The state’s longest trail is in North Texas. And it could soon become a state park

The 133-mile long Northeast Texas Trail is beloved by cyclists, runners and walkers, who say the trail is a slice of paradise and a rare gem. The trail, which is the longest in Texas, was developed through grant funding and is maintained largely by volunteers — which has meant that some sections are nearly impassable due to overgrown vegetation and collapsed bridges.

Under an early stages plan, the NETT could be transformed into a linear state park and added to the state parks system. And if the property is maintained by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, some trail users hope, that could mean a better-kept and more accessible trail.

Trail users who spoke to the Star-Telegram were primarily excited about the possibility, both for the potential improvements and for the potential economic benefits to the municipalities that the NETT runs through.

Marlys Armstrong, a cyclist and organizer of the group Dallas Pedals & Pints, said she rarely rides on the NETT because of the haphazard maintenance. But if the trail became a state park, she thinks it could become “a draw from around the country.”

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It’s not clear how likely it is that the NETT will be added to the state parks system. Right now, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is commissioning a feasibility study to evaluate the legal and logistic requirements. The process is slightly different from other state park formations, because the NETT is already a functioning trail owned by a grouping of five cities, two nonprofit organizations and one county. Each entity owns and operates a section of the trail, which was constructed on out-of-use railroad tracks.

Because of that setup, the Parks and Wildlife Department wouldn’t have to deal with some of the thorny problems of acquiring future park land from a private owner — meaning this wouldn’t be a repeat of the department’s ill-fated attempt to acquire Fairfield Lake State Park from a private developer. But there are still a lot of other details that the department would have to sort out before the trail could become a park.

Cyclists and other trail users are hopeful.

“My bottom line is: this is something that is a good thing for the region both for health, community and finances,” Armstrong said.

An early-stages plan

The NETT’s western trail head is in the small city of Farmersville, in Collin County.

The city owns the first 13 miles of the trail and has worked to develop the section, Mayor Bryon Wiebold said, including by paving the first five miles.

The trail is the city’s “number one attraction,” Wiebold said, and the community as a whole is “very pro-trail.”

From Farmersville, the trail runs eastward through a string of municipalities and counties and ends in the city of New Boston, about 20 miles from Texarkana.

The trail gets rougher the farther east you go, users say. And while there are other paved sections, including near the city of Paris, the trail at times runs over worn-out bridges and through dense vegetation. Some sections of the trail are prone to becoming giant mud puddles, which can make it difficult — or dangerous — to navigate.

Kelly Whitley, the president of the NorthEast Texas Trail Coalition, said that organization members and other users have hoped for years that the trail would be picked up the Parks and Wildlife Department. While the coalition and its partners have done the work of developing the trail, she said, maintenance is a different beast. And it’s a beast that often isn’t accounted for in the grant funding that’s been used to develop the trail so far.

“We may not have a lot of money, but we’ve got all the passion,” Whitley said. “We want to see this thing through.”

Wiebold — who also sits on the NorthEast Texas Trail Coalition board as the Farmersville representative — said he hasn’t yet formed an opinion on the linear state park idea. He isn’t opposed to it, he said, but he still has a lot of questions, including logistics like whether the Parks and Wildlife Department would charge a fee to enter the trail.

“Our question is, ‘How is all that going to work out?’” Wiebold said. “We’re not against it, we just don’t know what it is at the moment. So we do need some questions answered.”

JJ Fleury — the director of Texas State Parks’ planning and geospatial resources program — said it’s too early to say when the department will decide how to move forward on the NETT. The feasibility study will bring more answers; the department has aimed for that study to be completed by the end of April, although the deadline may be extended.

Fleury said the department is “pretty excited for that study to come out and see the potential for the NETT.”

A ‘little paradise’

For cyclists such as Armstrong, the NETT’s overhaul into a state park would mean Texas’ longest trail would become “a real cycling trail,” one that’s long enough for a true bike-packing trip. It would fill a gap in the region, she said.

There also aren’t many state parks near the Metroplex, which the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is hoping to address in part through the opening of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, halfway between Fort Worth and Abilene. That park was originally scheduled to open in 2023, but has been delayed.

The NETT could be another point of access to the outdoors for North Texans, particularly if the trail was more accessible to a variety of users. And for the communities that the NETT already runs through, that added traffic could mean money-making opportunities.

Whitley, the NorthEast Texas Trail Coalition president, said a revamped trail could help replace some of the revenue that the small cities lost when the railroad went out. That could take the form of all kinds of amenities for overnight cyclists and other trail users, Whitley said, including short-term rentals, convenience stores and grocery stores.

“I think the opportunities for these little towns is only limited by their imagination,” she said.

Although Whitley said the coalition has heard very few complaints or concerns about the potential for a linear state park, some trail users did mention rumblings of privacy and safety concerns.

Zina Townley’s property runs along the trail in the community of Ben Franklin, about 40 miles northeast of the Metroplex. Townley said she has some worries about what a more trafficked trail would mean, and whether people might venture from the trail onto her property.

But for her, those concerns are outweighed by her desire to share the trail with more people.

“I do have concerns about that sort of thing. I also really enjoy the thought, as a human being … of sharing this little paradise I have with other people,” Townley said. “I love this little place we’ve chosen to call home.”