Thread: Lake Mineral Wells 1st timer.....any suggestions?

Mineral Wells SP stays pretty busy on summer weekends so you may have trouble avoiding people. It should prove to be a good, quick outing for you though. The screened shelters are in a nice spot on the lake. You can never be sure if someone or some group will be at the range. i would expect that you would encounter plenty of wildlife on the trail. Due to the rainy spring, (11 inches above normal), wildlife in the form of mosquitos are abundant so plan for them. I have never hiked the entire trail so can not comment on that aspect.
Enjoy the visit.

Nice Park! My parents used to spend lots of time in the camper there for summers. My kids would rotate spending weeks out there with them back when. Lots of wildlife, then and now. I enjoy the trails - but because it is also an awesome rock climbing destination you will encounter alot of climbers along the trails. The rock climbers are very interesting to watch.
~Kym

I figure that the park will be crowded with swimmers and campers.......hopefully the hot weather will discourage most to hike the trails..... for our benefit! We may even try to rock climb - never done it before...

Wildlife = good.
Mosquitos = bad.

I think I can deal with the mosquitos if we get to encounter some deer or fox or anything other than people. I'm looking forward to it!.

Just curious. Where roughly is the firing range located? Hopefully it doesn't take away from the sounds of nature too much....

The trails are on the north side of the park. You will enter from the south, go left over the spillway to the shelters. Part of the trailheads will be further up the road to the north. The firing range is to the northwest of the park. The range is not used all the time so odds are good it will not be a noise distraction. If they are using it the further east along the trails you go the less noticeable it will be. I have camped out there many weekends and never heard a shot fired.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publicat...p4503_103f.pdf

thanks for the info! I feel a little better about my upcoming weekend now. Sounds like it's one of the better campgrounds to hike in North Texas. I'll have to give a report when we get back.

http://www.oiloflemoneucalyptus.com/products.htm

This is the best stuff to keep those mosquito's away!
You don't spell like "bug spray" all day.

thanks everyone for your input.

So I will plan on a small amount of shade. I may go get a bottle of Repel now now too.

i'm planning on hiking all the listed trails in the park and the backwoods for sure. It should be plenty to keep us in good exercise most of the day.

A few things to think about...

Keep an eye out for ticks. I was there back in April and they were already out and about.

You'll cross Rock Creek a couple of times and with all the rain we've had I'm sure the water will be running pretty high. A few months back the creek crossing looked like this:



Enjoy!