City of Irving | Trail Guide

city of irving parks and recreation

Trail Guide

City of Irving Mission Statement

The City of Irving will respect, value and respond to the dynamic needs of our residents, businesses and visitors. Working in partnership with our community, Irving will become the city of choice as people elect to live, work and do business in our safe, healthy and vital neighborhoods.

Parks and Recreation Mission Statement

To continuously improve the community’s quality of life through excellence in customer service, creative recreational programs, innovative facility design, excellence in maintenance of parks and city beautification.

Helpful Numbers

Longest trail – Mountain Creek Preserve and Bird’s Fort Trail Park, both at 1.5 miles

Two canoe launches –T.W. Richardson Grove and Mountain Creek Preserve Shortest trail – Hurwitz and Rose Meadows parks, both at 1/4 mile Lively Park Jogging Trail is the only cinder trail in the city.

Campión Trails will be 22 miles long when completed. Trail Trivia

Area Map

Park Regulations

Trail hours are from 5 a.m. to midnight.

Leash law in effect at all parks.

Pick up pet litter.

No motorized vehicles allowed on trails.

No bicycles allowed on trails at Northwest and Lively parks.

Do not damage or remove any vegetation without Irving Parks and Recreation Department approval.

Trails may be closed for maintenance at various times.

Spring Trail Park along Campión Trails may be closed for equestrian events.

No swimming allowed in the Trinity River or various park ponds.

Bicycle Safety and Courtesy Information

Stay to the right except when passing.

Travel at posted speed in a consistent and predictable manner.

Always look ahead and behind for passing.

Pass slower traffic on their left; yield to oncoming traffic when passing.

Give verbal and clear warning signals before passing on left.

Keep all pets on a short leash.

Move off the trail when stopped to allow others to pass.

Yield to other users when entering and crossing the trail.

Use a light and reflectors after dusk and before dawn.

Use hand signals to tell others what you intend to do.

T.W. Richardson Grove

Keenan’s Crossing Trail Park

Spring Trail Park

Bird’s Fort Trail Park

California Crossing Park

Twin Wells Park

Mountain Creek Preserve

PARK LEGEND

Introduction

Campión Trails is a master-planned, 22-mile greenbelt along the Elm Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River. e master plan was approved in 1995 and the project was initiated in 1996. ere have been incremental expansions of the 12-footwide concrete primary trail each year.

ere are two segments of Campión Trails open to the public at this time. ere are five miles available in the Elm Fork section (north section) and two miles available in the West Fork section (south section). Residents approved $5 million in development funding for Campión Trails in the 1999 Bond Program. Plans are under way to extend the primary trail and expand the recreation opportunities available along Campión Trails.

Campión Trails is Irving’s initiative to develop a local greenbelt trail that will connect to the regional trail system linking all cities within the Metroplex.

Campión Trails

North Section – 4.65 miles

Campión Trails 1/4-mile marker

There are four different marker colors (pictured at right): red, yellow, blue and green. When you begin on a specific color, each time you pass that same color consecutively, you have traveled one mile. Example: You begin on a red marker. For each red marker you pass, you have traveled one mile.

1. Parking area.

2. Group pavilion with six tables.

3. Two small shelters with two tables and a cooking grill. One shelter is lighted.

4.

333 East Interstate 635

5.

Keenan’s Crossing Trail Park

East Interstate 635

In 1842, omas and Sarah Keenan settled this area as members of the Peters Colony. eir location, adjacent to the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, became known to travelers of the Bird’s Fort Trail as “Keenan’s Crossing.” is was due to the ease at which travelers could cross the river here, as well as a common point along the trail. After the death of their 2-monthold son in 1843, the Keenan’s established one of the earliest cemeteries in present day Dallas County. It’s very near the crossing in today’s Farmers Branch. en, using their log cabin, they also established the area’s first Baptist Church, Union Baptist, in 1846. Eventually Keenan’s Crossing would become the location of a bridge and road. e pilings of that first bridge are still visible today on the north side of Interstate 635 in the Trinity River.

1½-mile trail

5.

Spring Trail Park

Riverside

Drive

Bird’s Fort Trail Park

To protect new settlements in the Republic of Texas, General Edward Tarrant (namesake for Tarrant County) commissioned Major Jonathan Bird to construct a fort near Caddo Village on the West Fork of the Trinity River. e location of the new Fort Bird would be on Caloway Lake, a now privately owned lake in today’s Arlington, Texas. Upon completion of this new fort, Major Bird and his crew of 36 volunteers blazed a wagon trail back to the old Fort Inglish, creating the Bird’s Fort Trail. Fort Bird became the first official settlement in today’s Tarrant County.

General Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas, traveled the Bird’s Fort Trail in the summer of 1843 to Grape Vine Spring. ere his officers negotiated “a Treaty of Peace and Friendship” with 10 Native American Nations.

1½-mile trail

California Crossing Park

5198 Riverside Drive

In the middle and late 1800s, wagon trains carrying settlers and freight covered vast south-western landscapes that often resembled “seas of grass.” e most popular wagons, built in the Pennsylvania towns of Conestoga and Pittsburgh, featured expanses of raised canvas that contributed futher to the sea voyage metaphor.

On June 28, 1986, the Texas Sesquecentennial wagon train paid homage to those earlier travelers at this crossing on the Trinity River. at night, the train and its 1,000 men, women and children camped at Valley Ranch in Irving as the train neared the end of its 3,000mile journey. 1.

