To get there from Temple, take I-35 south to the Hwy 190 exit toward Killeen. You'll exit Hwy 190 at Simmons Road - Stillhouse Hollow Park. This is two exits past the exit for Stillhouse Hollow Dam. Turn left at the stop and go under the highway, then take the first road to the right, which is FM2410. Take this all the way to the outskirts of Harker Heights, where you'll see a brown sign for Dana Peak Park at Comanche Gap Road. Turn left and follow that road all the way in. If you go ALL the way, you'll actually enter the park and have to pay a fee. To avoid that, park in the dirt on the 90 degree bend in the road (the road curves right, park straight ahead by the gate). Start your ride from here, there are a lot of options.The obvious first choice to begin your ride is up over the little mounds to the left of the gate. There's a road (what we'd call a 'fire road' in California) that goes almost all the way down to the water. Several trails branch off of this road. Immediately, one goes to the right and will take you on a fun little jaunt around the hill and back to the road. It's a doubletrack that narrows down to singletrack, and then widens out into a road of sorts. Take this almost to the end, and turn left on the trail, marked by a little wooden marker (the trail is in the grass and easy to miss). This winds around and comes back out on that road. Turn right on the road and go back up a short way until the next marker, where you'll turn right onto another singletrack. This fun little ride (2 nice little jumps!) will bring you out back at the main road that leads to your vehicle.
If you go straight on the road after passing through the gate, you'll climb a short way, then take the first trail to the left (the above trail comes out below this point, toward the lake)... or you can continue down the road, taking either the above mentioned trail to the right, or farther down, where you can go either left or right. Going left at the first trail will take you on a very fun loop before bringing you back out at the end of the road. If you take the trail left, following the fence instead of going straight toward the lake, you'll make an even bigger loop and make it back to the most difficult part of the park, "the stairs", I heard it called.
This is NOT difficult riding overall!! At least not what I'm used to by California standards. But it IS outrageously fun... much more fun than anyone should have while trying to escape work or in-laws. ;)
Just wanted to make that statement before continuing. There's no way you can get lost back in there. Keep riding... when you find an interesting trail, take it! They all eventually come back out at the same place. This trail will finally bring you back to the end of the road, past the fence. If you cross the road and continue straight ahead on the singletrack, you'll do yet another loop, which will again bring you out just higher on the road. I think... straight across from where the trail comes out (you may have to turn right and go back down the road)... is the singletrack where you came out earlier, that will take you around on the loop that comes out on the first lefthand turn from the road as you started out.
The best thing to do is to go out and explore. There's nothing really hard about the riding here - it's fast and fun. Follow the little green turtle markers. There is one gnarly climb (at "the stairs") but don't sweat the small stuff, the rest is a blast. ;) I found that my heart rate was up WAY higher than it gets in California, and I think the reason is that I was going SO fast for SO long, SO consistently. Because I was ABLE to! In California, the riding is basically climb a mountain on a fire road, come straight down the mountain on singletrack. :) So you pace yourself climbing the mountain so you're not so wiped out you can't hang on for the downhill. Here, it's basically flat, the riding gets a bit more technical with the rocks, and there's a lot of twists and turns and trees to keep it interesting. I can see that what I'm going to lose in the strength, I'm going to gain in technical riding skills.
I can't believe what a GREAT time I had when I rode out there! That's when I found the trail to the right after you pass the gate. And I found it after I went down the road a little farther, and found a trail off to the right. You can see down into the trees where it crosses a wooden bridge. This trail isn't very long - it comes out at the road again, up where you drove in from - but it's very twisty with a lot of close trees and stumps right on the edge of the trail, and mucho fun. :) Get out and RIDE! Even though there isn't a lot of area, there's a great network of trails, and I actually got in 10 miles of riding in the short time I was there. Happy riding!
There was quite a bit of flooding this spring, and much of the park was underwater - and closed for a while. The Trailblazers got together on Saturday, October 18th for a trail work day. LOTS of people showed up - I was surprised! We got a lot cleared, and it is indeed *happy* riding now. :)
My preferred route (which makes more sense with a map) is to start before you get to the bend in the road and the gate (secrets of the natives :)). If you park at the first wide space to the side of the road after you enter the park, you'll go across a cable, and the start the trail to the left. This is just an ultra-twisty, fun warm-up. You'll come out of the trees the first time... stay left with the trail. When you get to another cable and the road again, turn right on the wide trail (it's rocky), and look for another trail to the left. You're still twisting, but basically, these two sections of singletrack parallel the road. You'll go over a wooden bridge and pop up onto the road, just after the bend - look left, you'll see the parking area at the gate mentioned above.
