Open water swimming in Dallas/Fort Worth area

Rock Ledge Park at Grapevine Lake is good if you get there early in the morning before the boaters. (Say ~7am ish). From the parking lot, you follow a small trail to a gravel beach. There are a series of small cove and you can either follow the shore to stay in shallower water, or swim directly to the opposite points, where it gets shallow enough (ankle deep) to stand and rest. The closest point is about 600m away, and there is another that is about 400m further. Some of the local tri clubs and Team-in-Training use this area occasionally.

I've also swum from Meadowmere Park at Grapevine; however, I didn't care for it. More boaters, and it was very shallow for parts of the swim, which I found disconcerting. (Is that a soft weed I see just below me, or a sharp stick I'm about to impale myself upon?)

Lake Caroline (?) in Las Colinas is another area you can try. (Where they held Tri-America this year.) It's a man-made lake around a hotel/business park, so no worry of boaters. However, it's shallower and much warmer (like tepid bath water), and you have to get in and out at the dock, as the water level is several feet below the 'shore'.