Dinosaur Valley State Park
Trails: Cedar Brake Outer Loop, Paluxy River Trail, Rocky Ridge Trail, Buckeye Trail, Denio Trail, Black-capped Vireo Trail, & Limestone Ledge Trail
Last hiked November 11-13, 2022
About Dinosaur Valley State Park
Dinosaur Valley State Park is 1,525 acres of hilly, limestone terrain crossing the Paluxy River and several interesting ecoregions. There is a lot to do at this park, but of course we came to conquer several of the 12 different hiking trails that offer more than 20 miles of differing landscapes, overlooks, quiet backcountry river offshoots and interesting rock features. The main attraction at this park is the incredibly well-preserved dinosaur tracks, and we certainly encountered many of those. We camped in site #15 at the campground, which was a nice spot right on the Paluxy River and gave us immediate access to the Paluxy River Trail, where we started our weekend hiking on Saturday morning.
Saturday Hike: Paluxy River Trail, partial Cedar Brake Loop, partial Rocky Ridge Trail, Buckeye Trail, partial Denio Trail, upper Limestone Ledge Trail
Trail Type: Multiuse – Hiking, Biking, Equestrian, depending on trail
Distance We Hiked: 6.67 miles
Amount of Time it Took Us: 2 hrs. 42 mins.
Our Elevation Gain: 553 ft.
Park Rating: moderate to challenging
Mike & Elaine’s Rating: easy to moderate, partial challenging
Our Notes:
The trails in Dinosaur Valley State Park crisscross each other, and in order to fully complete each one you would need to double-back over some trails. We decided not to concern ourselves with necessarily fully completing each trail, but wanted to get a taste of as many of them as we could. We started on Saturday morning from our campsite, climbing down a hillside to the Paluxy River and following the Paluxy River Trail a little way down until there was an area to cross to the other side. As we made our way to the crossing, we came across the Denio track site, which contained really great impressions of Theropod and Metatarsal tracks. It is amazing that these are so well persevered, and they are everywhere!
After crossing the river we took the Cedar Brake Loop, which actually is the outer loop for the entire park (7.5 miles in total), a short way to the Rocky Ridge Trail, where we climbed a bit to an overlook area and had a wonderful view of the Paluxy River below and a great deal of the park in the distance. From there we backtracked a bit and took the Buckeye Trail, which follows Buckeye creek and has some lovely little waterfalls and pools with very clear water. The end of the Buckeye Trail puts you back on the Cedar Brake Loop, which we took for a bit until we hopped on the Denio Trail. In this area you pass some great backcountry camping sites along Denio Creek. We followed this trail to Limestone Ledge and took the upper portion of this trail to get some more amazing views from above of the park and the Paluxy River below. This part of the trail is a bit more challenging with rocky limestone terrain and bigger elevation changes. As we came down off of this trail we came around to the other side of the park where we could cross the river again on huge boulders in the river, and also the site of more dinosaur tracks. This area was more crowded with people and seems to be the “touristy” spot to hang out and enjoy the tracks and the views. From there we got back on the Paluxy River Trail and followed it back to our campsite.
We enjoyed the trail and the day. These trails gave us good elevation change and a lot of beautiful landscape to enjoy.
Sunday Hike – partial Cedar Brake Loop, Black-capped Vireo Trail, lower Limestone Ledge Trail
Trail Type: Multiuse – Hiking, Biking, Equestrian, depending on trail
Distance We Hiked: 4.47 miles
Amount of Time it Took Us: 1 hr. 53 mins.
Our Elevation Gain: 339 ft.
Park Rating: moderate to challenging
Mike & Elaine’s Rating: easy to moderate
Our Notes:
After packing up our campsite, we drove over to the Main Track Site parking lot and began our hike for the day by crossing back over the boulders in the Paluxy River we had crossed the previous day to access the Cedar Brake Outer Loop. We headed south on the trail and about a half-mile of this portion of the hike was flat and through a prairie grass area. After that we had a bit of a climb up to an area that was covered in cactus – they were everywhere! We continued on for another half-mile and then decided to take the Black-capped Vireo trail, a windy trial through shrubby woodlands. It was quiet and peaceful here. This 2.7-mile trail put us back at the Limestone Ledge Trail, and since we had taken the upper portion of it the previous day, we decided to take the lower portion this time. It did not disappoint as it followed the Paluxy River and had beautiful views of some rock formations and cliff-looking areas that almost looked cave-like. This looped us back around to the Main Track Site, where we had started.
We really enjoyed our weekend at Dinosaur Valley State Park and would recommend a visit there. The dinosaur tracks are amazing to see, and obviously the main reason the park gets so many visitors, but the camping and hiking are pretty great too. There are just so many trails to choose from of varying degrees and levels. We didn’t get the chance to complete all of them, and there are definitely some easier options for those just wanting an easy walk in a pretty landscape. But if you plan to visit this park to camp, you’ll need to make reservations well in advance as it fills up quickly. It is well worth it!
Links to the park and trails below:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/dinosaur-valley
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/park_maps/pwd_mp_p4503_0094s.pdf