Off-Road Parks in Texas: 20 Public Places to Ride by Region

Texas has twenty public places to ride, and four of them turn side-by-sides away at the gate. The single most useful fact about a Texas OHV park is which machines it lets in, and the sign at the entrance will not tell you before you have driven there.

Every public OHV area in Texas requires the Texas Parks and Wildlife decal, sixteen dollars a year, on any machine ridden there. The decal is your access to public land; it is not a registration and not permission to be on a road.

Twenty Public Places to Ride in Texas — and the Four That Will Turn Your Side-by-Side Away

Texas has more public off-road riding than most people realise, spread across pine forest in the east, caprock in the Panhandle, and open desert out west. What it does not have is one place that lists all of it with the detail that actually matters when you are hitching up a trailer at five in the morning.

The single most useful fact about a Texas OHV park is not its acreage. It is which machines it lets in. Several of the best-known parks in the state take ATVs and dirt bikes but turn away side-by-sides at the gate, and there is nothing on the sign at the entrance to warn you before you have driven three hours to get there.

Every park below is public land or a public-access OHV venue, listed by region, with its county and the machines it permits.

Every Texas OHV Park at a Glance

Sorted by region. “ROV” is the term Texas Parks and Wildlife uses for a side-by-side or UTV — where a park allows ATVs but not ROVs, your side-by-side is not getting in.

Seven of these twenty do not allow side-by-sides. Eisenhower, Trophy Club, Buffalo Valley, Emma Long, Rio Bravo, Lake Mackenzie and San Felipe are ATV, motorcycle or dune-buggy venues. Rules change — confirm with the park before you load up.

North Texas ATV Parks and Trails

North Texas carries the densest cluster of public riding in the state, and the best of it sits within a couple of hours of the Metroplex.

Barnwell Mountain Recreational Area (Gilmer, Upshur County) is the one most riders name first. Eighteen hundred acres of East Texas pine forest with hill climbs, rock sections and groomed trails, open to ATVs, motorcycles, ROVs and full-size four-wheel drives. It runs organised events and has camping on site, which makes it the rare Texas park worth a weekend rather than a day.

Northwest OHV Park (Bridgeport, Wise County) takes the full range of machines and adds a motocross track, so a family with one dirt bike and one side-by-side can ride the same day without splitting up.

Lake Buffalo OHV Area (Iowa Park, Wichita County) offers creek crossings and mixed terrain, again open to everything including full-size rigs.

Red River Navigable River OHV (Clay, Wichita and Wilbarger Counties) is different in kind — federal riverbed land, free to ride with a TPWD decal, and about as close to open-country Texas riding as public land gets.

The two to watch: Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma and Trophy Club Park at Grapevine Lake are both ATV and motorcycle only. A side-by-side will be turned away.

South and Central Texas Off-Road Parks

Central Texas is the thinnest region in the state for public riding, and it is where the side-by-side problem bites hardest.

Mud Buddies ATV Park (Hallettsville, Lavaca County) is the one that takes ROVs — mud pits and water crossings, exactly as the name promises. Buffalo Valley MX Park (Marion, Bexar County) is a motocross venue for ATVs and motorcycles, a comfortable day trip from San Antonio.

Emma Long City Park in Austin deserves a specific warning. Its Hill Country trails are famous, riders drive in from Houston and San Antonio to reach them, and the park permits motorcycles and bicycles only. No ATVs, no side-by-sides. It is the single most common wasted trip in Texas off-roading.

Southeast Texas and the Houston Area

Sam Houston National Forest (Montgomery, Walker and Grimes Counties) carries the 85-mile Sam Houston Multiple-Use Trail through pine forest, sandy soil and creek crossings. It is the closest serious public-land riding to Houston and it takes side-by-sides.

Rio Bravo MX Park inside Harris County is motocross, motorcycles only — useful to know before driving across the city with a UTV on the trailer.

Panhandle and Northwest Texas

Lake Meredith National Recreation Area (Moore and Potter Counties, near Fritch) is the Panhandle’s headline destination, with the Blue Creek and Rosita Flats OHV areas taking the full range of machines including dune buggies and sand rails.

Buffalo Springs Lake OHV Area outside Lubbock is the easy option from the South Plains — ATVs, motorcycles and ROVs in a lake setting. Childress ATV Park and White River Reservoir (Spur, Crosby County) both take side-by-sides and both stay quiet, which is the point of them.

Lake Mackenzie Recreation Area (Silverton, Briscoe County) is caprock country and is ATV and motorcycle only.

West Texas Off-Road Riding

Escondido Draw Recreational Area (Ozona, Crockett County) is the big one out west — open to ATVs, motorcycles, ROVs and full-size, in genuinely open country.

Twin Buttes OHV Area (San Angelo, Tom Green County) offers lake-edge riding and takes ROVs. Moss Creek Lake ATV Park (Big Spring, Howard County) is Permian Basin riding for ATVs and motorcycles, and San Felipe Park (Fabens, El Paso County) is desert sand for dune buggies, ATVs and motorcycles — neither takes side-by-sides.

Before You Trailer: Decals, Rules and the UTV Trap

Two things catch people out, and neither is obvious from a park’s website.

The TPWD OHV decal. Riding on public OHV land in Texas requires a Texas Parks and Wildlife off-highway vehicle decal, currently sixteen dollars a year. It is required regardless of where the machine is registered — Texas plate, out-of-state plate, or no plate at all because it never leaves private land. The decal answers a different question from your registration: it is your access to public riding land, not your permission to be on a road.

The side-by-side ban. Seven of the twenty parks above take ATVs and motorcycles but not ROVs. There is no pattern to it — it is a decision each venue makes — so the only safe move is to check the specific park before you load. The table above is a starting point, not a substitute for a phone call.

A separate question from either of these: whether your machine can legally cross a public road to reach the trailhead. Texas does not register off-highway vehicles for road use at all, which is why so many Texas owners register in Montana instead.

FAQs

Where can you ride ATVs in Texas?

On public land, at the OHV parks and venues listed above — twenty of them, spread across every region of the state. Barnwell Mountain in East Texas, Sam Houston National Forest near Houston, Lake Meredith in the Panhandle and Escondido Draw out west are the largest. All public OHV riding requires the TPWD decal.

Can you ride a side-by-side at Texas off-road parks?

At most of them, but not all. Seven of the twenty parks here permit ATVs and motorcycles while excluding ROVs, including well-known ones like Emma Long in Austin and Trophy Club near Grapevine Lake. Check before you trailer.

Do you need a permit to ride at OHV parks in Texas?

Yes — the Texas Parks and Wildlife OHV decal, sixteen dollars a year, on any machine ridden on public OHV land. Individual parks may charge their own entry fee on top.

Are there free places to ride off-road in Texas?

The Red River Navigable River OHV area, on federal riverbed land across Clay, Wichita and Wilbarger Counties, is free to ride with the TPWD decal. Most other venues charge entry.

Getting There Is the Other Half of the Problem

Texas does not issue road plates for off-highway vehicles, so the drive between your gate and the trailhead is its own question. Here is what the law actually says, and the route Texas owners take.

READ THE TEXAS GUIDE →

Street legal UTV and ATV rules in other states:

• Are UTVs street legal in North Carolina? The road ban and the equipment wall
• Ohio ATV and UTV registration: the road ban and the 8% tax
• Arkansas ATV and UTV registration: the 9.75% purchase tax