Horseshoe Trail at Lake Grapevine

I think it was Steven Y.‘s review, on the «Recent Activity» feed, that caught my eye. I’m into walking these days, and this was relatively close to home. I’ve been looking for someplace new, hopefully with less noise from traffic. Well I think I found it, but it’s still (partially) under water. I cannot believe the lake is still this high. The trail, which should be quite long, is chopped into piece by high water. Here’s how my day played out. It was a lot of fun. Great day for a walk.
First, the Unilocal map did not look right, so I did some research. Bad research as it turns out. The City of Grapevine page for the park (
) gave the address for the park as «2099 Hood Lane.» There is a small parking area at that address, with trail access, but there are no amenities. At the Dove address there is more parking, a drinking fountain and bike tools (see photo). I did not know this until later.
I started my walk at Hood Lane address, and all that’s there is a parking lot, about 100 yards from a trail. I get on the trail, and to the east it is under water and impassable. So I start walking west, along a wide paved trail. I see a sign for a hiking trail pointing into the woods and off the pavement. I follow it. Very nice. Marked path for hikers and mountain bikers.
So after a couple miles I end up at Dove Road. Since I popped out of the woods, I (somehow) completely missed the parking lot (it was early, no cars?), the drinking fountain and the bike tools (see photo). What I didn’t know is that this was the main parking area.
I decide to walk east on Dove to see if I can pick up the trail. I don’t. I should have gone west. Heading east, I walk to the Gaylord, turn around, and walk back. I walk on past Hood Lane, which is where I’m parked. I go back to the Dove address and now there is a lot of activity. Now this looks like the right spot, and where we will start next time, when the full trail is open.
I never did make it to Oak Grove Park, which was my intended destination. Though thinking back, I’ll bet that was the road, and sidewalk, that was blocked with barriers saying «closed.»
Here are a few URLs which I used for research:
Official:

Better info about the trail:

Oak Grove Park info:

Bottom line: Great multi-​use area. I plan to walk, and ride, here again.

Went out to Horseshoe trail today for a walk in the beautiful sun and nice temperatures. Hiked both the paved trail and tried to work my way back on the dirt trails, but the water levels from Lake Grapevine are still high enough that both the main trail and many of the smaller trails are blocked by high water.
The main trail is a paved path through the woods, it is a great place to go for a walk, take the family on a bike ride, or just get out and enjoy some fresh air. The dirt paths are great mountain biking trails, with lots of turns to try and maximize the trail length in the available land space.
This is a nice trail that is close to the urban area but helps you feel like you are connecting with the outdoors.

Not too bad.

My husband and I have no idea what we are doing when it comes to hiking, but we wanted to go look around at the lake and see the changing leaves before they all hit the ground.
Horeshoe Trail is paved, but there are side excursions that take you up and down hills, through trees, and into nature. The paths are marked, but it can be confusing if you are hiking rather than biking — lots of biking signs, not as many hiking. There were a couple of times we ended up on a path that was definitely meant just for bikers — fortunately none were out, otherwise we would have had a traffic jam in those narrow pathways.
The first side route won’t take you along the lake, you’ll have to go further down the paved road to find trails with a lake view. In all, it was totally manageable for novices like us and really pretty. The few people we did come across were all friendly and it made for a nice little date, with some exercise thrown in for good measure!