Midway Hollow ends at Northwest Highway. The neighborhood is bounded by Northwest Highway, Marsh Lane, Walnut Hill Lane and Midway Road, and People Newspapers places Bachman Lake Park, at 3500 W. Northwest Highway, just southwest of it. The park has a boat ramp, a marina and boathouse, a recreation center, a sand volleyball court and trails around the water. The loop trail runs 3.08 miles, and according to the Dallas Park and Recreation trail sheet, it comes with views of aircraft and sometimes of rowers sculling on the lake.
Midway Hollow's southwest corner sits at Marsh Lane, Lemmon Avenue and Northwest Highway. Its southeast corner sits near Midway Road, a short distance from the Cochran Chapel Road cul-de-sac. This fall, the lake's access points nearest each corner are changing. That matters more than it would have a few years ago, because Bachman Lake is turning from a loop you drive to into a junction where several trails are planned to meet.
The Southwest Corner Runs on a 2018 Promise
The Marsh and Northwest Highway corner has been waiting the longest. In 2018, the Dallas City Council gave QuikTrip a patch of unused land behind businesses there. In return, QuikTrip promised to overhaul that stretch of trail with a trailhead, lights under the Webb Chapel bridge and security cameras, according to a Dallas Morning News editorial from August 8, 2026. Ryan Moore, president of Friends of Bachman Lake, told the paper that QuikTrip had at one point hoped to finish before the World Cup. That deadline passed with nothing visible on the site. "Surely it can't be much longer," Moore said.
A month later, the ground started moving. The Friends of Bachman Lake September newsletter said earth was being moved for the QT facility at Marsh Lane/Lemmon Avenue and Northwest Highway. It also noted that QT had agreed, as part of the land deal, to build and pay for new landscaping and a trailhead connecting Northwest Highway to the Bachman Lake Trail. The group expects the trailhead to make "a visually appealing connection to the Bachman Lake Trail in a section that is currently difficult to navigate." As of that September report, the site work was for the store. The trailhead itself was still a promise tied to that construction.
The same newsletter reported a second change on that side. As of mid-September, a new sidewalk was being built on the north side of Northwest Highway, next to the empty field in the airport's runway protection zone near Sam's Club. The group had asked for sidewalks and crosswalks there about seven years earlier, at a meeting at Bachman Lake Library with city, state and county representatives. At the time of the newsletter, the crosswalks had been funded but not built.
The Southeast Corner Got a Greenbelt Back
On the other side, the change is already easy to see. The Bachman Creek Greenbelt, east of the lake, was overgrown with privet and could not be crossed for decades. Friends of Bachman Lake, Greenspace Dallas and Dallas Park and Recreation have been restoring it, according to the Friends' June 2026 newsletter. The October newsletter says the area now has footpaths, bridges and new plantings.
The greenbelt has two entrances:
- Embassy Suites trailhead, 3880 W. Northwest Highway. Walk along the right side of the hotel, down a ramp and around to the back. There are no restrooms at this entrance.
- The Cochran Chapel Road cul-de-sac, south of Northwest Highway and Midway Avenue. This is the closer entrance from Midway Hollow's Midway Road side.
Late fall is a good time to go. The Friends now run their own iNaturalist project for the greenbelt and are asking walkers to log birds and monarch butterflies as they migrate through. One donor quoted in the Friends of Bachman Lake September newsletter wrote that they had "recently discovered this trail through the woods in my own backyard" and now walk it every morning with binoculars and a camera.
The work depends on volunteers, and the October newsletter's cleanup notice gives practical advice. It listed an October 24 trail cleanup with Greenspace Dallas at the Embassy Suites trailhead. It told volunteers to wear boots, long pants and calf-high socks because of poison ivy and mosquitoes, and it welcomed all ages and dogs. Afterward, volunteers were invited to On Rotation Brewery & Kitchen, which also hosts the Friends' 4th Wednesday Meet and Greet. On Rotation is on Lemmon Avenue, just outside Love Field. North Texas Giving Day brought the group more than $8,000 this fall for trail maintenance, tree planting and events.
