Meridian State Park, TX

Day 9, Monday

Today we drove to Meridian State Park, outside of Meridian, Texas. The drive was approximately 265 miles and took five and a half hours. There was a lot of construction on the two lane roads, making them one lane. That slowed us down some. After checking in, we walked all of the roads on the south side of Lake Meridian. We were excited about what we found. There were hills and large rock shelves, and the lake was full! There are trails all over this side of the lake, a trail around the lake, and a loop trail on the north side of the lake. Additionally, there was only one other camper at this park! We had the whole park to ourselves. The eight RV sites are very close together, but we are at one end of the RV area and the other camper is at the other end. The park is located amoung some ridges above a flat plain. The ridges are very dry and rocky and are wooded with mostly juniper, but with some Texas Oak and an elm variety.


Day 10, Tuesday


Today we walked all the trails in the park, nearly ten miles of trail. Fascinating rock shelves all over the park.

One exceptional rock shelf hung about 50 feet above the lake. Some of the trails were not clearly marked and there were more trails than the park map indicated. Still, we enjoyed our day. Sunshine finally filled the sky around noon. This was the type of park we were hoping to stumble across. The other RV camper left today, but a tenter arrived. The tenting area is separate from the RV area -- there are about eight tent sites. What a great day. We also drove to town to refill one of our propane bottles and refuel the pickup truck.

Day 11, Wednesday

Since we had already hiked every trail in Meridian State Park and walked every road, we decided to visit another state park about 25 miles away (there were three parks less than 30 miles away!). We decided on Dinosaur Valley State Park.


This park turned out to be even better than Meridian State Park, with even more trails to hike. The trails involved steeper trails, more rock shelves and fantastic views. cloudless, deep blue skies all day.



After viewing dinosaur tracks in the limestone bed of the river, we hiked approximately six miles of trails, eating lunch beside a small stream flowing into the river. We even stopped for a swim in the river that flowed through the park. There were easily another two days of hiking available at this park -- we hated to leave. There was only one tent at this park (46 sites). The sites were well shaded and spread out a little.