The Outdoors in McKinney, Texas

Erwin Park, on the northwest side of McKinney, is the outdoor spot serious cyclists know. Its 212 acres hold roughly 10 miles of singletrack built and maintained by DORBA (the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association), with a skills area and loops that run from beginner-friendly to genuinely technical. The trails wind through wooded creek bottom and rolling meadow, so it doubles as a hiking and trail-running spot when the bikes aren't out.

The park also has campsites, picnic areas, and enough distance from the city core that people come out for stargazing. In spring the meadows fill with wildflowers. It's one of the best-known trail systems on the north side of the Metroplex, and the lots fill early on weekends.

McKinney's two big city parks sit close together on the west side and connect by trail. Towne Lake Recreation Area is built around a 22-acre lake, with kayak and paddleboat rentals, a fishing pier, sand volleyball, playgrounds, and walking loops across its 100-plus acres. It's the closest in-town option for paddling and fishing without driving out to a reservoir.

Bonnie Wenk Park, at 216 acres, is the larger of the pair — an all-abilities playground, a dog park, a summer splash pad, an outdoor fitness court, an amphitheater that hosts live music, a small fishing lake, and miles of paved, stroller-friendly trail. Together they cover most of what families look for: playgrounds, trails, water, and open space.

The Heard, southeast of downtown, is a 289-acre wildlife sanctuary and natural science museum that opened in 1967 — a protected block of prairie, forest, and wetland that the surrounding growth has been building around ever since. Boardwalks and nature trails run through the habitats, and the varied ground makes for strong birding, especially during the spring and fall migrations.

Inside, the museum runs live native-animal exhibits and hands-on programs aimed at kids. The seasonal animatronic dinosaur trail is the biggest draw, and it fills the sanctuary on fall weekends. For a fast-suburbanizing county, this much intact Blackland Prairie habitat inside the city is unusual, and the Heard is the reason it survived.

For bigger water, Lavon Lake sits just east of McKinney — a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir with boat ramps, fishing for catfish and bass, and shoreline parks. The Trinity Trail runs for miles along its western shore, a wide crushed-stone route popular with horseback riders, hikers, and trail runners looking for distance.

Closer in, McKinney keeps adding to a park and greenbelt system that already includes dozens of neighborhood parks and a growing network of paved trails linking them. Between the in-town trails, Erwin Park's singletrack, and Lavon's shoreline, McKinney has more outdoor range than most suburbs its size.