Atlanta State Park, TX
Atlanta State Park is a bit southwest of Texarkana in northeast Texas. As with many of Texas state parks it is on a lake in the woods. But as with all of them, it has it's own “feel” and special environment. We stayed at Atlanta State Park as an overnight in December 2022. We arrived in a rain storm. I plugged in real quick and we waited out the storm. The park was almost empty because we were there just before they were closing for a couple days to set up for a Christmas light celebration. I was very happy with the timing. I enjoy staying in places with almost empty campgrounds. I could tell the park usually had a lot of visitors, especially in the summer. It looked well used, not abandoned or neglected. Within comfortable walking distance of our camping loop, there was a swimming area on the lake with a big grassy field. I didn't walk down to the actual swimming area, the hill was rather steep. Kids would have a great time with it though. I spent time on a lovely floating fishing dock watching the storm clouds over the lake. I could have spent much longer on the dock, but I wanted to see more. The hiking trails were not near the campground loop we were staying on, but I found an old road to hike that went alongside the lake. The lake had washed out big parts of it, which is why it was an old road. It was really peaceful to walk on. I found sunset on another camping loop that overlooked the lake. I didn't want to leave it. I enjoyed the walk back along the road. I had to work to pay attention to where I was walking, The trees were so beautiful and created many different shapes. I really enjoyed this state park and look forward to returning.