10 Most Peaceful Small Towns In Texas

Some of the quietest corners of Texas are found in its small towns, well away from the crowds and chaos of the big cities. At Monahans Sandhills State Park, dunes rise as high as 70 feet, and you can rent sand discs to sled down them. In Matagorda, beaches line both sides of the Colorado River delta, where the west side can only be reached by boat, kayak, or canoe. In Palestine, the mile-long Fairy Garden Trail winds through Davey Dogwood Park, past garden plots built by local community members. These 10 small towns showcase the most peaceful side of Texas, with plenty of room to hike, swim, fish, and slow way down.

Granbury

More than 1,000 boat docks line the 103-mile shoreline of Lake Granbury, and Granbury City Beach Park offers a protected sandy swimming area with kayak rentals and a life jacket loaner station. At the lake's edge, the Shanley Sculpture Garden spreads paved paths across 4.77 acres to a stone fountain and bronze statues by Texas artists, while the historic Shanley House hosts a gallery run by the Lake Granbury Art Association. A short walk from the town square, the Granbury Doll House Museum fills a historic house with more than 6,000 dolls, including celebrity look-alikes, Barbies, and GI Joes, the oldest dating to 1860, and admission is free.

Fort Davis

A Texas legislative resolution declared Fort Davis, set in the Davis Mountains and surrounded by the Chihuahuan Desert, the highest town in the state. In Davis Mountains State Park, Skyline Drive climbs a series of switchbacks past historic stone structures to the Keesey Canyon Overlook, and the park's campsites offer dark skies for stargazing. The Fort Davis National Historic Site preserves the 19th-century frontier post, with 24 buildings, 5 of them restored to their 1880s condition, and more than 100 ruins to explore on a self-guided tour. In town, the Pioneer Museum and Old Overland Trail Museum display frontier memorabilia, artifacts, and early photographs.

Balmorhea

The San Solomon Springs feed the world's largest spring-fed pool at Balmorhea State Park, a 1.3-acre oasis in the high desert that reaches 25 feet deep and stays between 72 and 76 degrees year-round. Swimmers share the clear water with fish and turtles, and the park has 34 campsites overlooking the desert. The same springs feed nearby Balmorhea Lake, a 556-acre reservoir stocked with bass and catfish. A few miles west of the park, the small white Calera Chapel is the last standing structure of the abandoned town of Calera. Restored and reopened in 2003, it draws comparisons to the art installations in nearby Marfa and hosts photo shoots and intimate weddings.

Monahans

Sand dunes up to 70 feet tall shift across Monahans Sandhills State Park, making them ideal for sand surfing and sledding on discs rented from the park, or even just stunning photography. The Havard Shin Oak helps stabilize the sand, growing only about 3 feet tall but sending roots as deep as 70 feet, and its forest spreads across 40,000 acres of the surrounding sandhills. The Dunagan Visitor Center has hands-on exhibits on dune dynamics and wildlife. In town, the Million Barrel Museum centers on an eight-acre oil storage tank that Shell Oil built in 1928 during a local oil boom, surrounded by railroad and oilfield artifacts, including a vintage caboose and a boxcar.

Dublin

Dublin is home to the oldest bottling plant in Texas. The Dublin Bottling Works opened in 1891 as the first plant to bottle Dr Pepper, and although it lost the rights to the soda in 2012, it still makes cane-sugar cola, root beer, and other flavors under its own label, with a Giant Bottle sculpture standing nearby.

Just around the corner, the Ben Hogan Museum displays the clubs, photos, and career artifacts of the legendary golfer, who spent his childhood in Dublin and won golf's Triple Crown in 1953. One block over, the Dublin Rodeo Heritage Museum tells the story of the World Championship Rodeo Company, which operated in town from 1937 to 1959, with photographs and an iron branding wall.

Glen Rose

Dinosaur footprints preserved millions of years ago line the Paluxy River in Dinosaur Valley State Park, where visitors can camp, picnic, hike, and see fossilized tracks at five main track sites. Nearby, Dinosaur World sets life-sized dinosaur statues, including Tyrannosaurus Rex, along a looping walking path, with an on-site museum of interactive exhibits for children.

Across town, the 1,800-acre Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is home to more than 1,100 animals, including giraffes, zebras, rhinoceroses, and cheetahs. Visitors can follow the 7.2-mile Gosdin Scenic Drive in their own vehicles or join a guided open-air tour. The Overlook, roughly halfway along the route, has a café and a children's animal center.

Matagorda

Matagorda Beach stretches for 58 miles along either side of the Colorado River delta. Vehicles can drive onto the sand on the east side, while the quieter west side is reachable only by boat, kayak, or canoe. Matagorda Bay Nature Park has fishing piers along the Colorado River Channel, a nature trail into the estuary wetlands, kayak rentals for crossing to the west beach, and guided kayak tours of the river.

Bird watchers will find plenty of wildlife in Matagorda County, the official "Birding Capital of Texas." Anglers can book trips for trophy redfish and trout with Redfish Matagorda Charters or head out for bayside and offshore fishing with Reel Rush Charters.

Crockett

In Brewer Park, a plaque marks the spring where the frontiersman the town is named for is thought to have camped on his way to the Alamo, and a nearby mural depicts his meeting with a fellow Tennessean. The Strode-Pritchett Log Cabin, built in the 1850s, sits beside the spring.

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the Christmas in Crockett Festival brings nearly 300 vendors and a vintage car show downtown. The nearby Davy Crockett National Forest spans 160,000 acres, where the 20-mile Four C National Recreation Trail runs from Ratcliff Lake to the panoramic Neches Bluff Overlook and the 53-mile Piney Creek Horse Trail winds through the piney woods.

Palestine

Davey Dogwood Park in Palestine features a natural stand of native dogwoods across 254 acres, with 5.5 miles of paved roads and 8 miles of hiking trails among the flowering trees. Each spring, the mile-long Fairy Garden Trail fills with new garden plots built by local community members. The Curious Museum offers hands-on exhibits for preschoolers and adults alike, including a Harmonograph that draws designs through motion and the Human Kaleidoscope.

At the Palestine Railroad Heritage Center, model trains crisscross a detailed scene of mountains, cityscapes, and trestles alongside railroad artifacts, and rail fans can continue to the Texas State Railroad for 25-mile excursions through the Piney Woods.

Kilgore

Each Christmas season, Kilgore lights the oil derricks downtown during A Very Derrick Christmas, a festival with live entertainment and activities for children, and the electric stars that top the derricks have earned the town the nickname "city of stars." The derricks stand in World's Richest Acre Park, which preserves an original derrick among dozens of replicas on the 1.2-acre block where 24 oil wells once pumped at once.

The East Texas Oil Museum at Kilgore College tells the story of the 1930s oil boom through animatronic characters, period scenes, and vintage cars. For an afternoon outdoors, the paved Creekside Trail winds through wooded greenspaces for walkers, runners, and bicyclists.

Find Peace and Tranquility In Texas

Get out of the big cities in Texas and discover how peaceful the small towns can be. Wander the mountains of Fort Davis or take a quiet walk through the Davy Crockett National Forest near Crockett. Go for a swim in the spring-fed pool at Balmorhea or explore the ancient natural history of Glen Rose. Let the worries and stress fade away. Enjoy nature, learn history, cast a fishing line. These small towns offer a perfect escape.