This past weekend, we decided to try our hand at camping in the Texas summer heat. We tent-camped our way around Minnesota in the four years that we lived there and while it can get hot during the day it usually cools off to a comfortable temperature at night. Texas nights stay pretty hot and it just gets even hotter during the day. We were a little worried and told ourselves that we could pack it up and head home if it got too uncomfortable but it ended up being a very successful weekend!

Ray Roberts Lake is located about an hour north of Dallas and is a man-made reservoir filled by Trinity River. Because of its proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth, Ray Roberts Lake State Park is one of the most visited state parks in Texas. It’s a huge park made up of three different sections; Johnson Branch on the north side of the lake and the Isle Du Bois and Jordan Units along the south.

We had a walk-in campsite in Isle Du Bois which was pretty quiet and out on it’s own peninsula. We were only there for 2 nights so we didn’t venture into the other sections of the park but found that there was a lot to do within Isle Du Bois.

The park provides opportunities for camping, hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking, swimming, fishing, boating, canoeing, the list goes on. We enjoyed hiking with our dog on the multi-purpose trails and hanging out near the sandy beach (but not actually ON the beach because dogs aren’t allowed).

We saw tons of deer along the trails and they didn’t seem to mind our company at all!

Shockingly, the mosquitos weren’t too bad and for once we were thankful when a storm blew threw in the middle of the night cooling things off. The highlight of the weekend for me was probably the campfire nachos.

It’s looking like things will keep heating up in June and the forecast is showing that it’ll hit 100 next week. Our Texas camping trips might be over until the fall but maybe we will find ourselves back up north to escape the heat. Stay tuned!