A few times a week, the Penny family loads a red cart full of painted rocks and heads out to a trail in Grapevine's Parr Park.
"This has really turned into be just a trail of happiness," Chris Penny said. "When everybody was depressed and kinda down in the dumpster in the lockdown, we would come down here and it was probably the only place outside our house where we would actually see joy and happiness."
The Pennys have been caretaking a mile-long stretch of a trail, where a painted rock collection has grown to more than 4,000 since the start of the pandemic.
"Every other day we get like two to three mailboxes just full of rocks," Penny's 11-year old daughter Julia said. The rocks come from North Texas and beyond. "Just last week I got some from Alaska. We've had a few rocks from New Zealand. I've had a few from Australia," Penny said.
The rocks are arranged by theme; Disney, military, school, and more.
"Because of COVID, everyone's getting stressed out. It's just a nice place to be relaxing and just take a breath," Julia Penny said. "When the park goers here in Grapevine go through, it's really resonating with them and it's connecting people back to some of the happiest moments of their life."
Anyone who want to connect with some of the rock artists can see them at a Meet the Parr Park Rock Trail Artist event on Saturday from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. at a field between the park and the Church at the Cross in Grapevine.
