Last touched: 11/28/20
This is a work in progress document. As you can see, there are some trails that I have fully described and others I still have to get around to (and some that will never be completed). If you are interested in something that is incomplete and want more info (or have questions about something in here), send me a note (pbender@eskimo.com) and I'll respond and maybe it will prompt me to complete it.
When not immersed in basketball, I like to go on day hikes. Unfortunately, where I live is not very good for the hikes I like. I prefer small width trails with some change in elevation (ie, not flat). Here are some of the trails/parks I've been to in the past number of years. For the Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas trails, I've included distances/time of travel relative to my old home in north Plano (just north of Dallas). I usually (and recommend others do so too) stop in the park headquarters, nature center, or store to get a map of the trails, if available (even if I've already found one online and printed it out). Be sure to bring plenty of water and you might want to bring along a snack or lunch.
Patricia's Top 10 (or so) Favorite Hikes - A listing with notes of 10 (or more) hikes that are my favorite.
What's in Patricia's Backpack - what I take when hiking and other comments.
You can see the pictures from some of my hikes at
http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/pictures/picall.html (will take some time to
load all 449 pictures) or go to the index of the pictures (doesn't bring up
the pictures, but has links to them all) at
http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/pictures/index.html
Clicking on the picture link for a state will bring up all the pictures for
that state.
If you plan on going to a number of national parks in a year's span, get a National Parks Pass for $80 at http://store.usgs.gov/pass/. The pass gets you and your family into the parks for no additional cost (you don't have to pay the park fee when you show your card).
Good sites for finding park/hiking info throughout the US:
National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/
USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us/
Great Outdoor Recreation Pages (GORP) http://www.gorp.com/
Also, go to http://www.yahoo.com/ and
do a search on "[State] hiking". And on the pages you find that way, look
at the suggested links to find even more pages.