Lauren Ducommun

This week for Field Trip Friday, we drove up to Cedar Hill to visit Cedar Hill State Park for the first time. We heard they had a beach on Joe Pool Lake, but couldn’t find much information about it, so we decided to check it out!

As we exited the freeway, we were surprised to see rain drops appear on our windshield. And soon after pulling into Cedar Hill State Park we saw lightning and heard thunder. Thankfully, the park is quite big so we decided to go explore it for a bit. We stopped by the front office to borrow a Junior Ranger Explorer Pack and pick up some Junior Ranger Activity Journal.

At the time, there were only two trails open, possibly due to the weather, so we took a scenic drive to the Penn Farm Agricultural History Center. I brought my daughter’s bike, and the gravel trail there was perfect for her — this was her first time riding away from home.

The walk to the farmhouse was quick and shaded and reminded us a lot of the ranch we live on, as it has similar farm equipment and barns. So while I appreciate the history it is paying tribute to, I probably wouldn’t drive up here just to see it.

The lightning began to pick up, so we hopped back into the car and kept on driving to the Perch Pond. It had a cute little boardwalk around what I assumed is a small fishing and birdwatching pond.

At last, some blue skies peeked out from behind some clouds, so we made our way to the swimming area at Cedar Hill State Park. Online it said it was closed in 2022, so I think they must have done some recent renovations. The kids were thrilled as the lake was calm and had a gravel bottom — they said the beach across the road was a mud bottom. A lovely playground and lots of shaded picnic areas surrounding the beach.

After swimming, we walked across the road to the restrooms. It was quite humid inside, and the only showers were a few beach showers located outside the building — and most of them were out of commission. So it wasn’t a great place to shower off before getting back into the car, but we were able to dry off and clean off our shoes.

The kids completed their Junior Ranger Activity Journals and we made our way back to the main office to return the backpack and for the kids to get their Junior Ranger pins. They have the generic level ones for free, but they also had a Cedar Hill State Park Junior Ranger badge available in their shop.

Overall, my son gave this lake a 7/10 rating, and the beach is a great place in the DFW area to beat the heat!