Sports & Recreation

Outsiders may think the Dallas area is nothing but one big, flat paved parking lot for churches and shopping centers, but forests, lakes and hills and canyons are all within close proximity. Dogwood Canyon may not be grand, but experienced hikers and stroller-pushing families alike will find themselves negotiating a trio of gorgeously scenic trails, lush with plenty of shade and bird-watching opportunities, all just a few minutes south of town.   

You might not know it, but North Texas is home to some solid fly fishing. Dallas is also home to Tailwaters Fly Fishing Co., a leading travel guide and outfitter, but also a vibrant clubhouse for the local fly fishing community and those looking to join its ranks. And a recent book, Urban Fly Fishing Dallas-Fort Worth, spotlights more than 70 access points for 17 streams and ponds throughout North Texas. We bet you didn’t know there were that many. 

Perhaps we’ve gotten used to it being there, so it’s easy to forget just what a unique gem Klyde Warren Park is. The five beautifully arranged, manicured acres have been the festive strip of fun that connects downtown and uptown for 13 years now, yet it never looks or feels nothing less than brand new. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better example of urban oasis than the deck above Woodall Rodgers Freeway with fountains, a Mi Cocina, splash pads, a dog park and events for the family.

Bouldering Project started in Seattle, and we’re glad they made their way down to Dallas. This gym isn’t just 8,500 square feet of bouldering space; it also has a weight room, sauna, co-working area and a yoga studio. A membership here is truly for holistic wellness, starting on the rock wall. Bouldering Project serves all levels, so whether you’re new to the rock wall or you’re an experience climber, it has something for you.

If you’re looking to get outside and do some bouldering, Dallas isn’t exactly your friend. So with the knowledge that a trek is in order, we point you an hour west of Fort Worth, where the Penitentiary Hollow climbing area at Mineral Wells State Park offers a number of climbing and rappelling routes across the sandstone rock formations. This is one of the only spots in North Texas for natural rock climbing, but the views are sure to be worth the trip out west.

Bicycle enthusiasts can be a picky bunch, but they don’t really want anything unusual out of a bike shop. Great service, quality repairs and a well-stocked selection of bikes, parts and gear are enough to please most. As simple as that sounds, it’s not as common as one would hope. All that is present and accounted for, however, at Dallas Bike Works near White Rock Lake. Walk into some bike shops and they either feel like fancy showrooms or cramped closets. Not DBW. You know you’re in a bike rider’s bike shop when you pedal your road ride or MTB to see for yourself. 

Braindead Running Club has been pacing through Dallas since before your brother, cousin, and neighbor were all doing it. The club meets every Monday at 6:50 p.m. at Westlake Brewing Company. It has several different distances for all levels, but all participants get to indulge in a post-run free brew. There is no membership fee and it welcomes walkers and joggers for weekly runs down Swiss Avenue. 

There’s something extra awesome about a well-stocked trail running store only a short jog from arguably the best trail in North Texas. Think of how cool it is to grab that T-shirt from the merch table at a concert. That’s the vibe you get at Trail Head Running Supply in Flower Mound, located in the Shops at Lakeside, right next to the outdoor haven that is North Shore Trail along Grapevine Lake. It’s a sort of clubhouse for local runners thanks to its many scheduled group runs and other events. 

This Oak Cliff gem isn’t just the most scenic municipal course in Dallas, it’s one of the best public courses in the state. The dramatic views of downtown make this course immediately appearling, and the course layout mixes things up just enough to stay interesting over 18 holes, while still being an approachable course for beginners. Stevens Park is affordable, walkable and surrounded by some of the city’s best post-round tacos and beer — and if you get hungry at the turn, don’t overlook the clubhouses’ bagel sandwiches, which will only put you back a few bucks.

The Cedar Crest Golf Club in southern Dallas has a storied history as home to the 1927 PGA Championship. The 18-hole course offers picturesque views of the Dallas skyline, a renovated clubhouse, a driving range, rolling terrain, green-side bunkers and tree-lined fairways. Cedar Crest is only one of two Dallas courses designed by the legendary A.W. Tillinghast. Golf lessons by professional golfers are available, too.

