Cameron Park: 416 Acres of Cliffs and River Right at Waco's Edge

It started in 1910 as 125 acres given to the city by Flora Cameron in memory of her husband William, a lumber baron, and the family kept adding to it through 1920 until it stretched from Proctor Springs down the Brazos and Bosque all the way to Lover's Leap. Today Cameron Park sprawls across 416 acres on the bluffs just minutes from downtown, one of the biggest municipal parks in the whole state.

What makes it feel like nowhere else in Central Texas is the limestone. The cliffs at Lover's Leap and along the river give you real overlooks, and more than 20 miles of trail thread the woods below them — the kind of rooty, rocky singletrack that draws mountain bikers and trail runners from well outside McLennan County. Down at river level there are picnic spots, playgrounds, and put-ins where the Bosque slides into the Brazos.

The Cameron Park Zoo shares the grounds, so a morning here can be a hard hike off Jacob's Ladder for some, a stroller-and-giraffes outing for others. It's the rare park that does both without feeling crowded.