Best RV Parks & Resorts near Chickasaw National Recreation Area

This is a great family owned RV resort with easy access,.8 miles, to and from I-35 via exit 24 about halfway between Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Dallas Texas; absolutely no interstate noise. Beautiful country setting among the rolling hills and just a mile and a half from the entrance to Lake Murray State Park offering water activities on the centerpiece 5,278 surface acre Lake Murray, 18 hole golf, picnicking, fishing, camping, trail riding, hayrides, 30 miles of hiking, swimming, miniature golf, 100 acres of ATV trails, several marinas and more. The resort amenities include a clubhouse, inground pool, playground, basketball, dog park, lake with firepits, bathhouse, laundry, ice, propane fill station, free wi fi and cable TV. All interior roads are paved, pads are all concrete with irrigated grass lawns, 50/30/15 amp electric, water, sewer, table and cable on 90 large pull throughs and 38 back-ins. Verizon 4 bars. Camp hosts on site and the staff is very welcoming. This park is extremely well cared for and relatively new...so as the trees mature so will the shade and the aesthetics. Great place for a long term stay or just a weekend getaway. The nearby town of Ardmore has all the necessities: shopping, dining, groceries, fuel and Walmart and just a short distance to Winstar Casino(one of the largest in the world) plus several museums and cultural centers. 1031 Lodge Rd, Ardmore, Oklahoma, 73401 l www.bythelakerv.com l 580-798-4721 l GPS 34.071845,-97.132978

Lake Murray State Park located near Ardmore Oklahoma has something for everyone. Water activities on the centerpiece 5,278 surface acre Lake Murray, 18 hole golf, picnicking, fishing, camping, trail riding, hayrides, 30 miles of hiking, swimming, miniature golf, 100 acres of ATV trails, several marinas and more. Accommodations include Lake Murray Lodge, 56 cabins and six campgrounds. The campgrounds are dotted around the lake with tent and RV sites of varying hook-ups; 30& 50 amp electric, water and some full-hook-up with table, fire ring and grill. Each campground has a camp host, paved roads, modern bathhouses, dump stations, pull-through sites, lake front sites, concrete pads with both open and shaded sites. Research the sites to find one to accommodate your rig. Our choice was Elephant Rock Campground. The nearby town of Ardmore has all the amenities: shopping, dining, groceries, fuel and Walmart. WARNING: Oklahoma State Parks charge a daily parking fee per vehicle of$10 in addition to the camping fee and they enforce it...just saying from experience...read the information carefully! Park Office: 13528 Scenic Hwy 77 Ardmore, OK 73401 l Park Office GPS- 34.071612,-97.101490 Reservations: https://www.travelok.com/

This campground is situated on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Murray. Because of this, there are some great lakeside campsites just steps from the water and no campers on either side of you. The downside is the lakeside campsites are set up on the eastern side of the peninsula and parking is N/S with about 20’ between campers. The campground road runs down the middle of the narrow peninsula with trees on the western side of the road (no sunset views unless you walk to the point). Because of this configuration, it requires parallel parking (like a pull through site but literally parked on side of road). The site I reserved (Site 21) was a mere 3 ft from the road. Not too big of a problem, except that I’m a light sleeper and cars/trucks/RV’s, trucks pulling trailers, motorcycles etc. noisily and regularly drive right by and especially at night this was a problem for me. During the day I was more concerned for the families with kiddos that were scootering and riding bikes in the street.

The location of this campground is great in proximity to other things in the Park. The Buckhorn trailhead is right in the campground, so easy access to hiking. Trails are well marked and not too difficult. Campground is closer to the Lodge and access back to the main road into the small “town” for supplies. Because the campground is on a peninsula the campground host said that there tends to be a breeze. When I was there a severe storm hit and I can attest to this location being primely located for wind! 

Note: my understanding was this campground accommodates rigs 30 feet or smaller, but I did see larger RV’s pull in and set up.