Gone are the days of mini golf fun climaxing with putting a ball through the bottom of a windmill on Astroturf-covered concrete. Cocktails, pub grub and themed indoor courses have become the norm for those looking to test out their putter. Co-owned by Tiger Woods, PopStroke in The Colony has two courses designed by legit pro golf course designers that say “Augusta National” more than “Putt-Putt.” You don’t even have to walk to a bar to order drinks there either. There’s an app for that.

It’s safe to say we aren’t Dallas’ most flexible newsroom, but the 101 classes taught by instructor Alex Jalbert are accessible to all. Jalbert’s humor wards off the insecurity that comes when trying something new, and the pretension that often seeps into workout classes. He is especially gifted at guiding the flow through specific movement instructions rather than pose names, so you don’t have to know what the “Cobra Pose” looks like to keep up with the class. Jalbert has bounced around Dallas yoga studios recently and seems to have settled at Yoga Zama. 

If we weren’t already won over by the large outdoor patio and impressive craft beer selection, the Big Lebowski artwork hung around the alley instantly let us know that the creators of Bowl Lounge had a vision, and they’ve succeeded in bringing it to life. The menu and bar program are elevated from your typical bowling alley selections, and pool tables and outdoor games mean that once your round of bowling is over, there’s still plenty of fun to be had. 

Deep in the ground floor of a Highland Park parking garage, from nearly sun-up to sun-down, the hottest of the hot gather for a grueling hour-long workout at PITFIT. The workout is hard, a drenching of sweat is to be expected, but maybe the view of Dallas’ most eligible on either side will help get you through it. Owner of PitFit, Chris Wiese, is a self-professed matchmaker, happy and willing to set up his regular clients.

Let’s be honest, there’s a pilates studio on every corner, so the standard for the city’s best is high. Jungle Studios is the perfect combination of everything you might need. The chic setting is inviting. The classes are challenging, but the instructors are encouraging and the location in Bishop Arts is primo for post-workout window shopping or grabbing a latte. Jungle Studios doesn’t just do pilates; it also offers yoga and strength classes, but you’ll never have to worry about accidentally catapulting yourself off a reformer in a loud and embarrassing clang. 

Get ready to feel the burn. Pilates is all the rave now, but SESSION has been serving Dallas since 2016 and now boasts seven locations, including one in Nashville. The classes are small, meaning the instructors are attentive and detail-oriented, perfecting form while keeping energy levels high. If you’re looking for the perfect tone, look no further than SESSION, but move quickly because the classes book fast. 

2025 is the year of pilates, and boutique studios are popping up everywhere to meet the moment. Few match the heart and heat of Align Studio. Fitness guru Adriana Talbot launched her Lower Greenville studio in May 2024 while pregnant, infusing the space with grit, warmth and community. Align offers sweat-drenching pilates, sculpt and yoga classes in unheated, warm and hot tempered options. It’s one of the few studios that truly caters to moms, with prenatal pilates and New Mama Sculpt, a bring-your-own-baby postnatal strength class. How’s that for BYOB?

Despite only opening its doors in March, Studio Santé has quickly developed a cult following for its infrared-heated classes. A rotating cast of some of Dallas’ most popular fitness instructors are available to lead you through mat pilates, yoga, sculpt or HeroBoard workouts. We love that the University Park studio is decorated to feel like home, because setting up your sweaty mat next to a cozy fireplace makes the intense workout just a little more bearable. Just make sure to set an alarm if you want in: trying to get off the waitlist for these perpetually popular classes is a rite of passage for Dallas’ Lululemon-clad set.

In a short time, the Dallas area has become a surfing hotspot. Yes, you read that right. You can catch waves in just about every corner of North Texas these days, thanks to the increasing popularity of Citywave pool technology. Goodsurf’s location between Deep Ellum and Fair Park means that even the most landlocked newbie can know what Kelly Slater feels like every day and still be close to the Doublewide. 

