{"id":265189,"date":"2026-04-25T01:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265189\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T01:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:11:08","slug":"first-texas-state-park-in-decades-sees-record-number-of-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265189\/","title":{"rendered":"First Texas State Park in decades sees record number of visitors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/v-palo-pinto-hills-new-years-hike-9p_00.00.08.18.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-v-7d0efd03=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-7d0efd03=\"\">Palo Pinto Mountains State Park <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">PALO PINTO COUNTY, Texas &#8211; Since March, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/news\/texas-celebrates-opening-first-new-state-park-decades\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">first Texas State Park to open in 25 years<\/a> has seen over 17,000 visitors. Park officials say they were pleasantly surprised at the popularity.<\/p>\n<p>   Palo Pinto Mountains visitors <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">By the numbers:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">From March 1 to April 21, the park says they&#8217;ve seen a total of 17,172 visitors. Of those, 14,066 were day-use guests, while 3,106 stayed overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">According to a spokesperson for the park, which is located between Abilene and the DFW Metroplex, these numbers surpass the entire 2025 attendance of nine other Texas State Parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KDFW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">&#8220;We weren&#8217;t sure what kind of turnout we were going to get, but we are excited that we had so many people that wanted to come see Texas&#8217; newest state park. We&#8217;re looking forward to many more coming through the gate from here on out,&#8221; said James Miller, Palo Pinto Mountains State Park Assistant Superintendent.<\/p>\n<p>Palo Pinto Mountains State Park <\/p>\n<p>   Newest Texas State Park <\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">Palo Pinto Mountains has 16 miles of multi-use trails perfect for checking out the colorful foliage or migratory birds that call the park home, like the endangered golden-cheeked warbler.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">For water lovers, the park is home to Tucker Lake, a 90-acre lake where visitors can fish, boat and swim. Motorboats are not allowed in the lake.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The park was originally purchased in 2011 and was slated for a 2023 opening before some construction projects were delayed.<\/p>\n<p data-v-871f4c88=\"\">The park held a soft opening and opened to visitors on March 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Information in this article comes from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox4news.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-871f4c88=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Palo Pinto Mountains State Park PALO PINTO COUNTY, Texas &#8211; Since March, the first Texas State Park&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[223,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":["post-265189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265189","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=265189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}