A couple of options from here... Either go almost straight across the road and up the trail, then to the right, or go to the gate and take the trail to the right, or go over the humps past the gate and to the right, or go right on the road, and look for the wide trail to the left. Or bypass these and just hit the fire road on the other side of the gate and go up. But this is my route. :)
Take the trail around the little dome hill (there is a trail that goes up and around the backside of it...). You'll be on a doubletrack - follow it around the curve to the left, even though a trail appears to go straight. You'll eventually make a curve down and to the right, and have a straight run until a drop and curve to the left onto a wide "road". Go past the first trail marker to the 2nd trail marker for a fast little "dogleg trail" to test your cornering skills. Ross says the first time he raced the timer, he clocked 27 seconds. I couldn't beat 30. When you come back out on the "road", turn right and go back up to the 1st trail marker. This is the "Camelback" or "Double jumps/humps" trail, so named because of the (help me out here...) double jumps. :) They aren't, however, right in a row; there's a fair amount of trail between them.
At the end of this trail, you will come out at the main "fire road", the one that starts at the bend-o-da-road, and the gate. Follow it out to the left, continuing up the road. Watch to your right, though, because another trail, unmarked, goes off within several feet. Take this - it just parallels the road. Who wants to ride fire road when there's singletrack to be ridden?? It will take you to the start of the "fenceline" trail, so named because it (help me out again...) runs parallel to a fence for most of its existence. :) Hang a right, and let it all hang out as you bomb down the doubletrack that greets you.
I just rode this several times this weekend, and now I can't remember if the fence corner comes first, or the right-veer. :P Heh, but I have a map. Uh, somewhere. Hmm... maybe that was the copy I gave away to be scanned. O:) Ah-ha! The organized genius behind this page has found an alternate copy! (Do you always believe everything you read?)
Since we're talking names, that double track is called the "highline" trail. Okay, before you hit the fence corner OR the right-veer, you'll come to a little roller, where the trail will turn right, and continue to follow the fence. Sounds like a fence corner to you, doesn't it? The difference between this one and the one I was originally thinking of is that this one is in the trees... the other one is in the open, and goes on the outside of the fence corner - this one is to the inside.
You come to the outside corner next. :) Go left, following the fence. Then you'll come to a split; the trail that shows the heaviest use follows the curve to the right, into the cedars, away from the fence. You'll end up coming up that trail straight ahead of you later on.
Swoop through the cedars - oh yeah, we're having fun! There's one little grunt of a slightly technical climb in here... it's around a corner - be ready to shift swift. :) Yahoo! This part of the trail is so much FUN!! There are a couple of fairly tight curves toward the end, then the trees spit you out into the meadow - look for the lake out to your left. Put the hammer down and fly. :) This is flat, but like downhills, it ends way too soon. You come to a fence, with an opening, and the trail splits, going either left, or through the opening in the fence. Go through the fence - you'll cross the main fire road here - and continue on the singletrack straight ahead of you. This is the "Lagoon Loop" trail, and no, you haven't entered the twilight zone - this was all under water this spring. You curve down a little rocky dip right away... then look for the trail to split right. I think it's been ridden enough now that this is the most obvious choice - when I first started riding it again, it looked like it curved to the left... then sorta died... until you looked over and saw it. This is another wildly fun, twisty section. It twists and loops around by the lake and brings you back around to the fire road, which you'll go straight across again, taking the right fork of the split.
Now you're headed back toward the rear of the park. You'll go around the end of the lake and end up on an "unroad-like" portion of the main fire road. Doubletrack. Again, when the trees start to close in, you'll get to a split where one trail curves away to the right and one continues on straight. Go right to stay on my route.
