The Outdoors in Terrell, Texas

Ben Gill Park is the centerpiece of Terrell's recreation — 100 acres packed with more than most small-city parks manage. There are softball and baseball complexes, lighted tennis courts, and sand volleyball, plus an Olympic-size swimming pool with water slides and a kiddie pool that draws families all summer.

The park also has a pavilion and gazebo, a hiking trail, and a 2.5-acre lake, so it works for a quiet walk as easily as a ballgame or a pool day. For a town of Terrell's size, it's an unusually complete park.

Less than twenty minutes from Terrell, Lake Tawakoni State Park sits on the south shore of its big namesake reservoir. It's a full outdoor day: fishing, hiking and biking trails, a swimming beach, geocaching, and some of the better birdwatching in the area, all along the water.

The lake itself is a large reservoir popular with anglers and boaters, and the state park gives you an easy, developed way to get onto it. It's the closest thing to a wilderness day within quick reach of Terrell.

On the edge of town, Ham Orchards is a seasonal favorite — a working peach orchard and farm store open from mid-May through mid-August, where you can buy peaches, produce, jams, fudge, fresh-baked goods, and homemade strawberry and peach ice cream. Peach season turns it into a genuine destination.

Beyond it, the countryside around Terrell is farm-and-orchard country, and Cedar Creek Lake lies a short drive south for even more water when Tawakoni isn't the plan.