If you drive about 30 minutes southwest of downtown Dallas, you'll find a state park along Joe Pool Lake where you can hike, camp, fish, or even wander through the Penn Farm Agricultural Center.
"That has a rural farm on it from the family that settled the area, with historic buildings and a lot of history that you can walk through," KERA photojournalist Yfat Yossifor told NTX Now hosts Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning.
Cedar Hill State Park also boasts 350 campsites with water and electricity hookups available.
Daniel Palmer, assistant superintendent for Cedar Hill State Park, highlighted some of the park's offerings.
"We're only 20 miles away from downtown Dallas or 30 miles from Fort Worth, but you wouldn't know that from sitting here," he said. "We're on the shoreline of a 7,800 acre lake. There's trees and shade. We're in a recognized bird city...It's kind of a hidden gem of DFW."
Even if you've been before, Yossifor says there's more to explore.
"The park recently opened a new section that was closed down because of renovations," she said. "The renovations were necessary because they had a flooding event in 2015 and, of course, it caused damage to the shoreline and a tremendous amount of erosion. So, the project put in new roads and new electricity, utilities, and it looks brand new."
Another part of that renovation was adding new picnic areas and a one mile ADA-approved trail along the shoreline. Yossifor said the next phase of renovations to the park would continue the Eagle Ford camping loop, and is expected to be continued in the next few months.
While visiting the park, Yossifor talked to Vince Johnson who was camping in what she described as an enormous, blue RV. He told her that Cedar Hills State Park is convenient because of its proximity to his work.
"The convenience of being able to get to work fairly quickly, but still be out in the woods, still be on nature — which I love — it's just an advantage," Johnson said. "And you can't really find any other state parks within city limits."
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org or Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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