Cedar Hill State Park turn out to be a great place to go for a day hike, however, they seem to have…read moremany campsites available as well if that is what you were looking for. Driving up to the ranger booth, there was a lot of room to weights similar to national parks where multiple lines could form to get into the park.
It was easy to pay the admission fee and we were given a park map that showed us what hikes were available and where they were. On there, they also had annotations on what amenities were available, including a former homestead that they had preserved.
We ended up hiking the Talala Trail, which was a little over 2 miles. There wasn't much parking available at the trailhead, about 8 to 10 parking spaces available. This particular trail gradually went down towards the lake and back up as a loop but there is no water access when we went, the leaves still had it formed on the trees and shrubs, so there was clear visibility to which direction we were going I would imagine that there would be a bit more shade during the summer months, though the shrubs didn't seem like they were very tall.
We thought the views from the Talala Trail were okay, but the views from the day use areas were better. One picnic area seemed to have lake access but we couldn't be sure how shallow or deep the water was up against the shore since we didn't try to go in.
We did see that they had three mountain biking trails and we saw many mountain bikers in the area. They also had some fishing docks along the lake. Unfortunately, though, all the water fountains were turned off when we were there so we weren't able to refill our water bottles.
We did check out their gift shop, which wasn't very big, but they still had a decent selection of gifts to purchase. As with any other Texas State park, they have their own park stamp just like the national parks passport program which I personally enjoy collecting.
All in all, we enjoyed our time here and we were able to get a good hike. This park is situated in a hilly area of the DFW metroplex which allows for scenic views and more variation to trail options.