Volunteers keep Trinity Trail open around Lake Lavon in Collin County

Traces of Collin County’s open-space past still survive along Lake Lavon, but only because volunteers keep them there. The Trinity Trail Preservation Association says the 25.5-mile trail corridor survives as an all-volunteer effort on Corps of Engineers land, serving hikers, joggers, photographers, nature lovers and trail riders across the Lucas and Wylie area.

A trail built for more than one kind of user

Trinity Trail is not a standard city hike-and-bike path. It is an equestrian and hiking trail that follows a rural lakeside corridor, with dirt and loam underfoot, some gravel, and wet crossings that can change quickly after rain. Collin County says the trail is managed and maintained by volunteers with the Trinity Trail Preservation Association, and the county’s parks page notes restroom facilities and picnic areas at access points, which makes the route usable for longer outings as well as short visits.

That mix of volunteer care and public access is what gives the trail its value. Without regular maintenance, Collin County would lose a low-impact way to reach the shoreline setting around Lake Lavon, plus the quiet, shared-use route that has room for horses, foot traffic and the kind of slower recreation that does not fit on a paved suburban greenway.

Where to start and how the route connects

The trailhead system matters here because Trinity Trail is spread across a large piece of public land. TTPA lists three main trailheads, Brockdale Park, East Fork and Highland Park, with East Winningkoff also shown as an access point. Collin County’s parks page highlights Brockdale Park and East Fork Park as trailheads near Lucas and Wylie, which puts the trail directly into the daily geography of northern Collin County.

The map also shows the route extending from the south end at East Fork Trailhead in Wylie to Highland Park Trailhead and beyond to the Giant Sycamore Loop at the north end. Brockdale Park sits centrally along that line and gives riders a lake view, a drive-through parking loop, water, a round pen, covered picnic tables and easy north-south access. Southbound riders can head roughly 9 miles toward Wylie and East Fork, while northbound users move through wooded and bridge-connected stretches toward Highland Park.

What the rules mean on the ground

If you use Trinity Trail, the rules are part of what keeps it open for everyone. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the trail is for hiking and equestrian use only, no motorized or wheeled vehicles are allowed, groups of more than 25 riders need a permit from the Lavon Lake office, and the trail closes when wet. TTPA posts trail-status updates online because footing can shift fast after rain.

For practical planning, that means the trail is most reliable when you treat it like a shared rural route rather than a park loop. Footing can turn slick, crossings can change, and horses need room, so the trail works best when users respect the surface, the weather and the permit rule for larger groups.

• Hikers and trail riders are the core users.

• No motorized or wheeled vehicles are allowed.

• The trail closes when wet.

• Groups of more than 25 riders need a permit.

• Trail-status updates matter after rain.

Why volunteer stewardship matters in a fast-growing county

The trail’s history explains why local stewardship still matters. TTPA says the organization was established in 1996 as an all-volunteer nonprofit to maintain the trail, and its history notes describe a moment when Collin County planned to close the existing horse trail unless an organized group stepped in within 30 days. In other words, Trinity Trail did not simply happen to survive. People organized quickly enough to keep it from disappearing.

That preservation work did not stop there. A 2008 TTPA post says the trail then ran 17.5 miles from the East Fork Equestrian Campground in Wylie to Highland Park, and that the association later received a Texas Parks and Wildlife Recreational Trails Program grant to extend it another 10 miles. County records show the trail remains part of active public planning: in 2019, Lucas City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Collin County and the City of Lucas to coordinate and support Trinity Trail’s operation, and in 2023 Collin County approved $179,006 for the City of Lucas’s Trinity Trail Connect Phase 1 project.

The county’s updated Regional Trails Master Plan, approved on November 10, 2025, adds another layer. Collin County says the revision reflects rapid population growth, changing development patterns and community needs, which makes Trinity Trail more than a recreation feature. It is now part of a larger discussion about how the county keeps open-space corridors reachable as subdivisions, roads and schools spread outward.

Why Lake Lavon makes the trail matter

The Corps describes Lavon Lake as an approximately 21,400-acre reservoir that draws about 1.6 million visitors a year for camping, fishing, swimming, boating and other recreation. Against that backdrop, Trinity Trail stands out because it offers a quiet, land-based way to experience the same public landscape without adding another paved amenity or parking lot-heavy destination.

That is what public support needs to protect: the volunteer maintenance that keeps the trail open, the access points that connect Lucas and Wylie to the shoreline, the equestrian use that makes it distinct from a standard greenway, and the bridge between county growth and public land. Trinity Trail remains open because residents kept it open, and in a county moving as fast as Collin County, that kind of stewardship is the difference between a corridor that works and one that fades away.