Nancy

I'm taking my 3yrs old and some newbies camping. Its our first time taking our 3 yrs old camping. Where do you suggest i should take them? We live in the dfw area. Where would be a good place that have alot of kids activites? Is there a camp site where you can have the lake side camp area and playground ? i thought about dinosaur valley but they are book until June. We are thinking about going this weekend if possible.

Turn Key

Hi Nancy,

If you went out this weekend, hope you stayed warm and dry. As I write this, the temp outside is 46 degrees, windy and they are calling for a bit more rain today. Returned from the Hill Country yesterday and was happy to get the rig in the drive prior to the storms hitting. My area only got rain but other parts of DFW got pounded pretty good. United RV over on 121 is a mess. Understand that there were only a couple of deaths and few injurys. We were blessed in that regard.

Dinosaur Valley was my first thought with kiddos. If you can, take them there in June. They will love it. We've had some rain so the river flow should be good for wadeing in the shallows and the dino tracks will keep the kids busy for hours. July and August tend to get very hot at Dino. Park is pretty low in a valley and gets little breeze. Only thing I don't like about Dino is that they've gone to $25 per night for "power & water" sites and I feel that's a bit steep for less then "full hook-ups".

Can't help much beyond the above info. DW and I are past the point of thinking about the needs of kiddos, except when it comes to our grandkids and they are old enough now that they can entertain themselves for the most part. Hope some of our younger members can come up with some more ideas for you. No matter what, I wish you happy camping!

__________________

Nancy

Thank You Turning Key. We cancel our camping trip again. hahha....We sure dont have any luck in camping this month. So the begining of June isnt hot for dinosaur valley? How about Tyler? How far is the drive to Inks s.p from dallas?

Nancy

Turn Key

Dino will be warm in June but should be acceptable unless summer starts really early and is very hot. I would expect mid-90s during the day and high-60s to low-70s at night. A lot depends on your type of camping and what you are willing to put up with. For DW and myself, that's right at the top of our limit and that's with AC in the "5th". There is no way I'd tent camp at those temps.

Tyler SP is a beutiful park set in a pine forest. Haven't been out there in a number of years but I know that improvements have been made in the camping facilities. I need to get out there and put a good review together but just haven't made it. Park encloses a nice little lake and it includes a swimming beach, as I recall. The racoons think they own the park and deer are plentyful. Temps there may be a bit cooler but I'd expect a higher humidity.

Inks Lake is a wonderful park and right at the top of our list. We often use it as a "base of operations" when we take our annual spring time hiatus to the Hill Country. Kiddos will have lots to do and there are other attractions in the area for them and adults. If you can get any site on the water that's not directly in the sun, you should be in pretty good shape in June. Wildflowers are in their prime right now but will be gone by June. Any time in April is "prime" for this area of the state

Inks Lake is a very easy 5 hour drive from our home in south Tarrant County, including pulling the "5th" and a leisurely stop for breakfast in Glen Rose. From Dallas, you'd probably want to follow the same route we use. Take 67 southwest from the south side of Dallas. Using the by-pass around Cleburne, continue onto and through Glen Rose. Continue on about 5-8 more miles, bearing left onto 220. You'll know your close to your turn onto 220 when you see a road sign for "Chalk Mountain". The turn for 220 will be just ahead. Go south about 5 miles, taking you into Hico. In town, you'll come to a "T". Turn right and about 2 blocks you'll come to a traffic light. Turn left at the light, putting you on 281. Now continue south through Hamilton, Evant and on into Lampasa. Be aware that 281 turns right at the third or fourth traffic light in Lampasa. Not difficult but easy to miss. Continue on to Burnet where you will reach 29 at the first major intersection in town. Turn right onto 29 and go about 8 more miles. Park Road 4 and the entrance for Inks Lake SP will be on your left. This is a much better route then taking I-35 and we use 281 to access any area in the Hill Country or San Antonio. Just drove it yesterday coming back from Kerrville and the road remains in fine shape with no problem or detours. If your interested, I have posted a couple of reviews on Inks Lake SP on this 'board. They should pop up if you do a search under "Inks Lake". If not, let me know and I'll post the references.

Hope this helps and you have a wonderful trip. Let me know if I can furnish any other info. Until then and always,

Happy Camping!

__________________

4everfrio

Nancy, I agree totally with Turnkey.
Tyler is a sweet park in the piney woods. And, if the hill country is your choice, Inks is hard to beat, especially with kids.
The road choices are like Turnkey describes. I-35, fast and furious or 281 a more relaxing drive.
The main thing is get out there and have fun!! Good luck.

campermom

Dino was nice in June. I took my 6 yo son. We tent camped and stayed in #4. plenty of shade, decent amount of brush for privacy, near the shower house, 1 minute from the playground, and the fireflys were everywhere. I did have a discussion with a racoon at 1am. I used all the 4 letter words I could think of tho make him go away. Even giving him a sharp poke in the rump with my hiking stick didn't deter him.

It was humid, so leave the rainfly off the tent, and bring a fan. We waded in the tracks but the local swimming hole was great. Big rocks park, we spend the second day we stayed swimming there. There is a wildlife safari park real close by. We skipped it since we have one here also.

Send me a PM with your email and I can send you pictures of the site.

Inks is great, just a little crowded. That was also part of the June trip last year. Longhorn cavern, Inks Dam fish hatchery, are close by for something else to do. I've submitted a review , just search thru the site a bit. Lake Mineral Wells was nice too. I'd like to return there on a long weekend sometime to enjoy the park for more than a day.

jrmtj

I posted to someone else wishing for DFW camping. Lake Lewisville city campground is a good one. 16 per night with hook ups ( no sewer though, have to go to the dump station) Its right on the lake ..no playground right there but you can drive into the park which is very close for playgrounds. The restrooms are very clean in this park and on the week ends there are children. I camp with a 2 1/2 yr old boy and a 7 yr old, I just hike around with them and take them to the lake shore.

Clubfoothead

Nancy

We just took my daughter on her first camping trip ever. She's 3 1/2 and the only tanturm was when we started packing up the tent yesterday.

I was unable to make any reservations at Dinosaur Valley because it was full according to the phone number down in Austin. We stayed at Tres Rios instead. About $10.00 more a night but we had a blast. The footprints are still underwater at Dinosaur Valley SP so we went to Fossil Rim on Sunday. Like others have said, the river dires up by June so you can get to the footprints.

Fossil Rim was great but expensive. We are Dallas Zoo members which gets us 50% off (it was free until this year). About 1/2 way through there's a place to stop and eat. Ther have a short steep jiking trail but the 3 1/2 year old kept up just fine and we were the only ones who went.

We were just there from late Friday until Sunday night but since they had showers (with warm water even) at Tres Rios Saturday we drove into town and had some of the best BBQ I've had in years at the Ranch House.

It is a pleasant drive to Glen Rose from Dallas. Get on 67 South and stay on it until your cell phone loses service. We got to Glen Rose about 5 minutes after mine lost service. I didn't time the drive but it could not have been more than 2 hours at the speed limit.

Enjoy.

Turn Key

That's great! I love it and just about right, too. Cell phones are about useless in most SPs and Dino is no exception.

PS: Ranch House is good!

Happy Camping!

__________________