Making the most of a lake park when you don't have a boat.
At this point in the summer with coronavirus and all, it is hard to keep Kaylee and I away from the outdoors. The day after we went to Cedar Hill State Park, on June 3 we went to yet another state park up near Dallas. It is not a particularly spectacular park with great natural features or amenities, but Lake Tawakoni State Park did offer us some time away from the Cogbill house.
Lake Tawakoni State Park resides east of Dallas near the town of Wills Point, TX. It took about an hour and a half to get over there after packing up a simple lunch. By the time we arrived it was time to eat. We stopped at the closest picnic area which was a fishing pond still within sight of the park headquarters. We spent a peaceful lunch under the shade of the trees watching the turtles dive down and resurface in the pond a few yards in front of us. We did get antagonized by some bugs, but eventually they gave in and left us alone to finish our sandwiches. Now that food time was over with, the real stuff began.
The entirety of Lake Tawakoni State Park doesn’t boast many hiking trails. The longest trail system it has totals around 3 miles and outside of that the longest trail is less than half a mile. Once again Kaylee and I were caught in one these lake parks without a boat to go out on the water, and were left to probe the trails that were available. One of these trails takes you walking along the lakeshore out to a point in the land. There are several spots for which to gaze out upon Lake Tawakoni. We tried our hand at getting some ring pictures at a couple of these spots by using the natural dropoffs on the waterfront. I think Kaylee did a sparkling job for what she had to work with.
In one of the bends along the point of land is a spot that holds arachnid history. In September of 2007, one of the largest spiderwebs on record was spun in a communal effort by thousands of spiders. The spider web stood for 3 days and spanned across more than 10 different trees in the area. It sure would’ve been a sight to behold… except for Kaylee’s arachnophobia.
At the end of that trail we wanted to see a tiny tidbit of a place vaguely marked on the trails map, a bridge. The bridge stretched across a small runoff stream and connected a campsite to a nearby park road. What I found interesting was the company that manufactured the bridge was out of Alexandria, Minnesota.
We basically walked across the bridge and back while Kaylee snapped a few photos. Next was our time to walk the largest trail system of the park with the exception of one of the three trails. These trails take you through blackland prairie that used to dominate the area (until urbanization started) and forest that surrounds the lake. The ground around this side of Lake Tawakoni is pretty flat, so we were pretty thankful for no elevation change today as it was in the mid 90s all afternoon. The trails were nice to walk in and see what that area of nature had to hold. There was even a little bench for people to break at and watch out over the water from the backside of a cove. We took our time walking the rest of the way back to the car through the forested prairie. At the end (and beginning actually) of this trail system was a wooden amphitheatre and we thought it would be funny for me to take a picture up on stage acting as if I were a bear. After my acting career came and went with the shutter of one camera shot, our time at Lake Tawakoni concluded.
Not only did Lake Tawakoni come to end, but our time in Dallas did as well. The next day we left for Smithville again with another short week together. Thank you North Texas, thanks for having us.
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