A Saturday Hike On The Tandy Hills With Mike, Sara & Penny

That is Mike and Sara and their canine hiking companion, Penny, taking a break and having lunch on the Tandy Hills today.

Mike and Sara have lived in Dallas for 3 years. Before Dallas they lived in Eugene, Oregon, where they'd hiked a lot.

Mike and Sara were Googling for places to hike in Texas and somehow found this blog called Durango Texas, which led them to their first visit to the Tandy Hills.

I talked to Mike and Sara and Penny for awhile. Told them about other hiking places in the area.

I forgot to mention some good hiking locations, so I'll mention them now, in the oft chance Mike and Sara visit that Durango Texas Blog again.

Well, Lake Grapevine has some good trails. The trails from Rockledge Park are probably the best. You'll find the entry to Rockledge Park after you drive across Lake Grapevine Dam. Grapevine currently charges an entry fee to Rockledge Park, which I consider an outrage and an abomination.

There are several park areas around Lake Grapevine from which you can access the trails, like the Horseshoe Trails.

Across the Red River, in Oklahoma, there is Turner Falls Park, with hiking, caves and cliffs to climb.

About 60 miles southwest of Fort Worth you'll find Dinosaur Valley State Park. There are miles of good trails in this state park. Very hilly. And it is very easy to get lost. The trails are marked by color. Which does not help all that much with the getting lost problem.

There are a couple other good Fort Worth hiking locations. The Fort Worth Nature Preserve is one. It's got miles of trails, cliffs, prairie dogs, bayous and alligators. Trails that you can access from the Lake Worth overlook in Sansom Park are the steepest I have been on in Texas. Sansom Park is a maze of trails and it is possible to have fun getting lost.

I told Mike and Sara about the trails in Cedar Hills State Park. I neglected to mention how huge this park is. It is a several mile drive, once you enter the park, to get to the first hiking trailhead. At the end of the road you'll find the trailhead for some 13 miles of mountain bike trails, that you can also hike. I told Mike and Sara I've seldom seen a snake on the Tandy Hills. At Cedar Hills State Park I had my biggest rattlesnake encounter. As in, it was HUGE.

This makes twice this week I've run into humans on the Tandy Hills who had not been there before. The hills are coming alive with humans.

Sansom Park Hiking & Druids

Today I had to be in the White Settlement zone of Fort Worth, not the town of White Settlement, but the street, where Angelo's Barbecue is located.

So, since I was in the neighborhood, sort of, I thought today would a good day to return to Sansom Park and do some hiking on the steepest, toughest trails in the D/FW Metroplex.

I don't know who made these trails. Or how they made them. What I do know is this system of trails is Moab-worthy. As in the Slick Rock Trail scared me in Moab, but I biked it. The Sansom Trail scares me in Fort Worth, and I won't bike it. Well, maybe I would bike part of it, but there were a couple places where I could not hike down, no way could I bike it. Yet I saw tire tracks. Texans are tough. They will willingly go where few men will.

Sansom Park sits atop a hill overlooking Lake Worth and Lake Worth Dam. During a flood the view here is pretty spectacular, with water pouring over the dam like a mini-Niagara. You can hike down to the base of the dam where there are trail options in a couple directions. Most of these trails are not for the faint of heart or weak of knees.

I saw a wildflower blooming today that I've not yet seen whilst hiking the Tandy Hills, that being the blue flower you see above.

Most of the Sansom Park Trails are very rocky, with a few being packed dirt. I don't know if this is limestone, or what it is. I do know it can be challenging. I don't know what went on in the past in this area. There are what appear to be long abandoned roads where people seem to have created elaborate rusty iron sculptures.

There are so many miles of trails going in so many directions, if it weren't for orienting landmarks one could get, well, disoriented. One of the landmarks is a rock formation that sits atop a hill, like a Druid/Stonehenge monument. It would likely be de-stoned if some of the more earnest local Bible Belters got wind of the pagan imagery guiding bikers and hikers out of their confusion.

I was drawn to climb up to the Druid Monument and take some pictures. From there the view is good of Lake Worth and the dam. It looks to me like it would be a good idea to turn the Druid Stonehenge Monument into some sort of picnic pavilion. There is already a very nice, huge, fireplace. Who knows what sort of rituals have taken place in that fireplace?

It has been a good Saturday in Fort Worth. I went swimming real early. The water was perfect. White Settlement and Sansom Park were perfect. On the way back here I saw humans on a scary balcony. I'll blog about that later. And then when I did get back here, I went swimming again. It's still winter, but it is summer in Texas. And tomorrow we spring forward. I don't like Daylight Savings Time.