Highland Village's Lake Finally Comes With Directions

Months before Texas Parks and Wildlife cut the ribbon on five new paddling trails along Lewisville Lake, a troop of local Boy Scouts was already out on the water. They paddled the routes by kayak, photographed the launch points, and flagged the spots where a log jam or a blind curve might catch a first-timer off guard. Their notes helped shape the signage that now marks the Hickory Creek Arm, the quiet stretch of lake most Highland Village residents have driven past for years without ever putting a boat in it.

That's the part worth sitting with. The water didn't change. The herons, the coves, the calm bends where Poindexter Branch Creek meets the lake, all of it was there long before June 25, when the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the City of Highland Village held a launch ceremony at Lakeside Community Park. What changed is that you no longer need to already know this lake to use it. TPWD mapped five named routes, posted signage at five park access points, and turned eight miles of shoreline into something a resident can find on a Tuesday evening without a boat, a shuttle car, or a friend who's paddled it before.

The Water Was Already Here

Lakeside Community Park itself has a backstory that predates any of this. Roughly a decade ago, the property at 707 Highland Village Road was seized by the federal government following a case involving racketeering, obscenity, fraud, and income tax evasion. With help from Congressman Michael Burgess and his staff, the city secured the deed to the lakefront parcel and converted it into a community park, complete with a trailhead into Highland Village's Inland Trail System. The park's pavilion still carries his name, the Michael C. Burgess M.D. Pavilion, a detail most people paddling past it have no reason to know.

That history matters here because it's a reminder that this stretch of shoreline has been public land, sitting mostly unused for recreation beyond picnic tables and a beach volleyball court, for years. The new paddling trails didn't create access. They gave existing access a map.

Five Routes, Eight Miles, One Arm of the Lake

The system includes the Pilot Knoll Loop, Lakeside Park Loop, Pilot Knoll to Sunset Point, Sunset Point to Lakeside, and Lakeside to Copperas Branch trails, launching from five points: Marauder Park, Pilot Knoll Park, Sunset Point Park, Lakeside Community Park, and Copperas Branch Park. Combined, they add eight miles to the statewide Texas Paddling Trail system, bringing the total number of official trails in Texas to 96.

The shortest option is a half-mile paddle along the Lakeland Drive shoreline that ends at Lakeside Park, doable in as little as thirty minutes. On the other end, a loop near the mouth of Poindexter Branch Creek runs 1.4 miles and launches from Marauder Park, though TPWD notes that log jams or low water levels near that launch can sometimes restrict access. Several of the one-way segments cross heavy boat traffic, which means paddlers are advised to park a shuttle vehicle at their take-out rather than plan on paddling back the way they came.

"This is one of those really easy entry-level things that help you get close to nature and really experience the outdoors in a meaningful way," said Shelly Plante, TPWD's nature tourism manager, at the June launch.

Plante's point is really about legibility. A loop trail starts and ends in the same place, which sounds obvious until you're the one trying to figure out where to leave your car on a lake you've never paddled before.

You Don't Need to Own a Kayak

Pilot Knoll Park is the access point built for people without their own gear. Kayak and paddleboard rentals are available on-site through a local outfitter, and the rental includes a short lesson for beginners along with life jackets, adjustable paddles, and leashes. Parking is free, and the park allows dogs under 60 pounds, so a paddle can double as a dog walk if the pup is patient enough to sit still in a kayak.

Access to Pilot Knoll runs on an annual pass rather than a single-visit fee. A resident pass costs $40 a year, non-resident is $100, and senior residents 62 and older pay $25. There's also a half-year pass, available from July through December, priced at $25 for residents. The gatehouse operates from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., though the park itself stays open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Beyond the water, the park has a sand volleyball court, cornhole boards, a fire pit, and both improved and primitive campsites, 65 to 85 acres depending on the lake's water level.

What's Actually in the Water

Anglers working this arm of the lake can expect largemouth bass, channel catfish, crappie, white bass, and striped bass, with jigs, crankbaits, plastic worms, spinnerbaits, and swimbaits all listed as effective by TPWD. Birdwatchers have a longer list to work with: great blue herons, great egrets, mallards, swallows, and belted kingfishers all turn up along the Hickory Creek Arm, and turtles are common enough that paddlers should expect to spot a few sunning on logs near the banks.

None of this is new to the lake. What's new is that someone who wants to try fishing from a kayak, or just wants to see a heron up close, now has a marked route and a rental counter instead of a guess.

The Signage Is Only Phase One

Plante was direct about the fact that this is a beginning, not a finished system. As she put it during the launch, the naming of individual trails throughout Highland Village was deliberate, with more planned. For now, the eight miles on the Hickory Creek Arm represent the first phase of what TPWD and the city describe as an ongoing partnership, one that took years of planning before the first sign went up.

For residents, that means the version of this lake available right now, five access points and five named routes, is likely to look different in a year or two. Worth checking the City of Highland Village's trail page periodically if this is the kind of thing you'd want to know about as it expands.

The lake was never the missing piece. The directions were.

Lake access, paddling routes, and the small histories behind Highland Village's parks are the kind of local detail K.E. Boyd tracks closely. If you've found a launch point or a quiet cove worth knowing about, Let's Connect.