Find the top rated cross country skiing trails in Texas, whether you're looking for an easy short cross country skiing trail or a long cross country skiing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a cross country skiing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
We tried taking this trail to Zilker but it is not bikable unless with a mountain bike.
This trail very nice! Do friendly with dog parks, like it and will be back.
Don’t waste your time here if you want to road bike. Most of the trail is under construction or grass.
Just completed only 3.6 miles of the trail because of construction at Potosi Street/Cassiano Park. I noticed the you can take a pedestrian bridge to the other side of the creek but the path was so narrow that I decided not to chance it. One bump of the handlebar to the right might send you down to the creek.The creek and the scenery was nothing to write home about. Better to stick to the RiverWalk trail as the nature is much better visually. The path itself is concrete and smooth with some gradual hills but nothing really to tax your energy. I'll try the west end of the trail that has a trail head on Commerce and see how that is. But so far, I would only rate it 3 stars. Hopefully, this will improve when they finish the construction
This trail description hasn’t been updated in a while. There is a very short disconnect under a railroad bridge, about 100 feet that you can easily walk your road bike thru, soft sand/clay. We picked up the trail in Eastwood’s Park off of Clark Blvd. newly concreted path awaits you at the park, it is well marked and probably one of the nicest surfaced path we have biked on (I added a google maps image to show). The total trail ending at the Chacon Creek Bat Park at the US/Mexico border is about 6 miles and you can easily look across the Rio Grande River to Mexico.
I rode this trail from the Downtown Denton Transit Center all the way across the Lake Lewisville bridge and back.
There's numerous street crossings (some of which are very busy in terms of automobile traffic) where you have to wait for the crossing light, and even then you have to be careful because there's cars turning that will completely not notice you're there and will run you over if you try to cross while the "Walking" sign is green.
It's also not very scenic, you're basically riding past industrial parks, trailer homes, RV parks, and old run-down neighborhoods.
I would not recommend this trail!
Very well maintained and wide trails that are away from traffic. The Bobcat Run "boardwalk" is especially nice and different. Many unpaved trails fork off from the mail paved trails for the off-roaders. Two ballooners took off from the adjacent Plano Balloon Festival area while I was there. Historical sites in the park, if you know where to look.
When WRC floods, most of the northern trail is submerged at least 5-10 feet, leaving a LOT of flood debris and trash in the trees and bushes and a lot of dirt on the trails when the flood waters finally recede. The good thing about this trail is that it rarely parallels a street and there are very few street crossings so it's a pretty uninterrupted ride.
This trail is all under the power line right of way so it's very wide and will get you from points A to B, but not in a very entertaining way. There's virtually no shade or features.
The parks and the trails have been closed for some serious maintenance.
My brother and I rode the stretch of this trail between Turkey and Parnell junction over Thanksgiving. While I do recommend it, be advised about trail conditions and well equipped if you try it.
We stayed in the Hotel Turkey, which is a few blocks from the trail. (No complaints about that - it’s a fine place to stay.). The plan was to ride from Turkey to Estelline and back. But we got a late start and the going was slower than planned, so we turned around at Parnell Junction.
The biggest challenge was goat-heads. My brother’s tubeless tires held up fine, but one of the tubes on my rental bike eventually gave out - even with sealant. We had tools and a spare, but lost our Presta to Schrader adapter on the trail and walked about the last 6 miles back to Turkey. Be sure to have redundancy in your gear!
The second biggest challenge was probably the grass and general overgrowth on the trail. Some sort of lower leg protection would be well advised. We did not see snakes, but be aware of the possibility.
A third issue is the bridges. Some are concrete, but some have wood planks, and these are showing their age. Caution is advised on approach to the bridges. There are broken planks here and there, but the joists were all intact - I think. :) So, as of this writing, all bridges between Turkey and Parnell Junction were passable and safe for cycling. (Pedestrians should exercise caution. While there is no gaps to fall thru, one could twist an ankle or break a leg.)
Also, be mindful of a barbed wire cow gate between Tampico Siding and Parnell junction. It’s easy to open if you see it, but I wouldn’t want to ride into it closed!
Apparently, other trail users have been told that this section of trail is officially in a non-maintained state. We did not see any signs to this effect or hear it from anyone, but the condition of the trail makes this very plausible. I encourage any other users with relevant or updated information in this regard to post it.
In any case, the trail is remote and has very low traffic. We did not see any other trail users during our trip. Take everything you need with you! There’s no QT along this route! We thought we were conservative, but barely had enough water with us.
That brings me to sum it up like this: We covered about 45 miles that day. Maybe five or so were a warm up. About 10 to 15 were pure riding bliss: the thrill of pumping the pedals, the rhythmic navigation of obstacles - around, over, or through, and feeling the euphoria of the wide open Texas landscape and the rush of the wind on your helmet. Maybe another 15 miles were the steady grind of making the next marker point or water break. The last 10 or 15 miles? Well, sometimes the velo gods send you a bill for miles of the joyous type. All told - I’d do it again.
If you understand those sentiments, then you will probably love this trail and I can recommend it. If not, caution is advised - maybe try the section east of Clarity tunnel first.
A ride partner is strongly advised. There were two of us, but a four-person group (two adventure couples or two sets of best buds) would probably be safer and faciliate being sufficiently equipped.
One shortcut tip: The best view we found was an overlook a few miles east of Tampico Siding. If you aren’t sure about trying this trail, an option would be to park at Tampico siding (about 10 miles from Turkey - near junction of Texas 86 and county road 657) and ride east for a few miles. This section of the trail is not too bad, and the worst of the goat-heads was to the east of the overlook and closer to Parnell junction.
As a whole, I’d give this trail a thumbs up - just be sure you are prepared and know what to expect.
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