What are the best hikes around here? Thinking of taking the SO on one this coming weekend.

Duration of hike I'd prefer would be anywhere 2-4 hours.

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dinosaur valley and mineral wells arent terrible. i havent found anywhere awesome. Not sure if the Wichitas are within your driving range, but i hear thats a good time.

If you want to make the drive, the Wichitas are much better than anything close to DFW area. The wife & I had a great time hiking there.

for the duration of a hike go out to Arbor Hills Nature preserve and get off the paved path. Follow the perimeter trail and for a few moments you forget that you are smack dab in the middle of W. Plano.

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If you want to go that route there is also Oak Point nature preserve in Plano. We take our kids to both of these places to ride bikes. Evan had our family photos taken in Arbor Hills 2 years ago. I'm not sure how big Arbor Hills is, but Oak Point is roughly 800 acres if I remember correctly. But as with any place close to a big city, they can/do get pretty crowded on weekends with nice weather.

Look for the deer out at Arbor Hills.

Went to cedar ridge preserve a couple of years ago. I seem to recall some elevation changes.

As far as elevation, Cedar Ridge Preserve is as good as anything within 2 hours, as far as I know. Cedar Hill State Park isn't bad either.

There's 20 miles of hiking trails at the Fort Worth Nature Center.

There's also the Heard Natural Science Museum in McKinney. They have a couple of miles of trail there. It's another place where it's easy to forget you're in the city.

There are a lot of good hiking trails on the north side of Grapevine Lake.

I grew up going to the Herd Musuem during the summers. Totally forgot about that place.

Lavon is pretty dry and could walk the 4 wheeler trails around the outskirts. I won't comment on the legality of it...oh and might want to be carrying, there's some interesting people that roam those areas

Thank y'all for the responses, I'll look into them.

Big Cedar Wilderness Preserve will provide the most elevation gain in the shortest distance anywhere in Dallas. In Fort Worth you get a similar rise/run at Sansom Park. Both trails were built by mountain bikers but are commonly used by trail runners and hikers.

There are many state parks within a few hours of DFW with fun hiking.

Dinosaur Valley and Mineral Wells as already mentioned.
One of our favorite hikes is around the lake at Lake Meridian SP; about 3+ miles with various terrain.
Cleburne SP also has decent trails around the park perimeter and at the spillway area.
Fort Richardson (Jacksboro) is a decent trail between the SP and the Lake SP.