Twin Wells Park

1900 E. Shady Grove Road

e “Back Door”

Originating in Dallas, the Eagle Ford Trail crossed the West Fork of the Trinity River into Irving at a river ford near today’s Singleton Boulevard and Loop 12. In the 1800s, Eagle Ford received its name from an eagle’s nest found at that location. Later becoming Eagle Ford Road, with the completion of the West Dallas Viaduct (current day Continental Street viaduct), this former trail into Irving would become a well-known escape route for criminals and gangsters fleeing Dallas law enforcement during the Great Depression. e road became known to hoodlums as the “back door.” An original bridge piling at the river crossing can still be seen at the ford. Most notorious of the gangsters and criminals who used the “back door” was the Barrow Gang headed by Clyde Barrow and his lover, Bonnie Parker.

Mountain Creek Preserve

1000 E. Hunter Ferrell Road

Beginning in Dallas, the Eagle Ford Trail crossed the West Fork of the Trinity River at Eagle Ford, near today’s Singleton Boulevard and Loop 12. Settled by Enoch Horton in 1844, Eagle Ford was named for an eagle’s nest found at that location by the river. Later, Horton’s son, James, built a grist mill there.

e mill would become a natural rest point for travelers between Dallas and villages such as Kit, Shady Grove and Sowers. e mill would also attract farmers from far away villages such as Estelle, near present day DFW Airport. Continuing westward, the Eagle Ford Trail eventually connected to the Birdville Trail at the Dallas and Tarrant County lines.

C entennial Park

Cimarron Park

Mustang Park

Northwest Park

Running Bear Park

Delaware Creek at Senter Park

Victoria Park

PARK LEGEND

Centennial Park

Dedicated October 3, 2003, Centennial Park celebrates Irving’s first 100 years of existence. Visitors enter through the Arrival Plaza that houses statues of J. O. Schulze and Otis Brown, cofounders of Irving in 1903. At Founders Plaza, visitors can review the history wall that highlights significant milestones in the city’s history. South of Founders Plaza is a stone and steel picnic pavilion on the eastern shoreline of the lake. e pavilion is available for rentals and includes a tower with a 30-foot light spike that symbolizes Irving’s shining future.

When this trail is connected to the Delaware Creek/ Senter Park Trail, the length is 1.16 miles.

1. Parking area.

2. Large centennial pavilion with 10 tables.

3. Lighted concrete surface trail.

4. Portable restrooms.

5. Arrival plaza with founders statues.

6. Founders Plaza with sculpture and historical timeline wall.

7. Bennett’s dog-run cabin with historical storyboard.

8. Main lake spillway and trail crossing.

Total acreage: 18.34.

Cimarron Park

201 Red River Trail

Mustang Park

2201 Kinwest Parkway

3.

6. Playground area for all age groups.

7.

8.

1-mile trail

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

2800 Cheyenne St.

Running Bear Park

2601 S. Story Road 1-mile

6.

Delaware Creek at Senter Park

901 S. Senter Road

When this trail is connected to the Centennial Park trail, the length is 1.16 miles.

½-mile trail

1. Senter Park Recreation Center with restrooms.

2. Parking areas.

3.

4.

5. Playground area for 2-5 and 5-12 age groups.

6.

Victoria Park

3051 W. Northgate Drive

Champions Park

Hurwitz Park

Lively Park Jogging Trail

Nichols Park

North Lake Ranch Park

Rose Meadows Park

Sally B. Elliott Elementary School Park

Shady Grove Trail Park

Sunrise Park

Thomas Jefferson Park

Towne Lake Park

Wyche Park

PARK LEGEND

Champions Park

4.

5.

6.

Hurwitz Park

608 N. Nursery Road

Lively Park Jogging Trail

975 N. Blaylock Circle

1. Parking area. 2. Lighted cinder surface trail.

Portable restrooms. 4. Exercise station for trail users and a drinking fountain.

Total acreage: 11.12.

1-mile trail

¼-mile trail

Nichols Park

2310 E. Newton Circle

5.

North Lake Ranch Park

1317 Ranch Trail

“Grape Vine Spring Trail”

General Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas, traveled this trail to Grape Vine Spring Camp. ere Houston and his emissaries prepared to negotiate “e Treaty of Peace and Friendship,” which was concluded with the 10 Native American tribes at Bird’s Fort on September 29, 1843.

1. Parking area.

2. Shelter with three tables, a cooking grill and a drinking fountain.

3. Lighted concrete surface trail.

4. Fort-styled playground areas for 2-5 and 5-12 age groups with a drinking fountain.

5. Open play field.

⅔-mile trail

6. Historical storyboard monument.

7. Stone wall with raised star feature and flag pole.

Total acreage: 12.21.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Rose Meadows Park

Rose St.

Sally B. Elliott Elementary School Park

1900 S. Story Road

1. Shelter with four tables and a cooking grill.

2 Lighted concrete surface trail.

3. Playground areas for 2-5 and 5-12 age groups with a drinking fountain.

4. Two half-circle basketball courts.

5. Two play fields with backstops.

Total acreage: 5.30.

Note: Park is available after school, weekends and during the summer.

2.

Shady Grove Trail Park

799 W. Vilbig St.

Beginning in Dallas, the Eagle Ford Trail crossed the West Fork of the Trinity River at Eagle Ford, near today’s intersection of Singleton Blvd. and Loop 12. It continued west to the Dallas/Tarrant county line, where it connected with the Birdville Trail to Birdville and Fort Worth. is trail became known as the Shady Grove Trail after the community of Shady Grove was established in 1877.

8.

Sunrise Park

1809 E. Union Bower Road

1¼-mile trail

1.

2.

3.

Thomas Jefferson Park

1201 Hidden Ridge Drive

6. Playground areas for 2-5 and 5-12 age groups, a swing set and a drinking fountain.

7.

8.

Total acreage: 18.52.

Towne Lake Park

Wyche Park

2850 W. Pioneer Drive