Camping in East Texas Advice

My wife and I are taking our 3 year old daughter camping in two weeks. Purtis Creek is booked, but we want a nice place to bring her out in our kayaks. I'm looking at Bob Sandlin...anyone been here and have any thoughts (cleanliness, water access, etc..)

Open to other suggestions.

Bob Sandlin is a nice lake and it's finally full again. The state park is ok. It's been several years since I've been there. If you don't mind going to a smaller lake, Daingerfield State park is really nice.

Thanks Mike! Checking out Daingerfield

Daingerfield is awesome! The SP rangers are great, and the amenities of the park have really been upgraded. The fishing in Daingerfield is good, and the paddle is very relaxing. Tyler SP isn't bad here in East Texas for relaxed paddling either.

Any suggestions on sites with nice views/access?

You're going to find that the really nice places like Tyler and Daingerfield are booked months ahead in the spring and fall.

Bob Sandlin is a clean park. I don't know if you can get a spot there in 2 weeks or not. If it is hot, Sandlin can be stuffy because it has a lot of trees between the camp sites and the water and very little breeze gets through. We've done a lot of camping at Lofers Bend at lake Whitney. It's more open and the views of the lake are good.

I second Tyler SP

One problem with Tyler SP is water access from the tent camping sites. If you have a camper or rent one of the cabins I believe it is much better but I have always just used a tent and typically have to use the boat launch. Its a good area other than that.

The problem is, as I said before, there are no campsites available at Tyler the weekend of the 24th and 25th, or the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of May. There are 4 trailer sites available the first weekend of May. By Thursday, those will be gone. Those are in Big Pine, and they don't allow tents on those sites.

I prefer Daingerfield but ya might wanna also try Caddo State Park.

In addition to the above, you may want to check out Lake Naconiche. There are some cabins on/near the lake - not sure about tent camping opportunities. I haven't fished it nor stayed at these cabins but I remember there were some positive reports on both last year. http://www.naconichefarms.com/

You can put your yaks in near the cabins at Naconiche but won't be able to see them from the cabin if you leave them in the water. That's a nice lake and the likelihood of getting run over by a boat is extremely low.... I love Bob Sandlin State Park. It's my favorite state park that I've stayed at. The lake is great fishing too although I've never been since i started fishing from a kayak. I can guarantee you it will be full of speeding bass boats most weekends in Spring

Watch out for bigfoot.

Dangerfield is very nice this time of year. Campsites with lake view and easy access to the water from some sites.

Thanks y'all...booked and ready at Daingerfield