{"id":73537,"date":"2025-12-02T23:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/73537\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T23:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:07:08","slug":"texas-will-unveil-its-newest-state-park-with-a-guided-hike-on-new-years-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/73537\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas will unveil its newest state park with a guided hike on New Year\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy <\/a> , and give us feedback <\/a> . <\/p>\n

FORT WORTH \u2014 The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will open the state\u2019s newest state park, Palo Pinto Mountains State Park<\/a>, to guests with reservations on New Year\u2019s Day. <\/p>\n

The park, located 83 miles southwest of Fort Worth, is nestled on 4,871 acres of former ranch land in Stephens and Palo Pinto counties. The park\u2019s official opening date to the general public has not yet been set, but officials expect to open in 2026.<\/p>\n

Parks and Wildlife Department staff will give guided hikes to visitors on Jan. 1 that showcase some of the land\u2019s most striking features \u2014 from broad plateaus with sweeping vistas to the sheltered canyons carved over millennia by wind and water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so excited to show folks what makes Palo Pinto Mountains so special,\u201d said Rodney Franklin, the director of Texas State Parks. \u201cWith the park nearly complete thanks to our hardworking staff and partners, this felt like the perfect way to start 2026 \u2014 exploring one of Texas\u2019 newest state parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other parks across the state will also hold hikes on New Year\u2019s Day. Because capacity is limited, state park officials encourage visitors to make a day-pass reservation. Those can be made through the TPWD website.<\/a><\/p>\n

The park has been in development since 2010, when TPWD asked the Texas Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit that helps preserve Texas land, to seek land for a new state park in North Texas. Two years later, the state bought the first parcel of land, totaling 3,300 acres using proceeds from the sale of state property on Eagle Mountain Lake north of Fort Worth. <\/p>\n

The city of Strawn later donated <\/a>the rest of the land including the park\u2019s centerpiece, 90-acre Tucker Lake, where visitors will be able to fish, paddle, and birdwatch in a quiet, motor-free setting.<\/p>\n

The new park will include multiuse trails for hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders, as well as RV and tent camping, picnic areas, and dark-sky viewing opportunities.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas Parks And Wildlife Department has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy , and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2327,1006,36662,287,1564,27,29,293,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-73537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-outdoors","10":"tag-palo-pinto-county","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-state-government","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-headlines","15":"tag-texas-legislature","16":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73537","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=73537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}