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.
