Lake Bob Sandlin State Park - Texas State Park

Lake Bob Sandlin State Park - Texas State Park In the summer of 2020, the Two Tired Teachers visited Lake Bob Sandlin State Park which is in Pittsburg, Texas, around 115 miles northeast of Dallas. The park is absolutely gorgeous with extremely well shaded campsites, a much needed feature during the Texas summer. One of the features of the park is a long fishing pier. Remember that you don't need a fishing license in Texas State Parks as long as you fish from a pier or a bank. If you go out in a boat, you need a license. The Texas State Parks have done a wonderful job of practicing social distancing in the summer of 2020, the year of the Covid 19 pandemic. Almost every other site isn't available so that campers have plenty of space between themselves and their nearest neighbor. Neither Sharon nor MiLena expected there to be alligators in a park so far from a really large body of water. As we came into the park, we mentioned that we'd just been to Huntsville State Park where we saw a large gator. The ranger told us that Lake Bob Sandlin State Park has had some alligators that were 14' long. In addition to a fishing pier and a wonderful swim area, Lake Bob Sandlin State Park has a great playground. One of the thing that impressed the Two Tired Teachers was that at the playground was a map of the US with the names of the states at the bottom. It is a fantastic way to help kids learn where the states are. One other impressive thing is near the playground area there is a basketball net. Although there aren't endless hiking trails, the park does have 3.3 miles of trails. They looked extremely well maintained. Lake Bob Sandlin State Park has tent and RV camping sites. It also have screened shelters and air conditioned cabins. In the summer, you would probably want a cabin. Pets aren't allowed in the cabins or left unattended outside the cabin, so Fluffy and Fido won't be able to stay with you. One thing to note about the screened shelters is that they have windows. In many parks, the shelters only have screens which means if it rains, you are apt to get wet; or if it's cold, you don't have anything to protect you from the cold. While in the summer of 2019, we couldn't reserve a spot at Lake Bob Sandlin State Park, in 2020 we had no problem. That's not to say that the campground was empty, but it wasn't overly crowded. The heat wasn't as stifling at Bob Sandlin as it had been at Huntsville or Somerville, parks further to the south. It wasn't cold, but neither was it, as our mother used to say, hotter than blazes. As for wildlife, we saw lots of does and fawns and a lone rabbit.