Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Sam Rayburn Reservoir

I had a horrible experience at this campsite. Rolled up to find one (miserable) couple there. They were blasting music out of their car which is whatever and I waved hello and they just stared. Multiple cars came thru the campsite at night, shining their headlights every which way. Even though it says don’t enter past a certain point unless you are camping, this is clearly a spot for locals to do what they cannot do at home. At 2am I hear barking and one of my dogs busts through my tent. I go out there and there is a pack of wild dogs scouring the campsite. They weren’t terrifying or coming at us, but it was still scary. No more than 10 mins later two cars surround my tent with headlights, which is really scary for anyone, but I am a young woman traveling alone. Apparently the couple called the cops saying my dogs had been barking all night. There was brief barking and it was the wild dogs who were actually eating the trash the evil couple left out. Even if my dogs were barking, why is surrounding my tent with only headlights at 2am appropriate? I couldn’t see anything. Never saw a ranger, immediately left in the morning. Sorry for the essay, just hope to spare someone a similar experience. It is beautiful tho.

Small, quiet campground on reservoir. Plenty of space and privacy between sites. Concrete pad was level and ample. Any size rig could fit into these sites. Each site has its own garbage cans. Water and electric at each site. Dump station in campground. Verizon signal was good. Bathrooms had prison style toilets and showers were functional but dirty. Showers were in dire need of repair to floor and deep cleaning. Bathrooms were maintained daily but not adequately cleaned. No soap in bathroom, only air dryer for hands, no paper towels, no garbage can in bathrooms. There were unattended dogs on leashes/in crates at a couple of sites that barked aggressively when people passed by. Owners were absent for good part of day. Nearby lake access road passes right by campground is routinely used by locals. Not staffed by COE official.

We reserved campsites 13 and 14, at the far end, behind the restrooms. You have to park in the parking lot and carry your stuff to the site. But it’s a tent-only campground and there were only a couple other tents there so it was quiet and peaceful. Our lots were large.

There was plenty of firewood to be collected on site.

There’s a boat launch but it didn’t add significant traffic or noise.

The bathrooms were…campsite bathrooms. Not the best, not the worst. No locked on stall doors. No soap. But the toilets flushed so there’s that.

Very pretty view of Sardis Lake.

The negatives: The flies!! They were so so bad! And bighty!! My poor dogs were covered in flies, as were we.

Other negative is just about a previous camper. At our site, we picked up literally a case’s worth of Coors beer bottle caps. Evidently they didn’t throw away a single one, even though garbage is provided and literally just right there.