Right on Lake Texoma sits a state park that borders the line between Texas and Oklahoma. My main objectives on every adventure? Hiking and craft beer. Let’s go hike Eisenhower State Park, then explore a few of the breweries in the area.

This park isn’t close to any sort of major city. That means you get to explore a few smaller towns nearby!

The details

Admission fee: $5 per person, unless you have a Texas State Parks card.
Trail Name: 6 different trails. I took the “Ike’s Hike and Bike Trail”
Trailhead Address: 50 Park Road 20, Denison TX
Trail Length: Short trails are around half a mile long. Combining the Armadillo Hill trail with Ikes is 4 miles.
Difficulty: Labeled Moderate. Fairly easy if you enjoy hiking.

Elevation Gain: Not enough to note.
Dogs: Allowed on leash. Not allowed near any swim beaches. Can not leave alone.
Restrooms: Yes. Camping areas throughout the park have rest rooms.
Parking: Multiple parking lots.
Visited: August 2018

Hiking Eisenhower State Park

This park has about 5 miles of hiking trails. If you string together Armadillo Hill with the Ike’s Hike and Bike, you can get a trail that’s exactly 4 miles long. Park at the bottom, hike up and then back out again and you have an 8 mile day. Perfect!!

My hiking buddy and I did this one in August. It was HOT. I did amazing for 3/4ths of it, then took a nosedive with a heat headache and spent an obnoxiously long time sitting in the car afterwards with the ac blowing on me. This was the hike I learned to always carry Excedrin or something, because our first stop after this was a gas station for those single overpriced packs of it.

Different parts of this trail weave close to and away from the water, with plenty to see. You do hike next to some of the campgrounds. I didn’t stay the night, but it looks like a great place to pitch a tent and spend a few days.

If you can, make sure you visit this park in the summer when it’s hot enough to take advantage of the beach that leads into the lake. You’ll have to hike Eisenhower State Park early if you do this, to avoid being out in the heat of the Texas sun during the day and die a slow painful headachey death… but it’s worth it to take a dip in the water at the end!

The beach was full of people. Lots of boom boxes and different music everywhere. Hot sand. Bit of a rocky shoreline. Cooling off so quickly was a pretty nice treat to top it off.

After you finish your hike, just a few miles south you can head into the town of Denison, TX. (population is 22k, so it’s not too tiny)

Exploring Denison, Tx

Of course, this is Texas… and I went here on a Sunday. Sundays in these parts are “god’s day” so please make sure you plan accordingly. Virtually NOTHING is open anywhere in these areas on Sundays. 🙁
This sucked, because the downtown area was HUGE AND SO AWESOME LOOKING! There were shops everywhere, tons of restaurants, a winery, a distillery, and more! Coffee shops, and even a judge factory. It’s definitely on my list to go back to this town and experience the rest of it.

Ivanhoe Brewing. This is a cute and quirky place.
Walking in the door, we were the only people in the place besides one older gentleman (the owner) sitting down behind a table who seemed excited to see some new faces. This place takes up a portion of a very old theater. Tall ornate ceilings, gorgeous detailing everywhere, the works! The back 3/4ths of it was blocked off and the tap room portion was pretty small.

While there we tried the Blonde ale… which came with a random cherry in it. I asked if it cherry flavored. n? oh. Why is there a cherry in it?
“because people like cherries”. I won’t lie… this beer let me down. That said, I’m just not a fan of basic blonde ales. Typically, it’s the most popular style a brewery has, and the owner said this one is a hot seller.

Went on to try the Pale ale which was pretty good, an imperial stout which was deliiiiicious… and a small batch of something flavored that I can’t find anywhere on Untappd. It had possibly cucumber in it? I don’t quite remember. I guess since it was a small batch it was never an official beer listed online, and I didn’t think to write down the name.

Overall, great place to stop.

After that, head down the road to Sherman, Texas for your next beer pit stop.

903 Brewing

This place has it ALL. Want a macaroni and cheese grilled cheese sandwich? You can get it there. Prefer a brisket grilled cheese sandwich? Sure thing.
Drink IPAs? Plenty of hazys. Love double barrel aged stouts loaded down with chocolate? You got it. Prefer sours that are so packed with fruit they actually pour like a smoothie instead of a beer? Tons of those too!

It’s a great hang out spot for groups. There was some sort of party going on while I was there, and still plenty of room.
Right now, 903 is one of the “hottest” breweries in North Texas.

To me personally, it is hit or mix. While I understand most breweries use flavor additives to get the fun popular marshmallow frosted flakes funfetti cake type flavors… I think I’m just “over” it. To me it’s all starting to taste like the same dang beer with a different concentrated goop or extract dumped in. Right now I’m going through a phase where I like about 10% of what 903 puts out, and hate 90% of it.

THAT SAID, 903 is still worth a stop. I do still love some of their beers, the food is great to fuel up with after a long day of hiking, and they have lots of to-go options so you can snag some of the barrel aged beers to take home with you.

Have you gone for a hike in Eisenhower State Park your favorite for hiking in Texas? If not, which is? I’d love to connect with you over on my Facebook page.