Outdoor Activities (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano: amusement park, camping, live)

[StEt0417]

What types of outdoor activities are there to do in Dallas area? We are moving from south florida and currently spend most our time at the beach, water sports such as wakeboarding, kiteboarding, paddle boarding. In the winter we do mountain biking, running.

I dont know what the rules are but can you do any water sports on lewisville lake? Here we can do pretty much everything all year long so Im curious what types of things people do out there. We are a very active family.

[DaveG99]

I do a ton of kayaking mostly kayak fishing

[StEt0417]

Originally Posted by DaveG99

I do a ton of kayaking mostly kayak fishing

Where? On the lakes? My husband does that here on the inter coastal waters.

[ggolf]

Originally Posted by StEt0417

Where? On the lakes? My husband does that here on the inter coastal waters.

City of Dallas built a white water rapid-type of area on the Trinity river south of downtown. I've seen all kinds of boating on Lewisville lake. Texoma is a little over an hour north and is a huge lake (however it's closed right now due to a alga outbreak, due to our hot, dry summer).
Bottom line, you have options.
Welcome!

[DaveG99]

Originally Posted by StEt0417

Where? On the lakes? My husband does that here on the inter coastal waters.

I go to the lakes sometimes. But the best spots are within 2 hours of Dallas. The Brazos river just below possum kingdom lake is awesome and the lower mountain fork river below broken bow lake in Oklahoma is very nice as well. And about 1 hour and 45 min east of Dallas is Lake Fork that has the best bass fishing in the country.

Tell your husband to get on these two forums....

TexasKayakFisherman.com • Index page

Kayak Fishing - Texas Fishing Forum

[DaveG99]

There are lots of great mountain biking trails in the Dallas area also.

Dallas-Fort Worth Area Mountain Biking - Mountain Bike Trails

[flpyrner]

Tons of water sports here in the DFW area. Lot's of options at any of the surrounding lakes in regards to wake boarding. I'm sure you can do the watersports year around but as mild as our winters are we do get random weeks of sub 40 degree weather, ice, wind ect. I swam in Lake Lewisville starting in March and the lake water temps were down in the 60's and even with a wetsuit it was not comfortable to be in.

Kiteboarding, check out: Dallas kiteboarding lessons and gear

SUP movement is getting bigger in the area, check out www.meetup.com for the SUP group....I've done it at Windsurfer Bay but I've seen them on Grapevine Lake as well.

Mountain Biking, decent amount of trails spread out all over the metroplex. Northshore being my favorite trail, but check out DORBA for trails, conditions, ect: DORBA | Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association

Running is very popular, especially now that we have been getting decent weather the runners are out in force! Running season is upon us....YAY! Trail Running: NTTR - North Texas Trail Runners, Dallas Running Club: Welcome Runners and Walkers!, Check out local running stores Luke's Locker and Run On for events: Run On! (http://www.runontexas.com/calendar/Calendar.htm - broken link)

[rjl786]

Overall, very little variety in the outdoor activity area. Everything centers around a few small manmade lakes. Here is my list:

- boating on small manmade lakes
- kayaking on those same lakes
- canoeing down small rivers between those lakes
- mountain biking on a short trail around Grapevine Lake
- bike riding down a single Dallas bike trail
- camping at state parks, but the good ones are a few hours away

The problem is that none of it is natural, so it just isn't that inspiring. Look tom live elsewhere if you want variety and scenery. Dallas is a concrete jungle of chain restaurants and chuck e cheeses.

[FarNorthDallas]

Texas is in a drought right now, so lake levels are low. And as mentioned above Lake Texoma, which has great state parks, is closed for any kind of water contact due to the poisonous algea (it also has a zebra mussel infestation). Lake Lewisville, which you asked about on another thread, is a "party lake" and has a reputation for deaths due to drunk boating and overcrowding.

This summer was also extraordinarily hot - 70 days over 100 degrees and even up to 107 degrees and really folks just don't go outside when it is like that. Even swimming pool water is too hot to enjoy. But, in general, it is not as humid as Florida.

There are some hike and bike trails around Dallas - the Katy Trail is more of an urban trail and White Rock Lake trail goes around White Rock Lake and there is Preston Trail in Far North Dallas/Plano which is function over style as it is just in the easement of high tension electrical wires.

There is a Six Flags amusement park, and there are numerous water parks. I think that Trinity white water rapids thing is closed before it opened because it wasn't designed right and it's too dangerous. There are some nature preserves - two in Plano. There are some indoor rock climbing places. There is a new cable wakeboarding water place in Allen that just opened.