• Take a look at the “Best Nature Trails”  for Families!
  
  
  
• The Trails at Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA)
  • Beaver Pond Kayak Paddling Trail
  • Bittern Marsh Trail - under construction
  • Cicada Trail
  • Cottonwood Trail
  • Redbud Trail
  • Back Country Trail - under construction
• Go To the LLELA website

The Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA) contains a variety of habitats, including prairies, bottomland hardwood forests, wetlands, and cross timbers forest.  With such a diversity of habitats, there is a profusion of wildlife here.   Mammals such as bobcats, whitetailed deer, and mink can be found, along with birds such as wild turkeys, painted buntings, and dozens of waterfowl species. LLELA is dotted with sloughs, wetlands, creeks, and dry channels, the landscape features originally wrought by the Elm Fork and its tributaries during flood events. These remain filled by rainwater and flooding, providing areas where you can find wood ducks and other waterfowl, as well as many turtles, wading birds, and amphibians.

The new Back Country Trail, currently under development, takes long strides across Denton County countryside, passing through stretches of sandhills, wetlands bird sanctuaries, and restored prairie. It's the land of  broad skies, wildflowers and rolling grasslands. And wherever you go, you'll be surrounded by prairie and wetland wildlife, from bison and deer to beavers, ducks and hawks.
 
When completed, the Back Country Trail will include primitive campsites, views along the  Elm Fork of the Trinity River, with a lazy current and loads of sandbars, the Elm Fork is popular for kayaking and canoeing when the water level is high enough—and warm enough—over the summer.
 
The Back Country Trail moseys through some pretty terrain that sees more hoof than foot traffic. Yet what makes the prairie so wild and expansive is precisely what gives the Backland Trail its dusty, leathered appeal. You get a taste of the forbidding route early settlers faced, except now on the comfort of a trail with welcoming towns every few miles. So strap on your gear and let the Backland Trail spur you into the Denton County countryside.