Lake Whitney State Park is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

located in Hill County, Texas, near Whitney, Texas. The park is .

History

Lake Whitney was created in 1951 when the United States Army Corps of Engineers constructed a dam on the

Brazos River The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Dr ...

in order to prevent flooding in downstream communities such as Waco. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department leased 775-acres along the east shore of Lake Whitney for Lake Whitney State Park from the United States Department of the Army in 1954. The park opened in 1965. Sunset Lake Whitney Texas 2024

Recreation

The park has facilities for fishing, swimming,

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

, water skiing,

nature study The nature study movement (alternatively, Nature Study or nature-study) was a popular education movement that originated in the United States and spread throughout the English-speaking world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nature study ...

, bird watching, and geocaching. There are of trails in the park that can be used for hiking and cycling. The

park ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a law enforcement person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks. Description "Parks" may be broadly defined by some systems in thi ...

s lead nature programs throughout the year. Overnight camping facilities include

tent A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using gu ...

and

recreational vehicle A recreational vehicle, often abbreviated as RV, is a motor vehicle or trailer that includes living quarters designed for accommodation. Types of RVs include motorhomes, campervans, coaches, caravans (also known as travel trailers and camper ...

sites and screened shelters. The recreational vehicle sites have water, electricity and sewage hookups available.

Nature

Animals

Wildlife includes white-tailed deer, raccoons, squirrels,

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

es,

coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

s, and

bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the red lynx, is a medium-sized cat native to North America. It ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUC ...

s. The park hosts nearly 200 species of birds. Some of the common birds are

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

American white pelican The American white pelican (''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos'') is a large aquatic soaring bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America and South America, in winte ...

roadrunners The roadrunners (genus ''Geococcyx''), also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, us ...

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

s and little blue herons.

Flora

The park lies on the Washita Prairie, and features both grasslands and woodlands. Some trees species are

netleaf hackberry ''Celtis reticulata'', with common names including netleaf hackberry, western hackberry, Douglas hackberry,DeBolt, Ann M. (2002"''Celtis reticulata'' Torr. netleaf hackberry"United States Forest Service netleaf sugar hackberry, palo blanco, and ...

cedar elm ''Ulmus crassifolia'' Nutt., the Texas cedar elm or simply cedar elm, is a deciduous tree native to south-central North America, mainly in southern and eastern Texas, southern Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, with small populations in western M ...

, post oak, and plateau live oak.

References

External links

Official Site
State parks of Texas Protected areas of Hill County, Texas Protected areas established in 1965 1965 establishments in Texas {{Texas-protected-area-stub