Scheels in the Colony is, of course, more than a mere sporting goods store. It’s a full-fledged family attraction, complete with a candy shop, cafe, mammoth aquarium and a Ferris wheel in the center of the place. But make no mistake, whether you’re into bikes, fishing, camping, Little League baseball, youth soccer, kayaking or hunting, you’ll have a hard time finding anywhere in North Texas that can top them, especially when you consider the one-stop-shopping vibe of it all.

“Good seats are so expensive.” Wrong! You’re either a snob or don’t care about sports if you think that. If you sit court-side, ice level or field level, chances are you’re with people well above your tax bracket who are having a night out, not there to watch the team they’re a diehard fan of. The best place in Dallas to watch a hockey or basketball game is in the upper deck, on the ends or in the corners. Why? Because it offers the most unobstructed view of the ice (or court), allowing you to watch plays develop among other rowdy diehard fans. The real fans are in the 300s. 

Top draft pick Paige Bueckers has rightfully grabbed headlines and brought new eyes to the Dallas Wings and the WNBA as a whole, but before she arrived, Dallas had another all-star on the team more than earning her keep. Since leading Notre Dame to the 2019 NCAA title, Arike Ogunbowale went to four consecutive WNBA all-star games, where she won the game’s MVP award in both 2021 and 2024. She also landed second-team All-WNBA honors in 2024 while playing for a team that was bad enough to land the top pick in the draft. 

In the 2024 season, the Cowboys made more headlines for general drama than they did for on-the-field success. Just before the first game of the year, the team announced it had signed its two biggest offensive stars, CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott, to historically huge contract extensions, and that was basically the high point of the season. Prescott would get injured a few weeks later and miss most of the season, but Lamb balled out, notching his third consecutive season of 100 catches and 1,000 yards. 

The Rangers’ biggest offseason signing wasn’t the sexiest one ever, but it was arguably its most needed. “Big Game Nate” didn’t win the 2023 World Series MVP award, but without the native Texan’s brilliance throughout that postseason run, it’s difficult to imagine the team would’ve gone very far. After signing a vital three-year extension, Eovaldi started off 2025 on track for an all-star appearance before injuries slowed him down, then returned to the lineup and reminded everyone why this team is a better one with him on the mound. 

So, we get it. This is an unusual choice given that the college superstar has yet to play an official game for the Mavericks, but you know what? 2025 was an unusual year for the Mavericks, to put it mildly. Luka is gone, Kyrie missed a bunch of time, so did the new guy, Anthony Davis, and young star Dereck Lively II. We could be serious sports people here and give this nod to local guy P.J. Washington, but who made any of us care about the Mavericks after the trade more than the top overall 2025 draft pick? We rest our case.

More than a decade into his tenure with the Dallas Stars, Tyler Seguin remains the heart of the team — a role no one saw him filling when he first hit the Texas ice as a party-hardy kid 12 years ago. Seguin has had so many injuries over the last few years that his hips are probably entirely metal, but the alternate captain came back strong just in time for playoffs this year and brought some needed veteran energy to the ice. And a few goals, too. It feels inevitable that this face of the franchise will be aging out of the sport sooner than later, and Dallas will be truly sad to see him go.

He’s from the Netherlands, spends time with the Indonesian national soccer team and plays for FC Dallas in Frisco. Goaltender Maarten Paes is indeed a well-traveled guy, and he’s been keeping goals empty everywhere he goes. The 2024 and 2025 seasons haven’t given FC Dallas fans much to celebrate, but make no mistake, things would be so much worse without Paes in front of the net. 

As if we weren’t already excited about the Dallas Wings’ upcoming move to downtown Dallas, we now have the arrival of Ms. Buckets herself amping up the hype. Everyone swore Paige Bueckers would never come to Dallas, but the UConn superstar landed with the Wings as the first pick of the WNBA draft. Earlier this year, the promise of seeing Bueckers face off against fellow superstar Caitlin Clark drew more than 20,400 fans to the American Airlines Center, setting a franchise record. That matchup will take to the AAC again in August, and we have to think Bueckers has played a major role in driving that demand.

