1570 West FM 1382, Cedar Hill, TX (18 mi. from downtown Dallas)
972-291-3900, Cust serv: 512-389-8900, Website
Site 124, Loop H
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| Woods and lake 20 min. from downtown |
Upfront, this park is overrun by invasive Argentina ants. They are small, an eighth of an inch, and seemed pretty harmless, although Texas Parks and Wildlife warns they could mess with your electrical system. TPW is upfront about them and gives guidance how to protect you and your vehicles.
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| Not this kind of ant |
The ant hordes are for real! We brought along insecticide. Mab sprayed down all contact points with the ground (wheels, jacks, connections and the undercarriage). She did this a couple of times. So we did everything TPW said to do. Yet by evening, we were overrun. It turns out the heavy afternoon rainshower had washed the bug spray off of the water hose and electrical hookup (we were preoccupied with a different drama: a broken skylight cover leaking) and the ants seized their opportunity.
Exhausted, we kept it together for the night. Once we left, a day of spraying knocked out 99 percent of them. So, whew, it was a happy ending.
Lesson learned: take the warnings seriously (we did) and remember to respray after rainstorms. TPW ought to plainly state that. Writing the letter now.
Still here? Here is the rest of my writeup, pre-ant:
The first stop on our trip.
We got out hours before Hurricane Laura: one of its rain bands had already reached up to us from 400 miles away. A few hours later, we pulled into Cedar Hills Park on another Texas scorcher, 110° heat index. Just being in a state park at least puts your mind in a cooler state. True to the name, lush cedar trees are everywhere, one of my favorites. Red and gold sunsets over the lake were visible from our trailer. Also Jupiter passing above the moon. There are five hiking trails here, of all skill levels. One is an easy two-thirds of a mile, described as family-friendly, that I never got to check out. Busy guy.
Site 124, Loop H, is an ADA site 50 feet deep, level concrete, and plenty wide for clearance all around. Electric, water. Dump station in the park. Verizon and T-Mobile good signals. At the back, privacy and a covered picnic table that's wheelchair accessible. Fire pit. Lots of space between sites. Steep drop-offs from one side of the pad. At the front, a crack across one side of the pad could be a problem for some wheelchairs, and same for a slight lip where the pad joins the trail road. Bathrooms and showers right next door.
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| Mab's hikes campgroup |
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| Lakeshore (inaccessible) |
Throughout this trip I kept thinking about my grandparents. I was seeing things they never did. As refugees they saw plenty of Europe, but mostly stayed put where they settled in the American Midwest. One of my grandfathers visited the Pacific Northwest. Decades later we bought him a monkey puzzle tree like he saw there, and he planted it in Michigan. My grandmother went with us on a fantastic roadtrip to Arizona. But most likely they didn't see any of what I was seeing. I look through their eyes, and they see through mine. I have their DNA after all, and some of their inherited consciousness and sensibility. It's their grit and vision that got me here, after all. So I am seeing for them, with them. I like it that way better. We all would enjoy this trip.
Nearby flight museum crammed with planes, Frontiers of Flight
and messylicious vegan eats, Spiral Diner
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