Tyler State Park, A Great Texas Campground

Our Tyler State Park Campsite

There are so many positive things about Tyler State Park in Texas, that it’s hard to know where to start.

The check-in process is quick and the park personnel are very friendly and flexible with the available sites. If you don’t have a Texas Park Pass (we do), you will need to pay a daily park fee. I highly recommend purchasing the state park pass. if you have plans to stay (or do day trips) at any of the Texas State Parks for more than a week in a given year as that alone will make up for the cost of the pass. If you are over the age of 65, and don’t want to buy a pass, you can get a free State Park Passport which will give you 50% off admission fees.

The availability of sites are based on the size of your travel trailer; some are too short for our 34′ trailer but there were plenty to pick from. The sites may or may not be level, but none of the sites looked like they would be hard to find a way to level the trailer with a leveling block or two. There are some large rocks and/or cement posts that border the camp sites so you will want to make sure you have clearance not only getting into, but also pulling out of your site. Almost all the sites have large shade trees and cement pads with picnic tables. The campground is beautifully maintained.

One of the best things about the travel trailer camping areas is that there are full hook up sites. Given that the sites are so inexpensive, this is really a nice benefit. Each camping area appears to have a host family which is nice touch should any issues arise. We found the camping area to be very quiet and the way it was designed on the outer loop, to give a much more private camping experience than you might experience on the inner loop.

Looking down the loop in Tyler State Park

There is a swimming area that is well kept, with a nice sandy bottom and a floating platform. We spent about an hour in the water cooling off one afternoon. I was really surprised at how warm the water was, and for a small lake it is also very clean. You will want to be careful entering and exiting the swim area as the cement steps are rather slippery from algae.

Tyler State Parks swimming area

Next to the swim area is a store that has quite a bit to offer, including eggs…but unfortunately no milk! If you have a State Pass you will get a 10% discount on whatever you buy at the store.

Next to the store, there is another park building where you can rent paddle boats, canoes, or row boats.

Tyler State Park – Boat rental area

There are plenty of trails around the park, so you can get your daily walk in easily. However, if your stay is in the summer months you may want to walk in the morning. Our stay in late July had heat warnings for a few of the days, but in the shade it was bearable.

Don’t be surprised if you see Racoons crossing a trail in front of you; or passing through your campsite; they seem pretty abundant here. One morning Hannah and I were walking on the trail near the camper and seven Racoons crossed just ahead of us. Later that afternoon a couple Racoons crossed the road just down from our campsite. So if you are out walking your dog you may want to make sure you have a tight grip on the leash.

I’m very happy to report that although the AC unit ran almost nonstop late in the afternoon; it was comfortable inside the Trailer. The temperature outside was in the upper 90’s with the heat index in the triple digits. This is about what you would expect for late July in Texas.

In addition, our first outing with the satellite dish was almost flawless; but we realized fairly quickly that we were going to need a longer coax, as 25′ just isn’t long enough. If I need to put the dish on the opposite side and to the rear of the trailer, that is just not doable. Keep in mind that you need to have enough coax to get the satellite out from under any trees. The 25 feet of coax will not make that possible.

There is one other thing you need to know if you are using the DirecTV set up; you cannot exceed a total of 50 feet of coax running from your dish power converter. This means if you move the power converter inside the trailer, you cannot have 50 feet of coax outside. Is this confusing? It seems to be for the DirecTV people too. The point is that if you have the power converter next to your tv, it next has to run through the coax inside the walls of the trailer to the outside hook up. For the sake of argument lets say the coax in the wall is 18 feet long. Once you add the fifty feet of coax at the hook up you have exceeded your 50 foot limit. This is because 18+50 = 68. More about that in another post.

In short, Tyler State Park is a must visit campground. It is incredibly beautiful and there is plenty to do if you are traveling as a family or by yourself.