Meridian State Park
Meridian State Park is a beautiful little gem! Now, I do mean little, because the park is fairly small, with about 40 accommodations. In my opinion, this adds to the charm of the park and probably accounts for how quiet and peaceful it feels. Meridian truly makes it feel like you’re getting away and immersing yourself in nature.
Tent camping at site #24 in September 2020 at Meridian State Park
Location
Meridian, TX
For as beautiful and isolated as Meridian feels, it’s surprising that it really isn’t a bad drive from most of Texas’ most populated areas. For us, we have to take I35, so that part of the drive stinks. The beauty and peacefulness of the area sets in soon after getting off the interstate, though.
From Austin- 145 mi (< 2 hours 30 min)
From DFW- 96 mi (< 2 hours)
From Houston- 233 mi (< 3 hours 30 min)
From San Antonio- 198 mi (< 3 hours 30 min)
Accommodations
Full Hook Up Campsites
Electric Campsites (<19 ft limit)
Primitive Campsites (tent only)
15 Screened Shelters
3 Cabins
Meridian is a pretty quaint state park and has limited accommodations. There are only eight campsites that can accommodate RVs larger than 19 feet, so it may be a while before we can go back with our 21-foot van. The primitive tent camping area (Shinnery Ridge West) is amazing, with huge, private spots! We loved camping in that area. However, it’s important to note that the bathrooms are pretty far away.
Vibes
Lake Meridian
Lake Meridian is a stunning 72-acre no-wake lake surrounded by the park. Since it’s a no-wake lake, it’s perfect for fishing, kayaking, canoeing, and paddleboarding. You can also swim in the designated swimming areas. We didn’t check out that area, so I can’t speak to it. However, I personally wouldn’t swim in any of the other areas (probably the point of a designated swimming area) because the shores are covered with lily pads, which would make me crawl out of my skin if they touched me. They are beautiful to look at, though!
A group of people rafting through Meridian Lake in September 2020
Trails
There aren’t a ton of trails at Meridian State Park, with just over 5 miles of hiking, but it is still one of my favorite parks for hiking. The trails we did there were scenic and challenging, which I really enjoyed. It was one of the first times I had done a challenging hike, and I loved gaining some elevation and doing a bit of exploring and scrambling. Not all of the trails are challenging, but it was definitely a level up from the mostly flat hiking we had done at other state parks at the time we visited Meridian in September of 2020.
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2.2 mi one-way (or about 2.5 mi loop if you take Little Forest Jr Trail to the other end of it)
Challenging
This hike takes you around the perimeter of the lake, so it’s a great way to see everything Meridian has to offer. It’s a beautiful trail with lots of great views, some elevation gain and loss, and rocky outcroppings to explore.
This remains one of my favorite hikes we’ve done at a Texas state park because of all the factors above and because it made me realize that this is my favorite type of hiking (challenging, beautiful, quiet, room to explore, and scenery changes). Basically, I realized I love stimulating hikes.
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0.7 mi loop
Easy
This short trail was perfect for a morning hike after breakfast. There are lots of cool rock formations to see along the trail, and it’s very scenic.
Serene
Meridian State Park was incredibly serene when we visited in September 2020. The park was so quiet that it actually freaked me out—and I’m a pretty quiet person myself. The trees almost roared as they rustled in the wind, and you could hear every native critter exploring and reclaiming what was rightfully theirs throughout the night. I had a really hard time sleeping in our borrowed, hand-me-down tent with no rainfly because of how loud the quiet was.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that isn’t the fault of a state park. This isn’t some outlandish Yelp review complaining about nature being nature. In fact, I’m incredibly grateful for how quiet Meridian was now. At that time in my life, though, I was incredibly stressed out—and I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one feeling that way in the last quarter of 2020, the year our lives were turned upside down. I was so unsure of myself in general, and now we were trying something new to me: camping. On top of that, my husband was collecting footage to make videos about it. We had been camping for a little over a month, and this was our fifth state park to visit in that time.
I loved the outdoors when I was young, but I had become rather disconnected from that part of myself during my teen and young adult years. I knew that camping was supposed to be a way to ground myself, connect with nature, and relieve stress. But I was worried that the slightest thing going wrong would be more than I could handle, and I’d just break. I thought my stress was too big to enjoy camping—maybe even too big to enjoy life.
I remember all those worries and feelings, but something about Meridian made me want to keep going regardless. And I did. Four years later, I look forward to visiting Meridian again, because these days I’m much better at enjoying the silence instead of being afraid of it.
Additional Meridian Need-to-Knows
I already mentioned this in the accommodations section, but I want to reiterate the distance of the bathrooms from the primitive sites. Maybe this is a normal thing, but we had to drive to the bathrooms each time, which was a whole event, especially since we were camping with our dogs for only the second time ever. That said, the privacy of those sites is kind of worth it!
Meridian is considered to be in the Texas Hill Country which is known for its beauty!
Meridian State Park is only about 50 miles from Waco, TX if you’re into that sort of thing.
A meridian often represents a peak, midpoint, or dividing line in life, time, or an experience.
