Texas Hiking Overview

Different states have different trails and as a whole, Texas's trails don't tend to be the most grueling out there . . . unless you're in Big Bend Country or on the far west end of the Panhandle Plains. There, canyons, mountains, climbs and descents and plain and simple length can keep any hiker happily huffing. The rest of Texas is sometimes more scenic than strenuous, but scenic it is. Often these quiet hikes are the most loved, because the woods and bayous and lakes are just that beautiful.

Destinations to consider are grouped below by region. For detailed information, follow the links to any biking destination that interests you.

Hiking in Big Bend Country - Texas

You'll have to pack water in to Big Bend National Park if you intend to hike through it in the summer. With over 150 miles of trails, it's just too easy to get yourself intentionally lost in the scenery. Trails can be swift, paved, and the very definition of easy. Or they can be mad, difficult climbs that require rock-scrambles, or camping off-trail and finishing the rest in the morning. But excellent they all certainly are. El Paso boasts almost as many trails in Franklin Mountain State Park and the Guadalupe Mountains tend to be far less crowded than Big Bend and exhiliratingly difficult.

Hiking in Panhandle Plains - Texas

The Panhandle Plains, around Amarillo and Lubbock, hold the Caprock and Palo Duro Canyons, so there are certainly a few hot and strenuous hikes here. Caprock Canyons, nearer Lubbock, are all red rock formations. You could be standing in southern Utah. The Lighthouse, nearer Amarillo, is this colorful pinnacle jutting into the sky. And these two hikes do fall on the easier end of the scale, but tougher walks aren't hard to find.

Hiking in Hill Country - Texas

The Barton Creek Greenbelt in Austin is one of the better known hikes in the Great Plains. Like Austin in general, it's very green and well forested and . . . popular. Mount Bonnell, with its hundred steps to its romantic summit, is a must-see, but may also be crowded. If solitude is of a bit more interest to you, less popular (and outlying) trails may be more your speed. The Spicewood Valley Trail is a newly built Austin trail that's rather steep and strenuous, and a bit more isolated.

In general, Hill Country trails are mellow and scenic with the occasional leg-burning surprise. One particularly well-known trail is the hike up to Enchanted Rock, a massive pink granite dome that rock-climbers quite enjoy as well.

Hiking in Prairies and Lakes - Texas

Most of the trails in the Dallas area are very gentle and either urban or under heavy, if respectful, use. Every once in a while, a slightly more rugged trail presents itself, but the Prairies strength is in pretty, wooded walks in lovely weather. One moderately difficult and excellent route is the Cross Timbers Trail.

Fort Worth works under a similar difficulty, but its area hikes sometimes have a different flavor. If the Grapevine Lake day hike works, like the Cross Timbers, as a pleasant leg-burn of a shore-walk, Dinosaur Valley has saurian tracks as well as shores.

Hiking in Piney Woods - Texas

Oh, the Piney Woods has its lakeshore walks and its wooded walks, but the there tree-towering, there boggy walks of Davy Crockett National Forest are maybe more illustrative of the Piney Woods. This has both the wooded walks and the lakeshore walks, but in an especially wild environment.

Hiking in Gulf Coast - Texas

Some Texas hikes are lined with mesquite, others with trees. Other thread through canyons. Some, such as on the gulf, thread through swamp, thicket, wildflower, and alligator. If the trails are rarely anywhere near difficult, Houston bayou hiking is enjoyable for sheer novelty. Brazos Bend Park is the best known of these.

Big Thicket National Preserve, near Beaumont is diverse bayou land and a little bit of everything besides. You'll find alligators nestled up against armadillos (if maybe not literally). With over 45 miles of trails, it's hardly stingy with hikers, either. And coastal hikes, such as those near Galveston and Corpus Christi, combine walk with beach experience and there are plenty of them.

Hiking in South Plains - Texas

San Antonio is again between two worlds, the border plains of the south and the Hill Country to the north. Some of its hikes wander through maple, other through more deserty areas, rocks and ridges.

The birding and wildlife refuge trails of the Rio Grande Valley are just as useful to the hiker as to the hard-core birder. These trails could hardly be more scenic and sometimes wind for miles.

Texas Hiking Search

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