Summary:

• Site: No 21 level concrete pad with 30 amp electric and water hook up/no sewer, picnic table, fire ring and BBQ grill

• Shower facilities on site, but closed when I was there due to Covid-19

• Dump site available

• Boat landing and pier in campground

• Little gazebo at the end of the peninsula in campground (nice for watching sunsets)

• Good sized sandy swim area with designated parking

• Tent camping area with large parking lot. However, the sites weren’t very private

• Bike/walking trail to 2 other campgrounds

• Cons: I felt like I was camped on the side of a road. For this reason, if I were to return, I would chose a site in the area with back in camping. Although these sites aren’t on the water and are closer together, they are at least set off of the road and would be quieter. 

Lake Murray SP has campgrounds with nicer sites, but Tipp’s Point would do in a pinch.

We stayed here for 2 weeks over Labor Day 2020. It is a secluded, large property far away from any road noise so it is very quiet. All sites have FHU 30/50 amp. Sites are either grass or some gravel. Our site, 25, was shady, grassy and level with room for us to park our car next to our MH. The owners are pleasant and helpful. When we arrived they were on vacation but they had a woman watching the park. She told us to pick any site. Our Verizon was 2 bars of 4G and I was told that AT&T is sketchy here. There is plenty of shopping in nearby Ardmore. There is 1 set of showers, a laundry room and 3 community fire pits. There are no dog runs but it seems nobody pays attention to the“Pets must be leashed and under control” rule. In my opinion this is one of those places where“Resort” is a misnomer. No picnic tables, cable, WiFi. Pool or other amenities associated with other RV Resorts. If you are in the area, especially for Lake Murray, you don’t need those other conveniences and enjoy peace and quiet this is a good place for you. Website is www.shangri-larvresort.com

   Campground is newer and paved pull throughs are very long and wide.  With paved patio for our site.  We had 38’ 5th wheel w 4 slides and still had room on sides and behind RV for 2nd vehicle.  Patio area on sites do not have picnic tables which is one reason I did not give them a 5.  Being right off interstate is convenient but you will hear traffic during daytime.   We heard nothing in bedroom overnight though.  Robin owner is super friendly and helpful!  Bathrooms closest to us were nice and clean.   Huge shower area.   I’d say 20% of RVs are here long term    Some a little sloppy in appearance and others do very nice job in their lot.   One resident is a Police Officer and his cruiser is parked there when he is off duty.  But very safe area and comfortable.     Definitely stay here again

Lake Murray is a large state park which is an easy drive north from the DFW area, so I stay in the SP frequently, but never at this campground. It’s located a bit off the beaten path on the South end of the park. It’s also a smaller campground which accommodates smaller RV’s. Also, there is boat ramp, but it is not large and has little parking, plus it’s not located down the road that leads to the campsites. This means there isn’t constant traffic and power boat noise. 

The campground is tucked into a cove of Lake Murray and is down the road from the dam.  There are some very nice walk in tent camping sites where you could walk down to the rocky lake edge and swim. There are also a few drive in tent sites. However, be aware that when I stayed here in spring of 2020, there is no bath house or toilet facilities. There was a nice playground and a little picnic area right on the lake.

The RV sites are scattered around a circular road and there are several right on the lake. These are the best in my opinion. One of them (site 17) is labeled “premium” and I would pay the extra $ to snag this site. 

• Site 14 - Water/Electric 50 and 30 amp, no sewer (dump on site)

• gravel pad, mostly level, has a tree on awning side so couldn’t deploy my awning, but really unnecessary because the site was nicely shaded

• Cement picnic bench, BBQ, fire ring

• Walk down from site to water with rock ledge to sit a chair on and dangle feet in the lake!

• Site is private on 1 side with forested creek/water run off area, but neighbor is fairly close on other side

• ***No bathhouse (gutted - see photo)

• Little cons: no trailheads within the campground, but Tucker Tower is a bike ride or hike over the dam and the trailhead to Ski Jump Campground the the Lodge connects here. (8.5 miles). Also Dump station at the campground is easy access, however the exit up the somewhat eroded gravel hill may require some maneuvering for larger rigs.

