Back to Tyler State Park

It's fall here in Texas, so the temperatures have settled down into the 80's during the day for the most part making it the ideal time to go camping.  So about six months ago we reserved one of the last spots in the Lakeview Loop at Tyler State Park.

This time we checked in early enough to get a site on the lake side of the road with fabulous views.  Site 36 just in case anyone wants to stay there next time.  I've decided that it's my favorite, though 37 is really nice too.  We basically had water views from three sides.  Here is my weird panoramic shot trying to show how fabulous our view was.

Here's what our camping set up looked like this time.  We actually spun the camper sideways so we could maximize our view.  We had the awning out for part of the time till a gust of wind nearly ripped off the pop-up.  Luckily, it only suffered minor damage and is still functional.

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Tyler State Park was a Civilian Conservation Corps project constructed between 1935 and 1941.  They built roads and buildings, planted tons of trees, and made the earthen dam to create the lake. They used mostly local, natural materials to blend with the park’s natural landscape.

We had some pretty bad weather.  We set-up on Friday morning in the sun, but by dinner time it was pouring rain and it didn't stop until Saturday late afternoon.  We knew this ahead of time and planned accordingly. Extra towels to dry off people and dogs as well as extra clothing were all packed. 

While we aren't made of sugar and won't melt in the rain, this was not the friendly ignore it and go about your outdoor activities type of rain.  It was angry rain.  We headed off site Saturday morning after a wet breakfast to check out another State Park near by and a local Garden Center (post coming soon).  The majority of the rain was over at that point.  It sprinkled a few more times and rain every night of our stay, but we managed to get in some outdoor fun.

We threw rocks and hickory nuts into the lake.

Put our toes in the swimming area.

Tried out some kayaking for the first time.  It was a pretty big hit.  Our daughter and her doll later kayaked using our broom and cooler at the campsite.  I wasn't sure how I would like it having mostly canoeing experience with a bit of row boating (I actually taught both one summer at a Boy Scout Camp), but it was pretty easy once I got used to have a two sided paddle.  There were definitely some awkward moments including one point where my passenger decided to stand-up in the boat.

We tried out a little fishing.  Didn't catch anything, not that a lot of effort was put into it.  The lake is catch and release, so while there were a couple of people out fishing each day, there aren't really too many folks.  Tyler's lake is definitely not what you would call a busy one, at least not the times we've visited.

Did I mention that we threw rocks in the water?