Strawn, Texas, opens into Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, where the park’s centerpiece is Tucker Lake. Texas established its relatively new Palo Pinto Mountains State Park in 2011. Clear spring water feeds the 90-acre Tucker Lake surrounded by white sand beaches and a diversity of wildlife and flora, and live oak, mesquite, cedar elms, and native pecan tree stands blanketing green hills.
In 2023, Texas Outside first reported on the Palo Pinto Mountains State Park opening. The date to open the park has been extended to summer 2025 after original soft opening dates in 2023, and again in 2024. Curiosity is killing the residential cats in this region.
Those who want to know keep trying to crash the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) construction barriers. By 2023, it was evident to TPWD officials that the park’s layout still contained unsafe access to certain areas, and other areas, like the main road, remained under construction.
Is Tucker Lake Open for Recreation?
Only part of Tucker Lake is actually in Palo Pinto Mountains State Park. The state park flanks Tucker Lake’s eastern shoreline. The Lake Tucker Dam on Russell Creek impounds Tucker Lake. Once completed, this beautiful park will offer boating, camping, fishing, hiking, and other recreational outdoor activities.
As of 2024, Tucker Lake is open for boating, watersports, and fishing by pole and line only. Only boats with electric motors are allowed on the 90-acre Tucker Lake. Vessels 16 feet and longer must have one Type IV throwable personal floatation device (PFD) besides the required Type I, II, III, or V life jacket for each person on board.
Boating and Floating on Tucker Lake
Along with motorboats, boats without motors, like canoes, kayaks, rowboats, and rubber rafts, must use a bright light between sunset and sunrise. PWCs (personal watercraft) cannot be operated from sunset to sunrise. PWCs must maintain a 50-foot distance from other PWCs, vessels, people, shore, and stationary platforms or objects unless operating at idle speed.
Currently, Tucker Lake fishing access points are located on Tucker Lake, Russell Creek, and Palo Pinto Creek. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built Strawn Lake in 1937. Its name changed to Tucker Lake in honor of a local mayor.
Tucker Lake and Palo Pinto Mountains State Park
Palo Pinto Mountains State Park covers 4,871 acres of former ranch land. In May 2024, Superintendent James Adams reported to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he, “…imagines bandits on horseback chasing after a train like in an old Western movie. This place, so much of it is the Wild West still…like the Hill Country, but in North Texas.”
When Tucker Lake Is Finally Part of the Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, Regulations Will Change
Motorboats will not be allowed on Tucker Lake to protect the park’s tranquility when the park opens. Campsites will feature RV sites, walk-in tent sites, and primitive camping areas. Picnic areas and playgrounds will accommodate small and large groups. TPWD built an extensive network of multi-use trails for hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders.
Park trails lead to remote areas of the park with expansive vistas. The TPWD designed as much of the park as possible to meet ADA standards. Walkways offer views at scenic overlooks and meander down to Tucker Lake’s shore.
JJ Fleury, the director of Texas State Parks’ planning and geospatial resources program, also reported to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in May 2024 that the park’s development focused in a more confined area as a heavy front-country development and left a light footprint on the backcountry portion of the park.
The TPWD has historically stocked Tucker Lake with largemouth bass, channel catfish, and in 1974, northern pike. Fishing is by pole and line only. Anglers cannot fish with more than two poles. When the state park opens, anglers can fish without a license, which all Texas State Parks allow.
Where in Texas is Tucker Lake?
Currently, visitors can access Tucker Lake, Russell Creek, and Palo Pinto Creek from FM 2372. In Strawn, Texas, Garnett Avenue/SH 16 runs north to south. From Garnett Avenue, go west on Walnut Street, which becomes FM 2372 after leaving the City of Strawn proper.
The major thoroughfares to access Strawn are I-20 on Strawn’s south, between Mingus and Ranger, Texas, U.S. 180 running east and west on Strawn’s north at Metcalf Gap and its intersection with SH 16. The TPWD expects to host considerable amounts of visitors from Fort Worth and the DFW metroplex to the tune of 10,000 annually at Palo Pinto Mountains State Park.
It is an 83-mile trip from Downtown Fort Worth to Tucker Lake and 75-miles east of Abilene, which makes a day trip doable. When the Palo Pinto Mountains State Park opens, multi-day getaways will become the norm for visitors. Strawn residents are anxiously awaiting this opening and have been since 2008.
The Nature Conservancy issued a press release, which included:
“The history of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park in Texas began in 2008 when Will Copeland transferred over 1,000 acres of ranch land to Kevin Parsons’ father as part of a wrongful death settlement. The Nature Conservancy then purchased the land and other nearby tracts on behalf of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). In 2011, TPWD bought the first 3,000 acres of the property using funds from the sale of land on Eagle Mountain Lake in Fort Worth.”
The Nature Conservancy
And so began the journey to develop Texas’s second newest state park, its Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, established in 2011. The TPWD established its newest state park, the Old Tunnel State Park in Kendall County in 2012.
Author: Kendall Davis
Author: Kendall Davis Company: Lumini Services Kendall currently lives on the shores of Lake Texoma in Texas. She traveled across two-thirds of the U.S. for many years camping at lakes, rivers, and three oceans before motels and hotels if at all possible, and she continuously saw God's presence in nature. Writing for Lakehub allows Kendall to share her experience with God's creations. https://kdavis1836.wixsite.com/luminiwrites
