I'm from Waco, and I've never understood why most people in town are scared to go to Cameron Park. Its really funny. There's a beautiful park on the Brazos River, with a really nice trail system that meanders along the river and up into the bluffs overlooking the river. The upside is a really nice park right in the heart of old Waco with very little traffic - other than the occasional mountainbiker.
For a really nice ~3 mile hike with some elevation (and scenery) change, try the following:
Start at the parking area near Lover's Leap and the Baseball Fields. You can here by following Park Lake Drive east from N 19th St in North Waco.
Take the "Thor" trail down to the river. This trail decends through cedar upland down to lush riverbottom. From there, you can head south along the river to check out the base of Lover's Leap. This is a really nice limestone cliff (~70 ft) right on the river. Its pretty cool b/c you can see where two ecosystems converge (cedars up top to riverbottom at the base).
From there, you can continue along the river as far as you like, but for my favorite "loop" hike, backtrack to MCC trail, and go right. Follow this trail briefly ~.2 miles to Highlander Trail and take a left. I think this trail is supposed to be hikers only, but I'm not sure, and I have seen mountain bikers on it. Anyway follow Highlander trail back to the trailhead near the ball fields. Along the way, you'll meander up and down through the bluffs along the river. You'll encounter sections of bottomland, oak forest, and cedar upland reminiscent of the Hill Country, so its really quite nice for such a short in-town hike.
Overall, this hike is about 3 miles, but can be extended further downstream to visit another limestone cliff (Circle Point) similar to Lover's Leap, and the Mouth of the Bosque, where the Bosque River feeds into the Brazos. Just retrace your path back to MCC trail to complete the loop section in the north side of the park...
