Best Equestrian Camping near Bowie, TX

Roberts Lake State Park has two main campgrounds, the Isle du Bois unit and Johnson unit. These are what I would call twins. They are very similar in layout, scenery and activities. They are on opposite sides of the lake.

Isle du Bois is a little different in that it has legitimate equestrian camp sites with horse pens built into each site. The park has several equestrian trails and is perfect if you like to ride and camp with your horse.

The rest of the park has several walk-in camp sites and then a section for campers and RV's. It is a good park and I would normally rate this park as a three but I think that all of the equestrian activities and amenities for horses moves it up to a four.

We stayed one night at the equestrian camp on our way through the area. We prefer leaving the equestrian spots for horse owners but it was the last one available in the park. Although, of the 5 sites in this loop, none of us had horses!

With only a couple of small pens and not much space, we could see why equestrians might not flock here. Hard to say from one night though.

The sites are long and narrow without much space between them. Road nosie is noticeable during the day but quiet at night.

There are no bathroom facilities in this loop, so be aware of that. There is a small dumpster available. The bathroom/shower facilities and dump station are down the road at the main campground. You do have 20-, 39- and 50-amp electric plus water hookup at your site.

The good part about this loop is that you're camping within site of the historic Fort Richardson and visiting the grounds is a short walk. The buildings are only open from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but you're welcome to wander the grounds and look in the windows. Make sure you grab a self-guided your brochure at check-in.

This was fine for a night or two, but for longer we'd encourage a stay at the main campground instead.

Phone service was good: Verizon 4 bars / T-Mobile 4 bars.

We enjoyed our overnight stay near the trailhead. We weren't sure about the accessibility to the trailhead road with our 23 foot travel trailer so we opted to stay off road 904, where the horse trailers park, since there were some nice flat spots. Since we were just staying overnight as we were traveling back to the Midwest we didn't check out the other options. We did call the park Ranger and he said the trailhead is a great place to camp and easy to access with a trailer. Our hot spot on our cell phone was slow since we only had a couple bars, but we were able to get our work done. I would stay here again. We enjoyed a nice hike in the morning before we headed out.

We found Lake Ray Roberts as a nice swimming spot near Dallas to go cool down during the hot Texas summers and we LOVE it to go grill and hang out as a day long activity. So when my husband and I decide to start camping 🏕 we chose this park as our first trial, and we found it a bit inconvenient for Car camping since the spots are walk up and you gotta leave your car behind in a parking lot. Also, is very primitive style, so clean bathrooms and close-by water is not really part of the package. We loved the view from our spot and if you are up for a primitive experience within a park, then this is great. Just not for us and the type of camping we wanna do 😊

In the hot month of July 2020 I loaded up Little Red and headed out to spend several days camping at the Isle Du Bois Unit of Ray Roberts Lake. Located north of the greater DFW Metroplex Isle Du Bois is one of the busiest Texas State Parks in North Texas. Ray Roberts Lake is situated in the Cross Timbers region of Texas as a result there are plenty of big oak trees to provide shade and there is an abundance of wildlife as well. The Isle Du Bois unit features well over 2 miles of concrete hike and bike trails as well as one of the nicest beaches found in North Texas. Isle Du Bois State Park on Ray Roberts Lake is an excellent place to catch a whole lot of fish! A five lane boat ramp means there is very little wait time to launch and recover. No boat? No worries! Isle Du Bois features an excellent fishing pier and plenty of easy to access bank. Come along with me as I explore the Isle Du Bois Unit of Ray Roberts Lake State Park!

https://youtu.be/iS52vk-nY3o

A few times a year, the City of Jacksboro opens its arms to an influx of campers and schools from around the state eager to see one of the unique reinactments at the historic location of Fort Richardson.

While you can visit during other times of the year, these times make for some of the most popular and thus most busy camping experiences.

7 different types of campsites are available including group sites, equestrian sites, full hook up and primitive sites for RV and tent campers. Sites range from $10-$25 depending on the area and amenities.

For someone like myself who prefers primitive tent camping or less amenities I found $10 tent sites were about a 3/4 mile hike in and $20 limited amenity campsites were my best options. The benefits to the $20 North Loop site was pretty obvious in restrooms and typical state park fire rings and picnic tables. Primitive sites include only fire rings and because of their remote location in warmer months can be more of a questionable location as taller grass can Harbor more snakes, specifically in this area Rattlesnakes and Copperheads.

These fees were in addition to standard park admission which is $3 per day for adults. All of these fees are due upon entrance at the entry station where you will be greeted by a park ranger and given a map.

While there is a lake, hiking and areas for horseback riding my focus upon my visit was one of the reinactments events held near Christmas. “Ghosts of Christmas Past” is an event set to showcase the period of the fort days and tell the story of how soldiers spent the time, what it might have been like on those cold winter nights and create a vision of fort life. It was a great educational visit and a great way to see a bit more of the State Park.

With this being a short drive for me from my home, I find this campsite and full facilities to be very exciting to return for other events. Well maintained and with friendly staff it is well worth the trip.

68 year-old solo camper getting ready to travel around the country, car/tent camping primarily. Haven't really camped since 1973, so I drove out to Lake Ray Roberts for a one-night trial for some new gear and knock off the rust. 

This was a terrific choice – Hawthorn Area #9, wooded area, 4th on the path from the Hawthorn parking lot to the other nine campsites on this loop (150 steps from campsite to car and restrooms, a little over 100 yards). As most (maybe all) of the campsites here, this was walk-in to the campsite from a common parking lot.

I walked around the rest of this loop and the adjoining one (16-40). Each campsite had a tent pad, picnic table, fire pit and lantern post. Mine was one of the more private in that I couldn't see another picnic table. However, with the trees and in some places tall grass, I would rate most of the sites as private. 

The next morning there were about half-dozen deer roaming around the area between my camp and the parking lot. There was only one other car in the parking lot overnight and they camped in one of the other areas. One of the lots (I think it was #13) actually had lake front. Others had views of the water. 

Depending on exact location you could see the dam and except for a few hours of the deepest night you could faintly hear the drone of road noise. But the near-full moon lit the area so well I walked to my car about 4:30 in the morning without a light and could see very well – it was really nice and bright. 

The Isle du Bois unit is at the far southeast corner of the lake, near the eastern end of the dam. The Hawthorn area is one of the first sites from the entrance, maybe a 5-minute drive.