The Possum Kingdom Lake Ride

Motorcycle Roads & Rides > Routes > United States > Texas

Average Rating - This road has been rated by 11 visitors

State: Texas
Date Submitted: May 1, 2009
Submitted by: Iron Horse Fellowship
Motorcycle Road Length: 165 Miles

Written Directions

We were starting from Granbury on FM 4 and went north thru Santo/Lone Camp/Palo Pinto. This section of FM 4 is mountainous(for Texas) and very twisty, a great ride! Continue FM 4 north and take a left when it runs into Route 254. Take 254 west about 6 miles and you will come to a fork in the road and want to go right and get on Hwy 16 heading northwest. After a mile you will see FM 2353 on the left - take a left there and you'll head south ... this is a ride around the east side of the lake. Don't miss the look out over the dam, its a beautiful view of the lake and the valley below that you will soon be riding in. Continue on FM 2353 until it runs into Hwy 16 where you want to take a right heading south (now back on Hwy 16) to Brad/Metcalf Gap/Strawn. Now take Hwy 108 thru Mingus and continue south on Hwy 108 to FM 1188 turn left over to Morgan Mill and pick up FM 1189 to Lipan, pick up FM 4 in Lipan and continue back into Granbury. Nice excursion for the day.

Scenery

This is the best kept secret motorcycle ride for North Texas views and lies just about 60 miles west of Dallas Ft. Worth. It has lots of mountain views from the roads, you'll drive around Possum Kingdom Lake while taking in some great lake and cliff views.

Hwy 4 heading south from Graford thru Palo Pinto & onto Santo is a really nice ride to do in the fall. There is actually some fall color, not like east Texas, but for a day excursion from the Metroplex, not bad!

Road Quality

This ride will provide you with both twisties and straight-aways. Overall these are good road and well maintained. There is plenty of room with wide with areas to pull off if needed to take a break or take in the views!

Roadside Amenities

Lots of small towns with gas stations. Strawn has 2 nice restaurants - Mary's Cafe and a steak house across the road from Mary's, sorry but I can't remember the name. PK Lake has restaurants too, gas stations as well. There are also a couple of restaurants in Thurber just south east of Strawn on Hwy 108 & I20. Great Homemade Brownie Sundae at New York Hill Restaurant in Thurber. Which is a great topping off to the wonderful Chicken Fried Steak at Mary's in Strawn!

Additional Info

- View the weather forecast for this area from Yahoo weather .

