About this guide
TX State Parks is an independent guide to Texas state parks, natural areas and historic sites. It puts the answers people look for first (cost, swimming, dogs, camping, drive time) at the top of every park page, and shows where each answer came from.
Not the official site
This guide isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), which runs the parks. Fees, hours, rules and closures change, sometimes the same day because of weather, fire danger or high water. Before you go, check the official TPWD page linked from every park page. To reserve campsites or day passes, use Texas State Parks reservations.
Where the facts come from
- Fees, hours, campsites, trails, swimming and pet rules
- Each park's official pages on tpwd.texas.gov.
- Park locations, regions and acreage
- TPWD's public map and boundary data.
- Year established
- Wikipedia's list of Texas state parks, since TPWD doesn't state it consistently.
- Drive times
- Estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), from a central point in each city, without traffic. City locations come from the U.S. Census Bureau.
- Photos
- Wikimedia Commons, used only under CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0 or public domain terms. Each photo is credited where it appears.
How it's put together
- Every fact on a park page links back to its source, listed at the bottom of the page with the date it was retrieved.
- If a source doesn't say something, the guide leaves it out instead of guessing. That's why some parks have no trail surfaces or no "best time to go" notes.
- Each park page shows the date it was last checked. The most recent check was October 14, 2026.
- Written descriptions are based on the same sources and are reviewed by hand.
Coverage
The guide covers 93 parks so far and is adding the rest of the Texas state park system. See them all on the park list.