- ANNOUNCER: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding provided by the Toyota Tundra.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Adventure: it's what we share.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife... - Good morning, how are you today?

Good to see you.

- Ray Roberts Lake State Park is really hard to describe to people because it's just so vast.

- I mean, you just pick your activity and it's available out here.

- We are going to go south, down towards the dam.

- Snakey, she feels snakey?

- There's something about getting out in nature, it kind of brings the family close together.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks & Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

[birds chirping] [birds chirping] [gentle music] - Good morning, how are you today?

- Good.

- Good to see you.

[upbeat music] - Ray Roberts Lake State Park is really hard to describe to people because it's just so vast.

We have over 6,600 acres of park land spread out over nine different park units, scattered around the lake and down the river.

And there's so many different ways for people to connect with their own adventure here.

[upbeat music] - Bumpy, feel her belly, it's a little less bumpy.

- MAN: Corn snake.

- Smooth, huh?

Ray Roberts is still my favorite.

[laughs] It definitely appeals to a lot of different user groups.

We have our equestrian set up.

We have lots of different trails.

We have the lake where you can spend the whole day just dipping in the water at the swim beach or you can take a boat out.

So lots of different opportunities here, and it's what I've always considered home, so I love it.

[upbeat music] - ROBBIE: Being right here close to the Metroplex of Dallas and Fort Worth, it's really popular 'cause people are constantly trying to escape the concrete jungle and get out, and experience nature.

- PARK RANGER: All right, there's your sticker for the windshield, you have a wonderful day.

- We'll see ya!

- Bye.

[upbeat music] - There's the frisbee that I like.

- Yeah, here, use that.

- A shovel!

- Yay!

[laughs] - What Daddy?

- I am Marcus Hatcher.

We need to set our tent up.

A father of three from Fort Worth, Texas.

The old tent.

- Cool, can I have that?

- Yeah, you hold this.

All right, Marti.

- I'm Martina Hatcher, and we are camping at Lake Ray Roberts.

It is a family adventure.

Got our three kids camping in a tent.

[laughs] - MARCUS: You want to give it a couple of whacks?

All right.

- MARTI: So my oldest son is four and a half.

His name is Lazarus.

Middle child is Tierza.

She turned three at the end of August.

The youngest is Bronson.

He is 15 months old and... - MARCUS: Eating some more dirt?

- He loves dirt.

He will roll in the dirt, bathe in it, eat it sometimes.

- MARCUS: Spit it out.

- MARTI: [laughs] He's all about dirt.

What are you making?

- Stew.

- Stew?

- Yeah, mud stew.

- I always try not to bring a lot of toys for my kids, that way they're just forced to go find sticks and rocks and dirt and stuff.

There's something great about getting your hands dirty.

[upbeat music] - MARTI: Where's Bronson?

- MARCUS: Our kids are always wanting to go outside even when they're at home.

So they're just here in their element and I think they enjoy it.

- This one to that one.

- I think that might work.

It is, I think a problem in society today where kids, they spend a little too much time indoors, too much time on technology.

I think it's important to kind of push them out sometimes to stretch them a little bit.

Little monkey girl.

[kids laughing] This is an awesome park.

So we just kind of try to give them a little freedom.

What you gain from being out in mother nature is priceless.

[soft upbeat music] [waves lapping] - It's a beautiful day.

Doing a little bit of black bass fishing.

It's a real peaceful, cool morning.

Not a cloud in the sky.

Got to love it.

[upbeat music] This is kind of where I come to fish most of the time.

My first fishing memories were here with my dad.

I kind of learned how to catch a bass at this lake, just through trial and error and a whole lot of frustration and also a whole lot of joy.

There's one, that's a good one too.

Oh, what a jump.

All right, let me get this... Yeah, looks like he might have swallowed my worm, but, yeah, it's a nice largemouth bass.

[upbeat music] Fishing is good for your mental health.

Being next to water, I think has been proven to improve mental health and emotional health.

It's just kind of nice to get by some nice calm water, even when it's not so calm out here.

It's still really pretty.

It's a pretty big lake with a lot of really good public access too.

[upbeat music] - MARCUS: The beach front here is actually a really nice and big.

- MARTI: You can walk in there.

You can't swim though.

- MARCUS: We went down just to go get our toes wet.

We weren't even prepared for swimming.

-MARTI: We did not pack our swim things because I thought the lake's going to be too cold.

- Hey, hey, hey, slow down dude.

You're getting super soaked.

The kids didn't care at all.

[laughing] - Joke was on us because our kids went in anyway.

- MARCUS: Proceeded to get completely soaked and start swimming in the water.

So that was tons of fun.

I'm going to take y'all's picture.

Go stand there next to your mom.

Three, two, one, smile.

It's a terrible photo.

[laughs] They went pretty hard at the waterfront and they've been pretty busy all afternoon.