Why the Corners Matter More Now
Bachman Lake is gaining trail connections in several directions, so its entrances now lead to more than the 3.08-mile loop.
The first connection is already open. The Lemmon Avenue Streetscape Project started in 2020 and covers Lemmon from Shorecrest Drive to Mockingbird Lane and into the airport entrance. CandysDirt reported that it planted more than 200 trees, rebuilt Midway Manor Park and its basketball court, improved intersections and added a walking and biking connection to Bachman Lake Park. The last piece was the Dallas Love Field Observation Area at the end of George Coker Circle off Lemmon Avenue, which held its ribbon cutting on Saturday, April 25. The project also added sculptures at Lemmon and Lovers Lane and at Lemmon and Shorecrest. The Friends credit the Department of Aviation with paying for the new trail.
The second connection runs west, toward Irving. Dallas County has hired IEA Inc., a civil and structural engineering firm, to study whether the Bachman Lake Trail can be linked to Irving's Campion Trail. County officials told the Morning News the study will take about two years and will compare five possible routes. IEA says it will look at floodplain impacts, bridge crossings, community access, transit connections and parking. In the meantime, the Campion side has kept building. The October Friends newsletter lists its phases:
| Campion Trail segment | Length | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Elm Fork, north | 8.5 miles | Open |
| West Fork, south | 6.5 miles | Open |
| Unification Phase 1A | 0.9 mile | Completed December 2023 |
| Unification Phase 1B, along Frazier Dam | 1.8 miles | Just completed |
| Unification Phase 2, final connector | Not listed | Not started; late 2027 |
| Full system | 22 miles | Targeted for end of 2028 |
The Friends describe Phase 1B as the piece that connects Irving's trail to the Dallas trail system. If the Bachman link gets built, the route would run from the Lemmon Avenue trail, around Bachman Lake and onto the Campion Trail. The group's longer-term plan also includes a link north to the Northaven Trail, which People Newspapers already describes as an easy jog from Midway Hollow.
Northaven runs to the north of Midway Hollow. Bachman, Lemmon and potentially Campion lie to the south and west. The entrances at Marsh and at Cochran Chapel are where the neighborhood meets the southern system.
The Lake Has Never Had a Master Plan
All of this is happening before Bachman Lake has a written plan of its own. The Morning News editorial pointed out that White Rock Lake has had about a dozen comprehensive plans since 1936, while Bachman Lake has never had one. Friends of Bachman Lake asked the Park Board for a master plan in 2023. As of August, Moore said the city was finalizing a contract with a design firm. The editorial did not name the firm or give a fee or a schedule for public meetings.
That order matters. Right now, the trailhead, the sidewalk, the greenbelt paths and the Lemmon trail are separate projects with separate funding sources: a land deal with QuikTrip, the aviation department and volunteer donations. A master plan is the document that would connect them into one design. It will also shape how the corners near Midway Hollow fit into the rest of the park.
The Friends' track record suggests the plan will get public input. The group formed in 2019. It says it has helped keep Bachman Lake from being drained, kept Love Field from building a north entrance through the park and pushed for the Campion study. Its board meets online at noon on the second Thursday of each month and is recruiting volunteers with event-planning and business-outreach skills. Interested people can email [email protected]. Its newsletter archive is where updates on the trailhead, the study and the master plan have appeared first.
The Cochran Chapel entrance is open now and in good shape for migration season. The Marsh Lane trailhead is part of the QT deal for that corner, where the Friends reported site work starting in September.
At Lardner Group, we follow public projects like the QT trailhead and the Bachman master plan because they affect how a neighborhood's edges work, not just what's inside it. If you own in Midway Hollow and want to talk about what these changes mean for your property or a project you're considering, schedule a consultation.
