Day Trippin' › Texas › From Abilene
From Abilene, Frontier Texas and the Abilene Zoo are minutes away, Abilene State Park about half an hour, Fort Griffin about an hour, Lake Colorado City a little over an hour, and San Angelo's Fort Concho an hour and a half. The best day trips from Abilene, by drive time.
39 places within a 3-hour drive, by real roads.
State park · 1 hr 34 min southwest
A big park on O.C. Fisher Reservoir with 50 miles of multiuse trails for hiking and biking and pens of bison and longhorns.
Historic site · 1 hr 1 min northeast
Ruins of an 1867 frontier Army post near Albany, home to part of the Official State of Texas Longhorn Herd.
Lake · 1 hr 14 min west
A lake park west of Abilene for swimming, fishing and birding, with lakeside trails and a fishing pier.
Family fun · 1 hr 28 min southwest
A free garden of pools in San Angelo's Civic League Park filled with hundreds of colorful water lilies.
Town · 1 hr 37 min east
Old mineral-water town with a historic downtown of shops, galleries and restaurants, the Famous Mineral Water Company and Clark Gardens.
Bike trail · 1 hr 48 min east
A 20-mile rail-trail with flat grades and gentle curves running between two towns, shared by bikers, hikers and horseback riders.
State park · 1 hr 40 min west
A mesa-top park with a paved 3-mile loop road that climbs Scenic Mountain for wide views of Big Spring and the plains.
State park · 1 hr 50 min east
Lake park with Penitentiary Hollow, one of the few natural rock-climbing spots in North Texas, plus lake swimming, fishing and 12.8 miles of trails.
Historic site · 2 hr 11 min east
Fort Worth's Old West district, where the Fort Worth Herd runs the world's only daily cattle drive and rodeos fill the historic Cowtown Coliseum.
State park · 2 hr 21 min east
Walk in real dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River bed near Glen Rose, with about 20 miles of trails for hiking and mountain biking.
Town · 2 hr 1 min east
Lake town with a historic square and Lake Granbury, voted USA Today's Best Historic Small Town several times, with festivals all year.
Zoo · 2 hr 11 min east
Conservation center near Glen Rose where you drive a scenic route among roaming endangered and exotic animals and can feed them from your car.
State park · 2 hr 25 min north
A rugged Rolling Plains park with the State Longhorn Herd, lake swimming and some of the darkest night skies in Texas.
Family fun · 2 hr 45 min east
Large botanical garden in East Dallas with seasonal festivals, concerts and holiday displays.
State park · 2 hr 51 min west
Wind-shaped sand dunes you can roam freely, where kids slide down the slopes on rented sand discs.
Bike trail · 2 hr 39 min east
A 3.5-mile paved trail through Dallas with a soft-surface path alongside for walkers and runners.
Drive times are by road on a typical day from ZIP 79601 (OpenStreetMap data with the OSRM route planner). Facts checked against official sites; passes and hours change, so check before you go.