Our Visit To
White Rock Lake Dallas, Tx

Visiting White Rock Lake in Dallas, TX

White Rock Lake is a beautiful Urban Park in Downtown Dallas. Scenic views are visible just about any way you turn on the trail. Here you will find a variety of birds, cyclists, joggers and the occasional squirrel here and there. You can also catch a glimpse of the spillway and the restored Dallas Water Utilities pumping station. Perfect park to take in nature and keep your hikers clean.

Amira’s Review

White Rock Lake, Dallas

We woke up Sunday to “winter weather” in April. It was a balmy 46 degrees with overcast skies and a threat of rain all day. Brewed some coffee and toyed with the idea of just staying in and making it an indoor day. Nope we couldn’t do it! We bundled up and started the trek to Dallas, only stopping for breakfast at Whataburger, which I now think is our new tradition.

We made it to White Rock Lake around 9am and immediately saw some bird action. The area was beautiful and it was hard to believe something like it existed in the middle of Dallas. The homes around the lake were gorgeous and the nature scenery was spectacular. The birds were out in full force!

I was able to get a new bird today! The Western kingbird which is part of the flycatcher family. I saw a flash of yellow in a tree nearby as we were driving away and yelled stop, most likely scaring Paul, ooops. Gotta do what you gotta do when it comes to birding. This bird could be mistaken for the scissor-tail with its long tail and similar coloring. Seems hard to believe with the Western kingbirds’ sweet face and stunning coloring, but these birds are aggressive and will chase out intruders, even more shocking, including Red-Tailed Hawks and American Kestrels. Interesting fact: The oldest Western Kingbird on record was 6 years 11 months old. Found in South Dakota in 1941.

We continue exploring, instead of walking, we drive. With the wind on the water and light rain it was too cold to walk. Navigating the area was a challenge. There was the main road and another small road parallel, which is designed as a pedestrian/bike path. Paul can probably say which roads we actually took, I’m usually off in my own world not paying attention to things like that. As we continue he turns left onto another road which leads us directly next to White Rock Lake. I start paying attention and looking at what’s around me. I am now quite aware of dirty looks being thrown our way by pedestrians. Ummm ok? As we carry on the road it is getting smaller maybe? All of a sudden the road narrows to the point it is now obvious this is not a road for cars! There is also no way out of this. The lake is to the right and to the left is a concrete barricade leading to the street for the cars. At this moment I am so glad I am not driving. I let Paul deal with all the shame, the dirty looks, and the panic of getting off this pedestrian path. With my head buried in my shoulder I hear one lady yell to him, “That’s illegal!” Yup pretty sure we both realize that now. One guy yells “Slow Down!’ ummm going 10 maybe? But yea get it, we aren’t supposed to be there. Finally after what seemed like hours we rolled up on two nice joggers who laughed at us first, asked if we were from out of town, then guided us to the only small area that didn’t have a barricade. We hopped the curb with one wheel and got the heck off the path!

With that horror of an experience behind us we had maybe 30 minutes left to look around before having lunch with some friends. We shook off the shame and found a great area to photograph ducks. While Paul went after those I took the most beautiful shot of the Northern Mockingbird. Although I have quite a few shots of this bird, none are as clear as the shot I took today. These birds are true to their name, mockingbird, and have over 100 borrowed voices. They will mimic other birds, and also the sounds from a frog or a toad. Northern Mockingbirds are extremely territorial, protecting their nests at all costs. They will dive at anything, even humans that get too close to their nests. Also interesting is this is the state bird of Texas, legislation stated that the species is ” a fighter for the protection of its home, falling, if need be, in its defense, like any true Texan”

White Rock Lake is a great location for birding and taking in the beauty of nature. The park was extremely clean and free of trash. I only saw one area that had a few empty bread bags left from someone feeding the ducks. I will most definitely be back and am looking forward to walking the trails next time. If you do decide to check it out, make sure you are on the correct path!!

Paul’s Review

White Rock Lake

We woke up Saturday morning to 40 degree weather, windy and a 70% chance of rain for the day. My initial thought was just skip this weekend and we would see and review White Rock Lake a different day. Ahh, but the obsessive is real… letting a weekend go by without checking out a new place, just didn’t sit right with us.

Driving into the heart of Dallas, it didn’t really feel like this location was going to payoff. The rain hadn’t started coming down yet and we arrived on the west side of the lake to be immediately greeted by a group of Coots. Cool! We haven’t captured any pictures of them yet… jumped out of the car and it was ridiculously cold, but Amira grabbed a few great pics of the Coots and Mallard couple with ducklings in tow.

Still feeling a bit weird to not be on foot and doing our usual hike and review, we continued our drive and made it over to the Boomerang Boathouse. This location was buzzing with people and birds alike, a couple people feeding bread to the Pigeons and local Mallards along with Barn Swallows everywhere diving and swooping cutting through the air.

We exit the car again, really just trying to get a better shot of the Barn Swallow for our collection, they just don’t sit still for very long. I would say with the cloud cover I am okay with the pictures we took, but still feel like there’s a better shot out there to be had.

We made our way over to the water, and immediately came across the Wood Duck, heck a whole family ducklings, mom and dad nested in a patch of tall cattails. We’ve been hoping to photograph this species for the last 90 days. By far my favorite duck the male’s coloring is amazing and the female (maybe not as colorful) but still just a beautiful duck… made my day getting to see them in person and of course getting our shots to add to our collection.

White Rock Lake was beautiful, for the most part well maintained, but so much more to still explore. We will be back to walk the trails as intended and hopefully check out the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens this summer.

My biggest takeaway is the weather isn’t going to always be perfect and there is never going to be enough time to take any place in fully, but just getting out there … the reward from Mother Nature will always be there waiting for you.