Joe Pool Lake is a fresh water impoundment located in the southern part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in North Texas. The lake encompasses parts of Tarrant, Dallas and Ellis counties. The lake measures 7,740 acres (31.3 km2) with a conservation storage capacity of 176,900 acre-feet (218,200,000 m3). With a maximum depth of 75 feet (23 m) the lake drains an area of 232 square miles (601 km2).Joe Pool Lake was named after Joe R. Pool, a Congressman-At-Large from the Oak Cliff area of Dallas who represented this area as well as the rest of the state of Texas from 1963 until his death in 1968. Pool was highly influential in the passage of legislation and funding of the lake. The project to build Joe Pool Lake initiated by a promise made in 1960 by Kennedy-Johnson Natural Resources Advisory Committee member Joe Pool and was carried out, after Pool's death in 1968, by a citizens committee called the Lakeview (Joe Pool) Planning Council. Pool's project was approved by Congress in 1965 and was known as Lakeview Reservoir until 1982 when president Ronald W. Reagan signed a bill to rename the lake to Joe Pool Lake.

Lynn Creek Park
is a day use facility that is open from March through September. The park is managed by the city of Grand Prairie. Lynn Creek is located along the northwest corner of Joe Pool Lake and is accessed from Lake Ridge Parkway.

Loyd Park.
The campgrounds at Loyd Park are well maintained and the park is a nice place to camp. With more than 200 sites there are a wide variety of sites. Some are right on the shore of Joe Pool Lake, some in nicely shaded alcoves of vegetation, and - perhaps not so nice on a hot Texas summer day! - a few sites that are relatively unshaded and out in the open.

The lake can be a busy place during the summer and one of the common questions first time visitors have is "where can I launch my boat?" Fortunately getting your boat into the water at Joe Pool Lake is not a problem most of the time. You may run into trouble if you try to get to a boat ramp during a busy time of day during a summer weekend or worse yet - a summer holiday weekend.