Copper Breaks State Park | October 2021
We spent Halloween weekend at Copper Breaks State Park, located up near the Oklahoma border in Quanah. It's a rugged, quiet park with a lot to offer! We did a ton of hiking, tried our hand at fishing, and marveled at the magnificent night skies that this International Dark Sky Park boasts. If you're into mountain biking, most of the trails allowed bikes, in addition to foot (and for some, equestrian) traffic. If you're planning a trip to visit Copper Breaks State Park, here's a little bit about our experience!
Hiking
We hiked six of the trails in Copper Breaks, which is more than half of them! We really liked that the trails offered a variety of views, terrain, and difficulty levels!
River Run + Rocky Ledges Trails - moderate to challenging, the River Run wasn't too bad but Rocky Ledges had a lot of rocky terrain, navigating between big rocks, etc. Worth it for the views, though!
Equestrian Trail - a longer hike for those that want it! We did this one Saturday morning. Easy terrain, very quiet. We didn't see a single other person on the trail!
Thirsty Horse trail - super easy for kids! Very short at only 0.3 miles. Leads you to a little lake.
Bull Canyon Homesteader + Short Loop Trails - moderate, really pretty as you go into Bull Canyon. Some areas had more difficult terrain than others!
I highly recommend all the trails that we did. With some long, some short, some difficult, some easy, you're pretty much guaranteed to find one that works for you and your family!
Fishing
We don't fish too often, but they were selling kid's fishing poles in the gift shop and Lily decided she wanted one so we gave it a go! There is a small fishing pier that we fished on. They were sold out of bait so we used grasshoppers that we caught and some deli turkey. We're nothing if not resourceful. We didn't have a whole lot of luck, only catching one fish, but I hiiiiiiiiighly recommend evening fishing and watching the sunset on the pier. It was absolutely stunning. The colors were so vibrant and they reflected off the surface of the still water. So lovely.
Camping
We camped in the Comanche loop. I love the shade shelters that they have! They're so cool looking. However, there were very few trees in this area, so no shade and nowhere to hang the hammock, which was tragic. We were in a site right by the playground and Lily made some friends and played Among Us on the monkey bars and slide. Some of the other campgrounds looked superior in terms of aesthetics, but Comanche is the only one with electric hook-ups.
Stargazing
I wish they had held some astronomy programs or something, but hooooooooooooooooooooooooooboy, Copper Breaks has some pretty amazing night skies. They rival the skies I had when I lived in Fort Davis. Night sky darkness is rated on what is called the Bortle scale. The scale runs from 1 (super, super dark) to 9 (cities). Copper Breaks has a Bortle rating of 2, so almost as good as it gets!
We would definitely consider going back to Copper Breaks! We had a lovely, relaxing time out in the rugged landscape of North Texas!