People who run Campion Trail regularly will tell you the Elm Fork segment is where the trail finally earns its reputation. Not the paved stretches near the soccer fields, not the easy flats by the golf course — the stretch where the trail bends alongside the actual Elm Fork of the Trinity River, where the cottonwoods get tall and the pavement gives way to packed gravel and the city noise drops off almost entirely. That section is what keeps locals coming back.
The trailhead most people use for this stretch sits off Conflans Road in far northwest Irving, near the point where the city bleeds into the floodplain. There’s a small gravel lot, usually half-full by eight on a weekend morning. Regulars park, stretch, and move. Nobody lingers long at the trailhead itself — the pull is forward, into the trees.
Within the first quarter mile, the skyline disappears. The trail follows the river’s edge closely enough that on a quiet morning you can hear water moving. In spring, the bottomland floods occasionally and recedes, leaving the banks muddy and rich-smelling, and the wildflowers — prairie verbena, black-eyed Susans, the occasional patch of native sunflower — come in thick along the dry ridgeline above. In November, the cottonwoods drop their leaves all at once and the trail turns gold underfoot. Both seasons draw photographers alongside the runners and cyclists.
The trail surface shifts here more than in other sections. Paved stretches give way to crushed granite, which gives way to dirt singletrack near the water’s edge, particularly around the oxbow bend roughly a mile in. That bend is where most casual visitors turn around — it’s a natural pause point, with a flat clearing and a good view down the river channel. Those who continue find the trail thinning, a wooden bridge crossing a seasonal creek, and eventually a connector path that loops back through open prairie. The full loop, depending on which spurs you take, runs between four and seven miles.
Cyclists and joggers share the trail without much friction — the width varies, and the natural surface sections slow bikes down naturally. Dogs are common and generally well-managed. On weekday mornings, it’s quiet enough that deer sightings are routine in the brush along the river corridor. Great blue herons work the shallows. A pair of red-tailed hawks nests somewhere in the upper canopy on the back stretch.
There are no concessions, no restrooms at the Conflans access point, and no shade structures — it’s a real trail, not a park amenity. Water and sunscreen are non-negotiable from April through October. In summer, the early crowd peaks before seven and thins out by nine, when the heat becomes serious business.
The trail is free and open year-round, dawn to dusk. On a cool October Saturday, with the light slanted low through the cottonwood canopy and the river running clear from a week of dry weather, it’s as good a two hours as Irving offers outdoors. No ticket, no reservation, no wait — just the path and the river doing what they’ve always done.
