Located right at the city limits of Dallas and Cedar Hill, Cedar Ridge Preserve, which is managed by Audubon Dallas, is a beautiful and popular hiking destination! The preserver offers over 13 different trails, which cross each other making for about a 2.5 – 3 mile hike. The trails are well laid out, wide in most sections and with elevation gains unique to the plains hikes of North Texas.
The Cedar Ridge Preserve, is a beautiful series of hiking trails, many of them with panoramic views of Joe Pool Lake.
Know Before You Go
Dogs are welcome on a leash!
Access is FREE with a donation requested. You can even donate online!
Ranging from easy walks through the butterfly garden to more moderately difficult hikes, the Preserve has something for everyone. But there is so much more to do at the Cedar Ridge Preserve than just hike. Here are some ideas….
- Take a photographic hike with the kids. Give the kids cameras and let them take pictures. When you get home, help them make a slideshow with the pictures.
- Search for 90,000 million year old fossils and shark teeth along the trails. Take pictures, but please leave them on the trail for others to find and enjoy! We spotted this portion of an ammonite fossil, an extinct cephalopod (related to present day octopus and squid), along the trail. The ammonite lived in Texas when it was covered by a shallow sea, and can be found in the Eagle Ford rock layer.
- Carry a blanket and book out, and find a new favorite shade tree to lay under and read, either by yourself or with your kids. My suggestion would be Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.
- Enjoy a picnic lunch. Scattered picnic tables and abundant trees make for a perfect place to dine al fresco!
- Join the Friends of the Cedar Ridge Preserve each third Saturday as they work on restoring the trails, removing trash and invasive plants.
- Take a sketch book out, and find a spot to create a landscape, or let the kids. Come home and have a mini art show!
- Go fishing, catch and release only, at the Cattail Pond.
- Get that dream workout! We always spot runners on the trails. It beats any stairclimber!
- Take Fido for a walk, just keep her on a leash!
Learn more about this unique area of Texas at the Cedar Hill Museum of History.
More Things to do near Cedar Ridge Preserve
Play
Ellen’s Amusement Park offers go carts, mini golf and paintball.
Eat
Grab a yummy breakfast in Bishop Arts District at Oddfellows before your hike. Click HERE for more information.
Stay
Cedar Hill State Park has campsites along the shores of Joe Pool Lake, plus great hiking trails, fishing, kayak and mountain bike rentals and more! Click HERE for more information.
Cedar Ridge Preserve
7171 Mountain Creek Pkwy, Dallas
Click HERE to visit their website.
Keep Having Fun in the Texas Sun!
Michelle
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