You'll come to another split... stay right... another split... stay right. This takes you on the lower loop out around "Twin Peaks." Take the Twin Peaks trail to climb the stairs and add challenge to your Dana Peak experience. The lower loop will take you out around the peaks, by the lake. There is another split, where, again, you'll go right... but it's not readily apparent. I missed it the first time I rode it. When you look up and are faced with a horrendous climb, you missed the split. :) The best warning I can give is to watch for the trail to start going up, inward from the lake. It will get a little rocky, and the trail will curve up and to the left. There, you'll want to go *down* and to the right. You'll end up at the top of that "horrendous climb", without having to do that climb. :)
You'll go through a 'beach' area on this outer loop, through some spots of rock that are a little like going through sand. Then you'll go into the cedars again (you just can't get away from 'em), into a tight, twisty section. This will spit you out at a "T". There's a pole on the ground on your left. Turn left at the "T", and continue to wind your way through the cedars. A slight slope will slow you down a bit. Pass the trail you see to your left. A little further on, at the top of a little climb, another trail will come down from your right (from the stairs, the Twin Peaks trail). Stay to the left. You'll hit an uphill stretch of rocks... and the trail will sort of split again. Either straight past the fence, or on around the hump to the left. Go straight to take a gander at the "horrendous climb." :) A gnarly little sucker, which is now, of course, a descent. Then continue on around the hump. Rocky downhill, at your service. :) You'll pop over a little "jump", then head down, cross a dry creek, and right up a little climb before twisting for a short distance and coming to another "T". Remember that trail to your left that you just passed earlier? This is it. Take a right and twist *down* through the cedars now. Pass the trail to the right that you came in on (you'll remember it by the pole on the ground beside it). You'll go down over a sudden drop (stay to the middle or the right) and an in-your-face sharp curve, immediately followed by another split. :) Aren't you glad you have these directions? To the left is the "shortcut" trail... this is the first "stay right", remember... the 2nd one led to the Twin Peaks trail. You'll stay right/straight. A couple of curves and an easy upward slope will put you back on the fire road. Go right to go on a one-way out-and-back trip to Goat's Bluff. Go left and you'll end up almost at the lake... the second place I described by saying "when the trees start to close in, you'll get to a split where one trail curves away to the right and one continues on straight." Or, stay on my route, and angle just slightly to the left, crossing the road and picking up the singletrack on the other side.
After some twists, you'll come to an opening in a fence. Make the sharp turn up to the right. You may notice that a trail also goes to the left. I explored it one time when my curiousity got the better of me, as it so often does. :) It sorta dwindles into a deer trail... then dies. So go right. You'll see the fence ahead of you - the trail turns left. You'll take this a short distance and the trail will get rocky and go through a couple of dips. A trail will go to the left at a trail marker, this is the "Outback trail" - stay straight for a fast, relatively straight run back along the fence to the fenceline trail... or go left for more twisty stuff. You'll pretty much come out at the same general place - the main fire road. Staying straight will bring you out to the first place you veered right with the trail going straight ahead - where I told you you'd end up coming out. Continue on to the corner, but instead of going right, around it the way you came from, angle left, then take the right-most trail. Right before it looks to go down into a ditch, swerve into the right track of what will become like a doubletrack trail. The ditch is kinda freaky. You'll curve left, joining a trail from your right, then *turn* right onto... the fenceline trail that ends up at the fence opening, beyond which is the main fire road and the beginning of the Lagoon Loop. This time, however, go through the opening in the fence, but instead of continuing straight into Lagoon Loop, take a left... then right on the trail to do it "backwards." Come out at the fire road, and either turn left and go onto the road, or go straight out past the fence opening toward the lake again (you'll either split right to go the same way you went earlier, or take the left fork and go backward up the "Outback trail"). If you choose the road, there's another trail you haven't done yet. You'll go through the low point of the road (part of the lake when it was flooded), then start climbing (great place for hill sprints, which I did one day in the rain). The first trail to your left (I think there's a trail marker there...) is the Cedar Cemetery trail. I have not been on this trail since the flooding, so I can't really tell you what condition it's in. It comes out by the porta-johns at the lake shore. If you go up past the johns, you'll find a trail that takes you to the overgrown fire road that takes you past the dogleg trail and "Camelback".
I left one trail out, and that's the one that goes around Dana Peak Hill, the hill you see when you come out of the trees after crossing the bridge... the one to the right of the main fire road beyond the gate. I did mention it briefly... here's how to get to it, the "easy" way. ;) Go up the fire road. On your right while you're still climbing, you will see an open area to your right. Go to the right, you'll see a trail that starts climbing up the left side of the hill. This is a nice little lung-burner. It creeps up and around the hill... then shoots you out on the rocky-slide downhill on the other side, that you can partially see from the road. At the bottom is the doubletrack.
If you parked at the bend/gate, you're home. If you parked where I did, cross the road into the trees and take the twisty singletrack back to your vehicle. Unless you're up to another lap. ;)
I'm hoping to get a map of the park scanned and added to these pages (as well as one of Area 13), which will make it easier to understand the directions... "turn left at the crooked cedar tree, twist with the trail until you hit the erosion ditch, where you'll turn back almost the way you came and follow that until you get to the patch of prickly pear on your left - can't miss it".... :) Hard to follow? I was having a hard time following myself - and I wrote the damn directions! Anyway, look for the map, it will make it easier to get around. It's a fun place to ride - very twisty and fast - and more and more people are returning out there as lake levels recede.