the state parks and ordered the map (see Kaylee’s blog post about our map for more details on that fiasco). We had been researching which state parks we could go to in the Dallas area. Let me tell you, if you aren’t a boat owner, it is slim pickin’s in the state parks department in north Texas (excluding the panhandle area). Basically every state park within a 2 hour’s drive from Dallas is a lake or is centered around a lake. This made it difficult for Kaylee and I to choose where to go since we are poor college students and utterly boat-less. We decided on Lake Mineral Wells with not much more effort than drawing names out of a hat. Our expectations were low, and that could not have worked out more in our favor.

We left early afternoon on Tuesday, March 17 and arrived to discover that the headquarters was closed. We entered in (after some deliberation and sketchiness) and headed for a ‘Point of Interest’ that peaked our interest. It was titled Penitentiary Hollow and for all we knew it was just some trees on the lake. It had been raining all day so there were very few people in the park, lucky for us since we are not the most extroverted. Getting out of the car, Kaylee with her camera in hand, we walked the short trail to the hollow… and were blown away.

The scenery around reminded me of a trip I took to Colorado the previous spring break just to a smaller extent and not near as much snow. The hollow opened up below the trial where you were able to walk out upon rock ledges and look over to see the ground 10, 20, 30 feet below. We walked across the top of the hollow to an overlook area that sprawled Lake Mineral Wells out across as a beautiful background. In the forefront were many trees and other scenery that completed the picture, where we (of course) got our patented Aggie Ring picture. At the end of the scenic overlook was a trail that led down into Penitentiary Hollow, we followed.

Down in the bottom was just as breathtaking as at the top. The rock cliffs rose up beside us, still slick and shining from the day's rain. Small passageways and tunnels etched into the cliff sides made for more exploring. The bottom had more to it than it seemed from the trail above, little nooks in the rock created shelves to climb into (I forced Kaylee into one and she proceeded to pretend to hold the entire cliff up), and rock formations that could be climbed without any gear (which I took the liberty of doing without prompting). It was mesmerizing, a sight that is uncommon for the flat plains of North Texas. A true treat.

Down in the hollow, we found a big rock that the two of us could get on and be able to take lots of pictures in many different poses. We tried cute poses, normal couple poses, and even a pose that was worthy of an album cover. We have fun with each other, and I suppose in the end that’s what matters.

We continued to explore Penitentiary Hollow a little more climbing through small crevices in the rocks, up little natural platforms for Kaylee to get a good picture, and eventually left the hollow to eat a little sack dinner we had prepared for ourselves. Our sack lunches/dinners are a classic ham and cheese sandwich and usually other small snacky items like cheez its or fruit or cheese sticks and maybe even some gushers. These sack lunches are a hit for us, that’s all we need to be satisfied. We ate out on a dock on the lake as the sun was setting. It was peaceful and gorgeous to watch the sun fall below the horizon and the sky to go from an overcast gray to orange and purple. It was time to head back to Flower Mound.

I guess the lesson we learned on that random Tuesday was that keep expectations low and you will never be disappointed. Going to Lake Mineral Wells State Park, we did not think anything of it at all. To be honest, it was just going to be a checkmark, “yep, mhmm we did and now put another pin in the map.” But it remains one of our favorites to this day. Forrest Gump said it, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” And that is the truth of it. Keep an open mind, lower the expectations. Things might just end up in your favor.