SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Want to start the New Year off with a fresh start?<\/p>\n
Starting on Wednesday night, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is hosting its annual First Day Hike at a Texas State Park.<\/p>\n
The tradition is a nationwide program designed to encourage hiking for people of all ages and experience levels, TPWD said in a press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach year, Texas leads the nation as thousands of Texans turn out to a nearby state park to ring in the new year and celebrate with a First Day Hike,\u201d said Rodney Franklin, director of Texas State Parks. \u201cI always look forward to seeing the photos of smiling folks enjoying parks on January 1, and this New Year\u2019s Day is extra special as we also ring in America\u2019s 250th birthday. Hope to see you on the trail!\u201d<\/p>\n
Each trail varies in length and difficulty, allowing for both family-friendly strolls and experienced hikers to participate.<\/p>\n
Events such as bike rides, self-guided and ranger-guided walks, paddling trips and polar plunges will be part of the fun.<\/p>\n
Want to know where to start? Here are some parks that are not too far from the Alamo City<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cState parks across the country protect and provide access to the landscapes, stories and places that create the fabric of our country,\u201d says America\u2019s State Parks President Paul McCormack. \u201cAs our country starts to celebrate its 250th birthday in 2026, we invite you to start your year on a First Day Hike enjoying and celebrating our incredible public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n TPWD said the best way to plan your trip is to reserve a day pass in advance, since capacity limits are expected to be hit on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n If you want to visit more than one state park in Texas throughout the year, you can buy a Texas State Park Pass (TSPP) for $70, which will waive entrance fees for passholders and guests in their vehicle for a full year.<\/p>\n The release said passholders also get discounts on overnight reservations, state park store purchases and more.<\/p>\n To get a day pass<\/a> or TSPP<\/a>, visit the website or call 512-389-8900 during regular business hours.<\/p>\n Find all First Day Hikes events here<\/a> and a list of trail maps by going to TPWD\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more on KSAT:<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Want to start the New Year off with a fresh start? Starting on Wednesday night,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25678,1972,14353,1006,27,29,28,9009,69,3746],"class_list":{"0":"post-104970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-hiking","9":"tag-holidays","10":"tag-new-years-eve","11":"tag-outdoors","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-texas-state-parks","16":"tag-things-to-do","17":"tag-tpwd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}