- LAZARUS: I wanna bike.

- MARCUS: Yeah, hang on.

[upbeat music] It's ready to go.

[laughs] Outdoors is for all ages, I guess.

We can ride our bikes to the park.

- My husband and I really feel like invigorated just being outdoors.

So we're hoping our kids feel the same way.

[laughs] [upbeat music] We're at Lake Ray Roberts and we're about to ride a couple of trails.

[rock music] They're very diverse trails at Ray Roberts Lake.

On the south side, yeah, there's some more technical trails, a lot of drops, a lot of chunky sections.

And then you have some fast, flowy sections up in the north side of Johnson Branch.

- Some of the advantages of coming to the State Park is the facilities and then also the trails are a little bit more technical.

It's a little bit different style of riding than what we see at some of the other DORBA trails.

DORBA is the Dallas Off Road Bike Association.

It's completely volunteer work.

Members maintain the trails, keep it safe, keep them rideable.

At this trail in particular, there are some pretty big rock gardens.

It's very tight and twisty.

So you've got a lot of cornering and a lot of different technical parts to it.

- SHAWN: The great thing about Ray Roberts, it removes you from the city life.

You're out in the elements.

You look ahead, you keep moving forward, you do a puzzle of the technical climbs and the technical sections for the drops and really get to enjoy the environment.

[rock music] - MARCUS: Hey, slow down.

- Mama.

- MARCUS: That is Mama we're going with her.

Slow down watch where you are going.

[all laughing] They will never admit it to you.

But yes, the kids are already tired.

[laughs] I'm hoping, you know, when the sun goes down, we can start winding them down for an early bedtime because I definitely need it.

[laughs] I'm going to start cooking.

[food sizzling] - MARTI: My husband is usually the cook because I'm like this is a vacation, so he gets to cook most of the meals.

- Seems like a lot of meat.

[laughs] - TIERZA: Mommy?

- MARCUS: She's got the harder job of manning the kiddos.

[kid screams] What do we call this Marti?

It's not quite taco soup.

- Daddy?

- MARCUS: Is it spicy?

Maybe I should have tried it.

[laughs] - MARTI: You just served it right up.

[Marcus laughs] [soft music] - Yeah, it looks like we have opossum over here.

Good eye.

[laughs] We got some more, it looks like egret, probably walking through here.

Oh, yeah, look at that.

[soft music] - MARCUS: I think there's like a hurdle for a lot of people.

They assume that they need a bunch of gear and all this stuff, but it's like camping can be whatever you want it to be, from sleeping on the ground with a blanket, all the way up to five-star glamping in a big trailer.

Do you just a normal marshmallow to start?

- Yeah.

- Thank you.

[child shouting] - Well, this is pretty cool.

It seems to be working.

When I was a kid, my parents did take me camping often, but we definitely did not have all the camping gear and all the nice stuff.

It was basically just scrape together whatever you had in the house and take it with you.

[child crying] We did skip naps today.

Getting grouchy over here.

[child cries] So they've been on pretty good behavior.

We'll probably be getting an early start tomorrow.

- There!

- MARTI: We do our best.

I think we are a pretty good team.

[soft music] - Everybody's finally asleep.

[crickets chirping] [birds chirping] [birds chirping] - Good morning.

[birds chirping] Good boy, yeah, good boy.

[horse neighs] [upbeat music] First, we get the curry comb and brush her off.

Brush all the sand and debris off.

And then I brush her tail and mane.

She doesn't mind it.

Gets it all ready for the saddle.

Gazelle loves to go on an adventure.

When you put the saddle on, she knows we're going to hit the trails and she loves to go.

There you go, good girl.

It's my passion.

I begged for a horse since I was three years old.

Better late than never, I finally got it.

Every time I get in the saddle and ride out here, I just love every second of it.

We're going to have a fun day.

I'm glad you all made it for today.

We're going to have a great ride.

We're going to go south down towards the dam.

- RIDER: Okay.

- GAIL: All righty.

[upbeat music] It's just good for your whole body and soul.

Good girl.

I forget about all the stress of work, or home, or family.

And I'm out here just enjoying every minute.

It fills me up.

When I'm out here, I go home and I have a smile on my face.

[horse sneezes] This is really cool through the pines here.

[upbeat music] - DEBI: I love the hiking trails.

We come over here almost every day because we walk our dogs literally every morning.

Rain, sunshine, even in snow, we do it.

It's just what we do.

[dog panting] - ROBERT: We moved to the area.

Part of the reason was the state park.

We live across the street from the state park.

I mean, you just pick your activity, it's available out here.

Lost Pines would be one of my favorite trails, because it's got a lot of deep, almost sand like trail to it but there isn't one that's not a favorite.

- The dogs go on a sniff-arri, because there's so many scents out here.

[upbeat music] - MARCUS: You see the deer.

Yeah, he's over there.

I've been scouting out a couple of trails on the way in to the campsite.

