Eagle Mountain Park — Attraction in Azle

We just visited yesterday and hiked a few of the trails down to the lake. If you are a beginner or intermediate hiker, this is a great place to go with some beautiful rugged North Texas scenery. But it isn't really a "park" as most think about it as there are no playgrounds or anything for children. We managed to make it with a regular stroller with a 2 yr old in it and a 5 yr old who walked, but honestly it was tough with the stroller because the trails are not really stroller or wheelchair friendly. If you must use a stroller or other carrier, I highly recommend a sling/infant carrier if you are hiking with children 2 and under or using a sturdier stroller with larger wheels meant for jogging/running and be prepared to lift or carry it over some spots because most of the trails down to the lake have a few steep inclines and are rocky, uneven, and/or strewn with visible tree roots or gravel. And wear proper shoes for hiking! We got treated to seeing about 25 turtles sunning themselves on 2 partially submerged logs in the lake at the bottom of one of the trails (See pictures of them in my photos)! Covered shelters, picnic tables, drinkable water fountains and port-a-potties throughout the trails and at the trailhead, so bring a picnic lunch if you like! P.S. bring toilet paper and seat covers because on a busy day the port-a-potties...

Great place for an easy to moderate hike or trail run. With a few different trails to choose from, and maps at every trail “intersection”, it’s easy to navigate as long as you stay on the main trails. Completing the full three loops is a combined ~7 mi route but it is also easy to do anything from a 20 min easy walk to an intense workout. This is a nature trail, not a paved trail, and includes both gravel and dirt sections. Much of it is easy to follow flat trails, but there is also a decent amount of ups and downs and narrow/steep inclines — aka it actually feels sort of like hiking, vs the typical extremely flat hikes that most of the DFW area offers. It reminds me of hiking in San Diego, just with lake instead of ocean next to me.

Note that pets are not allowed and that overall it is not stroller friendly, although you could definitely bring a stroller and kids here and just do the parts near the trail head and the center quarter mile loop and still get a good stroller workout in. There is a good bit of information near the trail head on different animals etc and it would be a great place to bring kids to get them engaged with nature even if they aren’t ready yet for...

Positives first -- lovely scenery, nice and peaceful, great opportunities for wildlife watching (we saw deer on both occasions, plenty of different birds, and this time we saw armadillos.) Portapotties are clean and smell actually quite nice (kiddo said they smelled like candy - lol!) We've done most of the trails at this point, and they're all quite manageable, even for younger kids (mine are 6 and 8). There were complaints near the end, but only because my suggestions for appropriate footwear weren't heeded. #momlife [shrug] As others have mentioned, trails need to be better marked at the forks. Also, the longer trails could use a potty somewhere. Finally, I see some people are completely put out by the "no dogs" rule. FWIW, I have a dog, he'd love to roam around here, he's well behaved, but he SURELY would scare off the deer, so I'm perfectly happy to leave his barking behind at home once in a while, if it means I can be up close to deer grazing peacefully...