After a hot and rough Saturday at the Farmer’s Market with the pet treat business, (a post on that soon) Nathan and I decided to take a day trip with the kids to another state park on Sunday, July 9th. We picked Lake Tawakoni for it’s 1.5 hour drive and the fact it was advertised to have a beach front swim area on the lake. I’m going to cut to the chase and say there’s really not much to say about this park for us.

When we got to the park, we were greeted by one of the nicest headquarter rangers we have encountered yet and driving through, the grounds were super clean and maintained. But, from there, it just got kind of “meh.”  We settled in at a lake side picnic table to eat lunch before picking a hiking trail and swimming. We did our best not to notice the very loud rap music coming from the bath house about 50 yards away. We did, however, notice the immense amount of boater traffic driving through the park. Apparently there is a fairly popular boat ramp on site that many use for the day. Fortunately, the swim area was on the over side of a peninsula from the boat ramp and was clearly marked off with large buoys.

Before swimming, we picked a quick 1mile hike alongside the lake that proved to be a pleasant stroll. The kids kept finding horseapples and were fascinated by their unusual appearance.

We also came across a section of the woods that, back in 2007, became famous for a massive collection of spider webs that enveloped an area of over 200 yards. Here’s a link to read more for those more curious about spiders than I. 😱

While we were on our hike, droves of people had started to arrive and converge upon the swim area. The kids were still excited about swimming although Nathan and I were not impressed with the “beach”,  water clarity, or the space allotted for swimming. He decided to sit out and keep an eye on our stuff (kind of a “rough” crowd) while I waded ankle deep into the water with the kids. They enjoyed themselves regardless and I should be grateful they’re not as prissy about water or environment as their momma.

On the way home, Nathan and I agreed that was yet another park that we really don’t HAVE to come back to. Maybe it was the park’s history of hosting massive spider webs that turned me off. 😆 Maybe it’s the park’s close proximity to Dallas that made it more of an urban hang out than a day in nature. The campsites were tucked back into the woods and had privacy between them, which you don’t always see at State Parks. But with one bathhouse to 50 spots, coupled with the “personality type” of the majority of patrons there, it just wasn’t our scene. I know, judgey-judgey.

I’m determined for our next state park to be one that I can absolutely gush about on here and fantasize about being able to return for more. Wish me luck!

-Lindsay

On May 13th, Nathan and I took the kids to Caddo Lake State Park. It was an easy day trip from our house at just over an hour and the park was hosting an “Incredible Edible Hike.” I saw the event advertised on Facebook as an under 1 mile hike guided by a ranger who would show us at least 10 different plants you could forage from the wild! Ashlyn, especially, had taken interest in eating dandelions from our yard lately, so we figured what better way to mark a park off our list while adding some extra interest to the trip!

We took some time before and after the hike to take in some of the sights of Texas’ only natural lake and the “world’s largest cypress grove.”

There were canoes available for rent and they stayed in constant use. The section of lake that the park is located on is more like a channel, but there were dozens of advertisements in the area for boat tours.

The hike really was fun, informative and considering there were over 70 people(!) involved, very organized! Ashlyn was really excited about the hike and came prepared with a notebook to take notes so that she could create her own field guide book. She jotted down the name of the plant and what the ranger said about it while I took pictures with my phone. We sampled appropriate plants along the way and got to see some CCC work.

The only real stressful part of the event was the fact the 3 ft max wide trail was COMPLETELY surrounded by poison ivy! Agh! Nathan was constantly playing guard herding me AND the kids away from the edges. We also learned once we got home that we all got ate up in chiggers. Rookie move not spraying some Off.

Ashlyn’s book turned out pretty cool! She took great notes and was then able to write complete paragraphs on each plant. I made sure to scan the pages onto the computer so we can print future copies 😉

My all in all take away from this park is while it is very worthy of a visit for it’s distinct features, I really have no desire to camp here. Between poison ivy, chiggers and I’m sure the onslaught of nightly mosquitoes from the swampy environment, I don’t think we would get much exploring done. Y’all know I’m down to “rough-it”, but I’m not a glutton for punishment. 😆

-Lindsay