So we'll probably do a morning walk.

The Lost Pines Trail.

[upbeat music] This is a cool little trail.

- MARTI: Look at that tree.

Look how all the branches are just coming out of it.

Just how big the tree is.

- MARCUS: It is absolutely beautiful out here right now.

- Mama!

[Marcus laughs] - Morning guys.

- Look at that cute doggie.

- Dog.

- No actually we're going this way.

[children chatter] [Marcus laughs] - Daddy's ears are soft.

Can I have my glasses back?

- No you can not.

- I don't know where to go without my glasses.

- Yes you do.

[upbeat music] - Oh, the sun, we're melting.

[Martina laughs] Look someone's riding a horse.

[upbeat music] - We love to come out to these trails because it's just a beautiful, peaceful place to be.

[horse nickers] It just feeds my soul.

I love coming out here.

It's like comfort food.

It's like, you need that peace.

You need that quiet.

The trails are beautifully maintained by the trail association out there.

Sometimes I'll ride these trails and I'll go in the piney area where it's quiet and soft, and you'll come upon a deer laying in those pines.

And it's like, ah, you can breathe.

Yeah, you think they wanna drink?

- Yeah, they need some water.

[upbeat music] - MARCUS: You know, the lake's huge.

Even the drive in was really cool getting to drive on the edge of the lake and the kids are like, "Look, it's the ocean."

And of course we're like, "Yes, yes, it is."

We drove all the way to the ocean.

Put your hand out.

We're going to use these to see if we can catch a fish.

[Marcus laughing] - It's tickling me.

- It was the first time for my little ones.

I think Lazarus' second time ever fishing.

- You tickly.

- MARCUS: All right, here we go, you ready?

You want a worm?

- CHILD: No.

- That's what we are having for dinner.

Oh look, somebody's got their boat.

[boat engine roaring] [upbeat music] - I just love this area.

Hang on, we've got a fish, here we go.

Come on, buddy.

[upbeat music] Here we go.

Ray Roberts largemouth bass right here.

See you later bud.

[upbeat music] - Nice cast Lazarus.

[upbeat music] - You'll know if you catch one, you got to hold on to your reel tight because fish are pretty strong.

We didn't catch anything, but we still have a lot of fun.

After that... Oh, cool.

...we got to go to the Nature Center, which was a really cool place.

- It says American bison.

- MARCUS: We have a vendetta against raccoons.

They stole our tortillas the last time we went camping.

[laughs] - MARTI: They had a bunch of different animal pelts and skeletons and some fake poop, which my oldest son really thought was cool.

[people laughing] - MARCUS: Really cool place.

The kids were able to touch all of the different pelts.

What is that Bronson?

- Banana.

- A banana?

[laughs] - MARTI: Did he say banana?

[laughs] - MARCUS: Very informative and friendly staff there.

- King snakes by nature are very calm-going.

So anyone that's nervous, I'd just like to let you know that this is a snake I would trust to do this with.

So we don't have to worry about Miss Cleo.

Do you have a question?

- Did they get captured?

- So she was captive-bred, and then someone gave her to us so that we can use here for all these educational programs.

Good question.

- MARTI: My kids had a really great time learning about snakes, about the different venomous and non-venomous snakes that are here in Texas.

- Wanna touch her?

- Yeah.

- MARTI: So cute.

And they got to touch a couple of snakes.

- MARCUS: Kids got to touch a bunch of different live snakes they had.

- Snakey, she feels snakey.

[laughs] [child chatters] - Tons of fun there.

This is the end, time to clean up camp and head on home.

Kids are going to go play at the park because sometimes they get in the way.

[laughs] [water spraying] This park is pretty cool.

The playgrounds are really good.

The beach is really awesome.

There's something about getting out in nature.

- MEAGAN: Being outside and being in the woods and being on two wheels, is just it's peaceful and after the ride, today I'm going to just hang out and enjoy the day.

Woo, good job guys.

[upbeat music] - PHILLIP: You never know what you're going to hook into out here.

The Texas State Parks are really kind of a treasure in my mind.

[upbeat music] - Nice spot, take a drink, to end the day's ride.

[horse neighs] - MINDY: It's all about connecting to this place.

We need nature, nature is good for us.

We like to try to keep this place as wild as possible that people are still getting those wild experiences.

[birds chirping] We have the lake.

We have the trail system.

We have some beautiful, scenic overlook areas.

There's just so much to experience out here.

I know there's a whole other side to this park that we didn't even get to go through at all.

So we'll definitely be back.

[leaves rustling] - Bye.

- MAN: Bye, bye.

[upbeat music] [birds chirping] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [waves lapping] [waves lapping] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [waves lapping] [crickets chirp] [waves lapping] [boat revs past] [crickets chirp] [crickets chirp] This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding provided by the Toyota Tundra.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Adventure: it's what we share.