What we LOVED about Ray Roberts Lake State Park

My family and I recently visited Ray Roberts Lake state park and we had a great time! Ray Roberts Lake State Park is located near Pilot Point in North Texas. You could spend a lot of time at this state park as there is so much to do! While we only had time for hiking, there is also many mountain bike trails, trails for horseback riding, fishing, and kayaking. You can also enjoy your time on a beach, swim in the water, or camp. We visited in August and while we loved it, I do not recomend visitng at this time of year.  While several of the trails had great shade coverage, the whole experience would be more enjoyable in a cooler time of year.

There are several different areas of Ray Roberts Lake State Park, but we only explored the Isle du Bois area. When we entered the park, we saw a deer almost immediately! It was so fun to see this beautiful animal just off the road. After stopping to take a few pictures, we drove up and paid our fee at the drive up window. The current cost is $7 a person for anyone over 12 years old. Younger than 12 is free. Folowing this, we then parked and went into the visitors center. While it was small, it is always helpful to go inside to get information about the park. I was able to ask a ranger about the best shaded hikes in the area, which was helpful. We also grabbed our stamp for our Texas State Park Passport book. The visitors center does have a store available to pick up a memento from your time here, but because it was small, there is not a lot to choose from. Another important part of the visitors center were clean restrooms. They have two easily accesible restrooms right when you enter the doors. There is also a water fountain right by the restrooms to refill your water bottles or grab a quick drink.

We started off with two short trails near the visitors center. We decided to take these trails based on the recommendation of the park ranger in the visitors center. The first trail we took was the Lost PInes trail and the second was the Eagle Activity trail. Lost Pines is half a mile long and the Eagle Activity Trail is .3 miles long. Lost Pines is a loop that has a few short paths that shoot off from it. One shoot off goes to the lake and the other goes to a historic chimney that was from left over from a cabin. This trail also intersects with the Wagon Wheel Crossing trail. Be aware that the signage for where to go could be better, but it was still fairly easy to determine where you were supposed to go. We had this experience on all of the hikes that we did.  

The Eagle Activity trail is a fun one to take your kids on. While it is a short trail, it has little activities all throughout the trail. We loved taking pictures with the butterfly wings, getting insde the birds nest, and seeing what activity was going to come next. Several of the activities would be best for older kids, but we enjoyed walking through and seeing them all. 

After doing these two hikes, we drove through the remaining portions of Isle du Bois that we had not seen yet. One thing we were amazed by were how many deer we saw throughout the park! We saw several groups of them walking around and others laying in the shade. It was an unexpected but fun part of visiting this park. We also passed the beach and took a quick peak. We want to go back in the future and explore it. The beach looked very nice and also had a playground located nearby. 

We ended our trip doing the 2.2 mile Randy Bell Scenic trail. I do not recommend this trail during the heat of summer. While it was shaded in some parts, about half of the route was in direct sunlight. This made for a very hot hike! If you visit during the spring, fall, or winter, this hike is a great option. It is completely paved and accessible. There is one area that has a bit of an incline but it was not very long. There are also several DORBA (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) trails that shoot off from the Randy Bell Scenic trail. While we hiked this trail we passed multiple families of deer. Many of them were close to the path. It was nice to be able to experience hiking next to them and seeing them in their environment. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at this state park and think it is a great spot to visit. If you plan on going, we highly recommend visiting during the fall or winter months if possible. No matter what you plan on doing, there is soemthing for everyone at this park. Let us know what you enjoy doing here! 

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