In April, Irving held a ceremony to mark what city officials called the completion of Campion Trail. Irving leaders staged a ceremonial check presentation to mark what the city is calling the completion of the Campion Trail, with a $2.1 million check handed to Mayor Rick Stopfer during an event that framed decades of piecemeal trail-building as finally done. If you tried to ride the full route that same week, you would have hit orange fencing and a stretch of surface street at Frazier Dam. The trail is not finished. What actually happened in April was a funding milestone, and the physical gap it paid for is still being poured this summer and fall.
That distinction matters if you live here and use this trail, because it tells you exactly what to expect on your bike or your dog walk between now and the holidays, and it tells you where the real finish line sits.
What the April check actually paid for
Images shared by the City of Irving show State Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez presenting an oversized check to Mayor Stopfer, with the memo line reading "Campion Trail completion" and the amount listed as $2,100,000. The event highlighted funding tied to the Elm Fork Extension, part of a unification effort that has been assembled in pieces since the 1990s. The master plan was approved in 1995 and the project was initiated in 1996. The most recent piece of that unification work to actually open, Phase 1A, wrapped back in December 2023, a $1.5 million phase that included 5,000 feet of 12-foot wide trail, a bridge, a 14-foot wide boardwalk, and three low water crossings. The April check was about locking down money for what comes next, not about a ribbon being cut on new pavement.
The gap you'd still hit this month
The piece that closes the actual physical break in the trail is called Phase 1B, and it runs along Frazier Dam between Irving and Dallas. Work began this summer on Campion Trail Phase 1B, which runs along Frazier Dam between Irving and Dallas, and the 1.8-mile segment is expected to be complete in fall 2026. This is not cosmetic work. It's the connector that turns two separate trail systems into one continuous route.
What's currently going into the ground at Frazier Dam:
- Two new bridges
- Two low-water crossings
- Two boardwalks
- A 12-foot-wide paved concrete trail segment
- A dam overlook and rest area
- New canoe launches on both the north and south sides of the dam
Campion Trail Phase 1B is estimated to cost $4.2 million and is funded through the Park Improvement Bond Fund. Once it's open, the payoff isn't just local. The trail is part of the regional DFW Discovery Trail, a 66-mile trail system connecting the cities of Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Dallas and Irving. A rider who currently has to detour onto surface streets to get from the Las Colinas side to the Dallas side will, by fall, be able to ride straight through, past a dam overlook, with a canoe launch as an option instead of a destination.
Phase 2 is the one to actually watch
Even after Phase 1B opens, the project isn't closed out. Phase 2, the final phase of the project, is anticipated to begin in 2026 with construction ending in late 2027. The city's own trail page describes the broader buildout in blunt terms: this has been and will continue to be a long project. Campion Trail construction and development is expected to run roughly 30 years. If you're the type of resident who tracks these things, the number to actually circle is late 2027, not the April press conference.
What you can already ride this weekend
None of this means the trail is unusable right now. Quite the opposite. Currently, the trail consists of separate north and south sections that together total more than 17 miles of wide, flat, and paved pathway. The two halves just don't connect to each other yet at Frazier Dam.
The northern section is the one most Irving residents already know. The longer northern section of the Campion Trail follows the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, leaving off from the Valley Ranch community at Sam Houston Trail Park and traveling south to Las Colinas. A regular rider who frequents the stretch near Ranchview High School describes roughly a 6.5-mile run into Las Colinas with views along the polo grounds, and notes the one real gap in the experience: no restroom facility for the middle several miles, so plan your water and your timing accordingly.
The southern section runs separately for now. The southern section follows the West Fork of the Trinity River, leaving off from Trinity View Park, and connects to Grand Prairie's Lone Star Trail.
For actual access points, here's where you park depending on which half you're riding:
| Access Point | Section | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sam Houston Trail Park | North | Northern trailhead near Valley Ranch |
| La Villita Park | North | Connects to exercise bars at nearby Keenan Crossing Park |
| Bird's Fort Trail Park | North | Mid-trail parking off Riverside Drive |
| California Crossing Park | North | 30-acre stop with river views, good for a picnic break |
| Trinity View Park | South | Restrooms, picnic shelters, athletic fields |
| Mountain Creek Preserve | South | Southern terminus parking |
Conditions have been holding up well through the summer. Trail activity logs show riders still using the route as recently as late July, and earlier reports this year described dry ground and well-maintained pavement with wildflowers along the way. If you're riding the north segment start to finish, the twelve-foot-wide trail extends from the Valley Ranch planned development community to Las Colinas, which contains the corporate headquarters of several Fortune 500 firms, and provides people with the opportunity to safely run, walk, skate, or bike to work.
The reward at the north end
Ride the northern section far enough and you land in Las Colinas, where the trail's endpoint doubles as one of Irving's better excuses to end a workout with dinner. The Loop is a free circulator connecting the Irving Convention Center, Toyota Music Factory, Water Street, Mustangs of Las Colinas, Levy Event Plaza and area hotels, running daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. No app, no fare, just a stop and a wait.
Water Street is the newer of the two dining pockets worth knowing. It's one of Irving's newest hot spots, with pathways to Lake Carolyn and cool restaurants, located on the scenic shores of Lake Carolyn very near the Toyota Music Factory. If you want coffee before a ride or a drink after one, Pax & Beneficia serves concentrated Turkish coffee alongside pastries at an independently-owned shop right on the water, and Monaco offers a French Riviera-inspired menu on the same stretch.
The newer name to know in Las Colinas dining opened earlier this year in a spot with some turnover history. InSo, short for Indus Social, is a Southeast Asian fusion restaurant that transitions from upscale dining into a late-night lounge, now open at 3165 Regent Blvd. in what was most recently a Sickies Garage, and before that, a Walk-On's. It's the kind of spot that fills a gap the area didn't quite have before, part restaurant, part late-night lounge.
If you're planning a Saturday around this, timing matters. The free Tribute to Summer Concert Series brings live music to the plaza at Toyota Music Factory every Saturday night in June, July, and August 2026, with shows beginning at 9:00 p.m. and free admission. With three Saturdays left in the run, it's a low-cost way to close out a trail day without leaving Las Colinas.
And if you'd rather cool down on water than on a bar stool, the canal system that predates all of this construction is still there. Follow the tree-lined, cobblestone walkway stretching 3 miles around Lake Carolyn and the canals, past the bronze Mustangs sculpture, with gondola rides available for anyone who wants the slower version of the evening.
What actually changed here
The honest version of this story isn't that Campion Trail got finished in April. It's that the money got locked down, the last real gap started getting filled in over the summer, and the actual connection between Irving's two trail halves is a fall 2026 event, not a spring one. Phase 2 pushes the full picture into late 2027. For a project that's been assembled since 1996, a few more months is nothing, but it's the difference between planning a ride that dead-ends at a construction fence and planning one that doesn't.
That's the kind of detail that only shows up if you're paying attention to this neighborhood past the press release, which is exactly how the Donna and Gail Team approaches Irving and the rest of the DFW metroplex. If you're curious what any of this local momentum, trail access included, means for what your home is worth right now, get your instant home valuation and we'll walk you through it.