Nickname (optional) Iron Horse Fellowship

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Reviewed by Guest on February 15, 2011 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: Katt
motorcycle_year: 2006
motorcycle_make: Harley-Davidson
motorcycle_type: Cruiser
Comment: wow! this was only like my 4th ride ever, and as a new rider,i loved it.. the twistys and turns made me nervous,but I did it, and the scenery was really nice, stopped in strawn, ate at Mary's...then we went down some more twistys and sweeping turns on 281.then we took the back way into Eagle Mountain Lake to Augies...just in time for the sunset..the road conditions for the most part were pretty good..
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Reviewed by Guest on January 22, 2011 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: Ron Thrasher
motorcycle_year: 2008
motorcycle_make: Suzuki
motorcycle_type: Other
Comment: My wife, Shirley, and I ride these hills frequently. We both have Suzuki/Lehman Trikes and have really enjoyed the entire environs. We especially like to triangulate from Santo north up Ward Mountain thru Palo Pinto, on up to Graham, and back down thru Mineral Wells then home. There is a great little bistro in Graham on the north side of the court square, (can't seem to ever remember the name-I am 68 years old you know) where they have scrumptious sandwiches, flavored teas, and the ambiance far surpasses anything between Fort Worth and Abilene. Also, you can get one of the best hamburgers in north Texas at the cCrcle H Shell station at I-20 and US281. We have ridden our trikes all over Texas Hill Country, Oklahoma, Kansas, new Mexico into the Colorado Mountains and to Big Bend Texas twice. In our humble opinion, this particular stretch of ride far surpasses anything so far with the exception of the River Road. (170) along the Rio Grande from Terlingua to Presidio.
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Reviewed by Guest on January 3, 2011 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: CHARLIE
motorcycle_year: 2006
motorcycle_make: Harley-Davidson
motorcycle_type: Sport
Comment: Great ride good roads & GREAT views, I also loved the small towns. Lots of bikes so make some new friends!
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Reviewed by Guest on May 30, 2010 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: GlamGram
motorcycle_year: 2003
motorcycle_make: Honda
motorcycle_type: Touring
Comment: Hubby and I rode to PK last Saturday and we were very disappointed. We rode from Decatur, which was just OK, but found that no scenic roads went around the lake and there were no lookout points or any place to stop along the road. Private homes and trees blocked any views of the lake. The end of the only road at lakeside ended in a tacky trailer/RV camp.
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Reviewed by Guest on August 23, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: MochaCaliGirl
Comment: A friend of mine and I made this ride on a whim after reading about it and I have to say that this is one of the most enjoyable rides I have ever taken. I ride a Ninja 250 and my friend rides a GSX-R 750. There was something for both of us. For us the trip was 300 miles from start to finish because we left from Dallas but we plan on doing it again. Great roads, plenty of gas stops, lovely scenery. Everyone MUST do this one.
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Reviewed by Guest on August 12, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: GB
motorcycle_year: 2002
motorcycle_make: Honda
motorcycle_type: Sport-Touring
Comment: FM4 is one of the best roads in north TX... can start in Cleburne and follow it all the way to Graford but the very best part is between Santo and Palo Pinto. Stop midway at Lakeview Dr and follow up to the hill overlooking the dam/spillway for one of the coolest views in the area. Then get right back on FM4 :) Will sometimes ride there from DFW just to go up/down this section a half dozen times or more. If following this route, one variation is near Strawn - just north of town turn left (think its fm203?) and follow it through the "town" of Necessity and it eventually ends on 180 just east of Breckenridge. Very underrated road with some nice scenery, a bunch or twisties and a number of spots where you can really open it up. Almost no traffic ever on the road and very few homes/ranches either.
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Reviewed by Guest on August 1, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: Josh
motorcycle_year: 2002
motorcycle_make: BMW
motorcycle_type: Standard
Comment: I live in Mineral Wells which is just to the east of this area. We are about 12 miles east of Palo Pinto. These are truly good roads I get to ride them often. FM4 where it starts in Santo is litterly about 10 miles from my house and I ride it often. It's a fun road. Be careful of gravel in the corners on FM4 as the gravel trucks that run up and down it on a regular basis have a tendency to loose bits and pieces of their load while driving on it.
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Reviewed by Guest on July 25, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: Carol Martin Haas
motorcycle_year: 2000
motorcycle_make: Harley-Davidson
motorcycle_type: Standard
Comment: I grew up in this area and this route is very, very nice. I took my husband on it last year, he thought it was great. There is (was) a little store/bar on hwy 4 in the Tadpole Camp (the little valley between Santo and Lone Camp) that is for bikers, not sure if it's still there. A friend used to live there years ago. Also if you turn off at that little store and head west, you'll find some nice roads back in there that go around Palo Pinto Lake. Ride safe!
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Reviewed by Guest on July 12, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: DG
motorcycle_year: 2008
motorcycle_make: Harley-Davidson
motorcycle_type: Touring
Comment: You are exactly right about this being great country to ride. But, one correction - it's 60 miles west of DFW, not east.
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Reviewed by Guest on May 26, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: Jerry C
Comment: Me and my wife did this ride on Memorial Day and it was a great ride. The views were tremoundous and I loved all the curved roads. I will be back on this road very soon. Thanks for the Information.
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Reviewed by Guest on May 14, 2009 (0 out of 0 members found this review useful.)
Creator: Dough Boy
motorcycle_year: 2001
motorcycle_make: Yamaha
motorcycle_type: Cruiser
Comment: This area is a fantastic ride!
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