Gravel bike or Mountain Bike for the Houston area

Hey y’all! I’m getting back into biking and the biking world has changed a lot since I last looked into alll this. Like the ride of gravel biking. I was wondering if I would get more enjoyment out of a gravel or mountain bike in this area.

I think I would be riding the bayou and heights area mostly. For fun and just as an easy short distance transportation. I might want to take it to some of the local state parks and piddle around on easy trails, I’m definitely not looking to travel long distance to bike more intense state parks. What’re yalls thoughts?