Definitely check out Tucker Tower when visiting and Lake Murray SP Nature Center is very well done! I’ll return again for the always good hiking and try to snag the premium site or site 9.

UPDATE 5/2021 - Marietta Landing Campground is being revamped.

We parked at Winstar RV park(FunTownRV) at the beginning of the"Covid Closure Days". The casino was absolutely closed, but the Chickasaw tribe elected to keep the RV park open. Fortunate for us!

The park is very large. The sites are excellent and at least half of the park is comprised of large, pull-through sites. These sites basically have two grills, two power poles, two water hookups, two picnic tables. More on the good stuff, but to be clear, the only reason we left Winstar RV park was because they wouldn't offer us a monthly rate. We parked there while selling our sticks-n-bricks in Dallas. The manager said they had too many monthlies and it was too much work for them. I didn't(and still don't) understand that. But there it is. After three weeks, we relocated to a park that did have monthly rates. We did, based on our Winstar players card usage, get the first 4? 5? days free that we stayed there. If we had to rely on getting it from the casino, that might have been difficult. I didn't actually have the cards, but they looked us up.

Back to the good. Just near the entrance(1/4 mile) is a Sonic, which was very convenient during Covid days. You could technically walk to the casino(note, this is the WORLDS LARGEST CASINO, and it's huge) but I wouldn't. There is a shuttle, which I assume runs when the casino is open. (We have spent many, many hours at Winstar World Casino and we very much like it. Lucky for us it was closed or we'd be broke!)

We had zero problems with package deliveries. Sometimes they even called us to let us know(but of course, I watch tracking numbers, so...). Everyone was very polite. There is a bit of a store in the office and there was more of a store behind doors that weren't open, I assume closed by Covid.

Each site has a nice grill and nice trash can on a pole, with a trash bag. These are emptied daily. There are also large dumpsters. The power is available at the large sites in 50/30/20. Water was great pressure. The only negative, for me, at least, was that this is SOFT water. I have never been a fan of soft water. In addition, we used the water a couple of times to make ice, and I didn't like the taste of it. After the first couple of times, we went to bottled water for ice and drinking, though I didn't mind the boiling of it for coffee.

The entire park is very clean. The grass is very well maintained. The caretakers never nicked my water hose or sewer lines, defaulting to leaving grass a little taller around those hoses rather than risk it.

The campground Wifi is very good, better than most any other place I've visited, in an RV or otherwise. We were never blocked for too much usage, and I was re-installing a lot of large development and server software on a new laptop while I was there. There are a large number of repeaters throughout the park.

The laundry facilities were clean. (There are two separate buildings in the two"wings" of the park.) You have to get a card from the office to gain entrance(like a keyless hotel card), which we weren't provided with upon check-in, so be sure to ask upfront, or make sure you try to wash clothes during the office hours, which I think ran to 9pm? I think it was about $2 for a wash/dry. Yes, $1 for the wash, $1 for the dry, obviously assuming normal run times.

There's a nice sidewalk that runs around most of the park, with doggie bag/trash stations along the way. In addition, the park was clearly planned as there is a definite drainage system. You don't get large puddles after a rainstorm. Lots of birds around, I think there was a family of three rabbits that my dog would smell and chase(if I would've let her off the leash!) Several small'ish (not yet mature) trees are around the park. Some of the grass was so great, I was jealous! Winter rye or something, but it was so great it looked fake!

If you were boondocking, or not hooking up, there IS a dump station at the exit. There is also a pool and a meeting room. It was closed off for winter(and Covid) while we were there in March-April 2020.

We would most definitely stay there again. I didn't want to leave, it was only their refusal to give us a monthly rate, otherwise, we would still be there.

For location, though, f you're visiting for any reason OTHER than the casino, you're out of luck. Thackerville, Oklahoma is absolutely nothing to write about. You're two hours from Oklahoma City and an hour from Dallas. (Though Gainesville, with a Home Depot and Walmart, is about 15 minutes away.) I would also nick on price if that were a category, but price is subjective, so... and really, $30 most days($50 Friday/Saturday) isn't shabby for water, sewer, and 50 amps in a clean park.