Field Report No. 23 · Family trip
Mineral Wells Texas, USA
Twenty minutes from the house: a state-park overnight that proves the kids don't need a passport to have the best night of the month.
Field Report
No. 23
Family trip
Mineral Wells Texas, USA
Worth knowing about.
- Coordinates
- 32.8144° N, 98.0503° W
- Traveled
- June 2024
- Kid-readiness
- As easy as it gets: a drive-up campsite, a grill, a tent, and a lake the kids can walk to.
- Where we stayed
- A tent at our own campsite in the state park.
- The non-negotiable
- One night in the tent. The girls talk about it for weeks.
- What we'd skip
- Don't overthink the gear. A dome tent, a cooler, and a bag of charcoal is the whole trip.
- Best season
- Spring or fall. June works if you're at the water by mid-morning and back for the shade by afternoon.
- Points & hacking
- No points, no flights, no airport. That's the entire point.
32.8144° N, 98.0503° W
We plan trips across three continents, and the one the girls beg to repeat is the one twenty minutes from our front door. Mineral Wells State Park is a tent, a grill, and a lake, and somehow that’s enough to run circles around a plane ticket.
You don’t need a passport for the best night of the month. You need a dome tent and a bag of charcoal.
The day we’d tell you to copy
Set the tent up early while there’s still shade (the oaks do most of the work), then get to the water before the June sun means business. The girls swam and worked the dock until they were done, which is the honest measure of a good day at Lake Mineral Wells. Late afternoon we walked Penitentiary Hollow, the little maze of rock where the trail slips between boulders taller than the kids. It’s the closest thing to real climbing you’ll find this near Fort Worth, and it turns a kid into a mountain goat for an afternoon.
Dinner is the whole thing
The best part of the day is the grill. We cook over the campsite fire ring (nothing fancy, just meat and corn and a fire the girls get to help build) and eat it at the picnic table while it’s still light. That’s the meal they remember. Not a restaurant. A paper plate at a state park with dirt on their feet.
The honest caveat: this is a public park, so a June weekend books up and the good sites go first. Reserve ahead, get there early enough to claim your shade, and don’t expect quiet. Expect kids. Which, on this trip, is the point.
