Penitentiary Hollow @ Lake Mineral Wells State Park

This is an absolute MUST for hiking in the Mineral Wells area. The rock formations are incredible to find a peaceful place to meditate, go rappelling be sure to sign your permission form in the park office, or you can even do a fun Lord of The Rings fantasy photo shoot! Not for you? Grab a rod and head through the hollow to the fishing pier... maybe you can catch the BIG ONE that got away from my oldest daughter. Bring a snack and water, as the time passes quickly here. Also, beware of poison ivy!

Our group came in for a rock-climbing trip and were pleased to find so many routes and helpful climbers to climb alongside! Be aware that there are two fees if you are coming to climb: 1. A general park entrance fee and 2. A climbing fee. You'll sign a waiver and pay in the front office, but many of the park entrance passes need to be reserved ahead of time due to COVID limitations. We are looking forward to return here when there is warmer weather!

It was a fun very rocky hike with fantastic views.

This is a beautiful hiking trail for beginners and experts alike! The high rock walls are equipped with anchors for rock climbers and provide beautiful views both up top of the lake and down below of the walls and trees and many other interesting things nature provides. We enjoyed taking our daughter and a friend from church. We all enjoyed our leisurely hike and climb.

Love the rock climbing walls

This is my favorite place to go hiking and exploring. It's an awesome place to climb and boulder, but also just for hanging out and having a picnic. There are places to climb down if you have the gear, but you can also go down to the bottom with the stairs by the overlook. However, I would definitely recommend wearing good hiking shoes and being careful. There are lots of places to seriously fall and/or injure yourself if you are not careful.

Such a beautiful peaceful place. You can walk around in the maze of rocks or if you got the gear try some climbing. If fishing is your thing plenty of spots.

The anchor placements were terrible, some were so far back you might as well have taken a saw to your rope, and others were missing a chain. I can't say much for the routes here as we didn't want to damage our rope, but the rock has a smooth and thick gritty feel to it. If you're thinking of camping here, save your money. They charge a 7$ entrance fee per person per day, on top of their camp site fee which ranges any where from 10$ to 36$ a night, depending on which camp site area you're staying in. Once you set up camp you pretty much have to drive to get to the main attractions, as opposed to hiking. My overall experience here and at the state park camping were pretty bad. I would not come here again.

Geologically magnificent! Erosion has created some wonderful rocks to examine. You can even climb on them if you so desire. Fantastic view of Lake Mineral Wells!

My favorite place for hiking. It's 1-1.5 hours from DFW metroplex. It's really pretty. It has beautiful lake, and marvelous boulders. Must see place.