This recreation area is part of Ray Roberts Lake

Idle du Bois — Ray Roberts Lake State Park

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](https://youtu.be/iS52vk-nY3o)

Isle Du Bois (Lake Ray Roberts State Park)

Best park to visit in the Metroplex area! A dozen trips, and it's still a favorite. If you want to avoid crowds, stay in the Hawthorne "primitive" area. The sites vary from being 20 feet from the parking lot to half a mile out or so, but most people flock to the more formal campsites and miss out thinking they'll have to hike in at Hawthorne. Nice restrooms right by the parking lot. Scenic trails vary in distance but are easy to connect for longer hikes – or walk the shoreline for a nice lakeside view. Lots to explore and see here!

Isle du Bois: the place to be

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.

Bring your horse to Isle du Bois unit - Roberts Lake State Park

This campground was only about 50 minutes from west Plano. It's an extremely busy place. I suggest booking as far in advance as possible. We reserved a "primitive" walk-in site in the Hawthorn area. Some are up to .25 mile in. Ours was closer, but still felt pretty private (#8). The park staff person at check in was extremely nice and professional. Our campsite was a little hard to find tucked behind trees. There are mostly shaded dirt trails and a concrete trail. We saw several deer and bunnies. The swimming area looked great. Be aware it's a fairly noisy park. It's a fishing destination, and the bass boats roar before the sun is up. And there are simply lots of people there. We will go back but will try some smaller parks first. 

Convenient, but busy, getaway from DFW

This place is just far enough from DFW to not be to far. Great place to camp, fish and hike. Bring your horses for a equestrian trail as well. Great beach for some sand castles and swimming. And don't forget to hit the Dam store and get the dam special. Good burgers there.

Just far enough 

Just a 30-45 min drive outside Denton, a great spot for a weekend getaway. The water is so clear! The sites are wonderfully private with lots of space and shade. Most of them have water access.

Perfect Local Spot to Denton

This is an extremely well maintained TX State Park. They have walk in tent sights near the water with great views and chemical toilet within a reasonable distance . Lake Ray Roberts offers clean water fun with less motorized boat and jet ski activity then other lakes in the area. This is a great place for kayaking and trail hiking they also have a designated beach area for day trippers . Park staff is helpful and well versed on their state park.

Great place for day trip and camping !

Went here for a week and it was okay. If you have a boat or love to fish it’s the perfect place. My tent was right by the water which was great but during the weekend too many kids were getting near my tent and too close to my personal belongings. I still had a good time but I would definitely go again when it’s not so busy 

Fishing and boating park

Big, beautiful Texas State Park. Very clean and nice level camping sites. The beach area was closed due to past flooding and cleaning but all else was open. My rig and I enjoyed site 136 🚐

Beautiful State Park

The first thing that brought me here was the option to fish without a license! It's been several years now since my wife and I stayed here the first time. It's a good size park with several options for activities: boating, fishing, picnicking, equestrian, hiking, camping, etc. The trails are thorough through the park. The lakefront is great as it gives you a good sense of the size of the lake. I'm looking forward to our next stay here!

Free Fishing!

A very nice state park, about an hour northwest of Dallas. Lots of hiking and biking trails, with clean restrooms! Deer will approach your campsite and you’re likely to see all kinds of wildlife. A gem of a getaway!

Getaway from Dallas!

Location: North of the DFW area and easy to find with good sites to choose from. We have done a lot of Primitive camping here that requires only a half mile walk from the parking lot. 

The Sites: The primitive sites in the Hawthorne campgrounds are spaced a good distance apart and really give you a feel of isolation. Sites on the perimeter all have lake access where you can pull a boat up. We have car camped on a few occasions here and each time we saw plenty of deer around camp. 

Facilities: There are several playground areas central to the various campgrounds with easy access for your family. Showers and restrooms are close by the playgrounds as well. There is also a fantastic beach swim area for day use or to visit while your camping. Nice sand and roped off swimming areas with large playgrounds. 

Great Range of Campsites

The campground is nice and well maintained and sites are fairly well spaced with lots of grass, trees and open areas. The park staff were very friendly and helpful. We were in site 78 for 5 days. Only a few of the sites in the Deer Ridge campground loop looked level, fortunately ours was one of them, but we saw one 5th wheel with the wheels on one side off of the ground by several inches and one Class A whose front wheels were 8-10 inches off the ground. AT&amp;T coverage was fairly good here, generally between 1-3 Bars of LTE service, with speeds up to 4.5 MB/s. There is no WiFi, cable or sewer hookup and the dump station can get a little busy around checkout time. Restrooms and showers were clean and the shower was nice and hot. 

  

If you don’t already have one, you do have to purchase a Texas State Parks Pass for$70, which did add considerably to the cost of our stay. 

  

There are quite a few trails in the area.

This is a big camping area, lots of campsites near the lake

I tent camped here in December at the Hawthorn campground site 8. One thing I wasn’t expecting was that this was a walk in site. It was about 100 yards from the parking lot to site 8. Kind of a pain when setting up camp but it makes for a very quiet camping experience once you’re done. Water spigots are close by. The bathrooms were really clean and there are hiking and biking trails nearby. Unfortunately I didn’t get to explore the park much but it seems there is lots to do. There is a marina where you can rent boats and a swim beach nearby. I’ll definitely be going back for a longer stay. 

Ray Roberts Lake

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.

Great venue for first camping trip in four decades

Beautiful park with views to the lake. Very clean showers, nice trails…very family friendly. Enjoyed our quick overnight.  

Quick Trip

We camp in the Wild Plum (walk-in) area a lot when we don't want to travel far from home or want to test new gear. Campsites are roomy and level with convenient water access. Sunset is gorgeous from site 126. Feels very secluded in site 130-131, but those sites can be closed during rainy season due to flooding. Lots of hammocking trees. Plenty of wildlife to keep you company (hang your food bags on the hooks). 

Lots of easy hiking and very kid-friendly.

Easy peasy

Took my dog here for a long weekend excursion. I try not to go for lake based campsites because I don't fish, and I don't have a boat. I was pleasantly surprised at the breadth and quality of the activities in the park. The MTB and hiking trails are first rate, there's a paved walking path around the whole park, and there's a strong geocaching community based near there. 

The walk from the parking lot to the campsite was not too long, but long enough to make the site feel more secluded. While I was there, I saw lots of deer - with some of them even wandering into my campsite. 

I will say, that due to the size of the lake, the winds whipping off of it can be quite intense. Bring a windbreaker if you're going to hike there.

Serene camping near diverse outdoorsy activities

Flat site right on the lake. Short though so shorter rigs. Great VZ 5G speed for streaming. 2nd time here will return.

Nice Escape

The campground is nice and well maintained and sites are well spaced with lots of grass, trees and/or open areas. The park staff were very friendly and helpful. This was our second stay in site 78, this time for 4 days in late March. There is no WiFi, cable or sewer hookup at the camp sites and the dump station can get a little busy around checkout time and is a goodly distance from the CG if you plan to use a portable waste cart. Restrooms and showers were clean and the shower was nice and hot. There is a nice paved 2.25 mile trail through the CG and the surrounding area.

  

AT&amp;T coverage was not as good as the last time we stayed here a couple of yeas ago, with generally 1 Bar of 5G service and speeds up to 1 MB/s. We had an unobstructed view of the sky and so we were able to receive all 3 SW Dish satellites and good Starlink coverage with speeds between 2.5 and 4 MB/s. We didn’t try to load any OTA channels. 

  

You do have pay a daily$7/person entrance fee or purchase a Texas State Parks Pass for$70 if you don’t already have one, which did add considerably to the cost of our stay.