It’s as if Daniel Gafford doesn’t even play basketball. His aggressive, high-flying, shot-swatting, rim-running style is more akin to a volleyball player, or maybe a comic book super hero battling a monster. He averaged 12 points and seven rebounds per game last season, a modestly productive output for a starting center, but it’s the way he energizes a crowd and his teammates that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. We’ll have to see how Gafford finds his place in a front court with Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg also on the roster, but after his year and a half in Dallas, we’ve learned not to bet against him.

In what has perhaps surprisingly become a competitive category in the Dallas area, we have to hand it to out-of-state newcomer Fritz’s Adventure in the Colony. Its sheer size is almost intimidating: At 100,000 square feet, the location next to Scheel’s has a zip line over 400 feet long, seemingly countless mazes, slides and ropes courses, and a 48-foot “city wall” that offers a fun, urban spin on the standard indoor rock climbing wall concept.

Sorry, but if you’re a pickleball denier, you’ve long since lost that battle. Not only is pickleball here to stay, but frankly, it’s everywhere. Not that you should need proof of pickleball’s cultural dominance these days, but hit I-35 and head north toward Lewisville and see for yourself. Within a 10-mile stretch, a trio of new-ish pickleball destinations offer up courts, cocktails and more. At Fault in Farmers Branch, Pickler Universe in Carrollton, and The Picklr in Lewisville can all be seen from their nearest freeway exits and often have packed parking lots.  

For only the second time ever, NBA and WNBA teams from the same city held the first overall picks in their drafts in the same year. Thanks to the Luka Doncic trade drama, the Mavericks got more attention for miraculously landing the top pick in the 2025 NBA draft lottery, but it can easily be argued that the Wings nabbing the top pick in the 2025 WNBA draft was a bigger deal. Getting Cooper Flagg means the Mavericks conceivably have Doncic’s replacement as a franchise star, but Paige Bueckers joining the Wings made sports fans in North Texas care about the WNBA.

The podcast Jake Kemp hosts with Dan McDowell and Blake Jones, The Dumb Zone, is not strictly a sports podcast, just as the radio station they used to work for, 1310 the Ticket, is not only a sports station. But no local voice was louder, more indignant and justifiably angrier than Kemp’s after the Luka Doncic trade in February. Kemp went harder into the paint than the players he talks about, becoming a welcome leader to the countless Mavs fans who felt powerless and lost following the shocking move.

Although he’s fighting for playing time as a freshman this year at the University of Alabama, Keelon Russell had no peers during his senior year at Duncanville High School. The five-star recruit led his team to the 2023 6A Division 1 state championship. In 2024, he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 55 touchdowns and was named the national Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year 2024, the most prestigious high school sports award there is.  

He’s starring on Sundays for the Las Vegas Raiders now, but Ashton Jeanty tore up college football on Saturdays before landing in the NFL. After graduating from Lone Star High School in Frisco, Jeanty became a legend at Boise State, where he would rush for over 4,500 yards in three seasons on his way to winning numerous awards, including the Doak Walker Award for the nation’s top running back, and coming in second place for the 2024 Heisman Trophy. 

It’s not a complicated formula, yet it’s a rare one. Beer and exercise. When you add beer from arguably the best brewery in Texas, then things are kicked up a few notches. And look, we know Peticolas’ Velvet Hammer packs a punch, but few things are more empowering than skipping the mid-course water and pounding a small cup of the high ABV imperial red ale before you tackle the final mile or so on a run, knowing you have more tasty local brews waiting for you at the finish line.

Hitting stuff can be great for ridding oneself of aggression. But hitting stuff in a structured, fast-paced program in coordination with others doing the same has many more benefits. Yoga studios and spin classes are great and work wonders, but there’s nothing like pairing the post-workout physical exhaustion with a healthy dose of emotional release. Title Boxing Club has many locations around North Texas to help you do just that. 

An old saying in baseball is, “Look good, play good.” True or not, Adolis Garcia has enough flash and flair to make the worst games look good. Garcia uses his muscular build to his advantage, wearing a form-fitting uniform to outline his physique, which makes for an intimidating presence. The best part, though, is the accessories, which include big chains around his neck, an arm sleeve, bright, colorful shoes and thick eyeblack under his eyes. Anyone who says baseball is boring needs to watch Garcia for a game, because his swagger and style catch everyone’s eye.