Best Cabin Camping near Bowie, TX

One of the more expensive Texas state parks. Standard electric at 25/night. Large bathrooms and lots of trash bins. Actual pay phones (who knew those still existed?) the trails are for DORBA (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) so maybe that explains the horrible lack of signage. Bicycle fix it station.

Great security. I was with my 3 year old after dark, maybe 8PM at the playground on the water. No lights so I used our lamplight. I noticed a truck in the parking lot with its lights on. We were there maybe 90 minutes and the truck kept moving. When we left, they left. I spotted it down the road and saw they were camp rangers. Bodes well that they were keeping tabs on the facilities even if it was just a mom and kid.

Very clean and moist spots are secluded. Lots of REALLY great primitive spots if that's your thing.

I remember going to this place when I was younger. It seemed so large and always had a lot going on that was interesting. We hosted a summer camp here, went to company picnics and came out with friends. It was the resort type feel without the huge resort style price.

Now that I am older I wanted to check it out to see if it lived up to the hype I recalled from childhood when the pool and the boats on the beach seemed to give me life on hot summers. Now I look at things from the eye of a camper which notices amenities differently, blogs about budget travel and explores the outdoor spaces.

When I pulled in I spoke to person at the entry who gave me a basic rundown of the facility which included a small restaurant, atv area, sports area including mini golf and a pool and of course the camping experience options themselves which have grown since I last was here. There are cabins available and RV spaces however they do allow a tent in these spaces as well, of course you are paying for a full hook up site so your price is a bit more than primitive camping, which is located in a space close to the bank of the water.

This is a pretty large property!! Over 200 sites available and several cabin options so anyone trying any kind of adventure can find something they will be interested in. The price of your site covers a lot of activity space and also has some very nice shower and bathroom facilities to make your trip comfortable.

Some of the downside is maintenance! You can tell this is an older facility in way of the broken roads and potholes. Also some of the facility amenities and furnishings are in need of an update. Some of the picnic tables were in need of replacement and looked like they had been used pretty heavily over the years. Not all the facility looks like this but in he areas like the primitive camping it seemed a bit more obvious, sometimes I feel like just because you aren't wanting all the amenities they think of you as a second class citizen at campgrounds.

It is pretty busy during early summer, when I had checked it out and more so during the holidays such as July 4th, Memorial Day and Labor Day. I decided to go during the week so there was no issue in getting a canoe from the rentals but on the more busy weekends I was told it is first come first serve.

TIPS:

• If renting a cabin do so well in advance between summer camp, family outings and normal traffic these book up quickly.

• Bring Cash for the restaurant when I was there their machine was down for cards.

• Shower Shoes!! if you don't wear them in the showers already start here!!

This is a fun little state park was just perfect for a little Saturday night away. It is just a little less than 2 hours from Fort Worth. I would say that the park is good for short stays of 1 to 3 nights. There is not a lot to do in the area or the park that would keep attention more than that. The park has a stocked fishing lake and equipment for loan. There is all the fort buildings to explore with rangers giving talks and various activities. There is the trail system between the park and Lost Creek Reservoir for hiking and horseback riding about a 10 mile trails. The park also has a full sized sand volleyball court and playground for the kids.

The campsites are very good sized with two different camping areas. One the sites are pretty spread out with easy pull ins and flat. The other has a the cabins and sites are more close together. The parks only bathhouse is on this side also. It's not far but a bit too far for convenience if you are needing a shower. Restrooms are also in the fort area which is just down from the other campground. We were only there one night so the kids washed up in the creek LOL. The sites all have picnic tables and fire rings/pits.

We put up our large tent and dog trolley line with still plenty of space. The creek running behind the (with a big fan blowing) kept us nice & cool.

The local sheriff and police make drive throughs, No safety or security issues.

No issues with noise either.

As far as Thousand Trails this is an average park. There are some full hook up sites but many are partial hookups. You pick your own site which is nice but most of the full hook up sites are occupied by long term residents or annual site holders. The view of the lake is beautiful and the park is quiet. They do have a lot of amenities.

Sites: most were level, grass or gravel. Some have a view of the lake. I sprained my knee and ankle at this park because our site was so unlevel and the mud sunk our jacks a little. Our rig weighs 16,000lbs so the Class As should be careful. The ground was soft and I came out of the RV without thinking and twisted both. Medical services are within a half hour of the RV Park.

Each site had picnic tables and fire rings.

Cellular: we were able to work and stream video easily with T-Mobile and AT&T.

Amenities: Club House Shuffle Board Pool Hot Tub (closed while we were there) RV Storage Mini Golf Hiking Trails Laundry Bath House Playground Fishing WiFi

A few times a year, the City of Jacksboro opens its arms to an influx of campers and schools from around the state eager to see one of the unique reinactments at the historic location of Fort Richardson.

While you can visit during other times of the year, these times make for some of the most popular and thus most busy camping experiences.

7 different types of campsites are available including group sites, equestrian sites, full hook up and primitive sites for RV and tent campers. Sites range from $10-$25 depending on the area and amenities.

For someone like myself who prefers primitive tent camping or less amenities I found $10 tent sites were about a 3/4 mile hike in and $20 limited amenity campsites were my best options. The benefits to the $20 North Loop site was pretty obvious in restrooms and typical state park fire rings and picnic tables. Primitive sites include only fire rings and because of their remote location in warmer months can be more of a questionable location as taller grass can Harbor more snakes, specifically in this area Rattlesnakes and Copperheads.

These fees were in addition to standard park admission which is $3 per day for adults. All of these fees are due upon entrance at the entry station where you will be greeted by a park ranger and given a map.

While there is a lake, hiking and areas for horseback riding my focus upon my visit was one of the reinactments events held near Christmas. “Ghosts of Christmas Past” is an event set to showcase the period of the fort days and tell the story of how soldiers spent the time, what it might have been like on those cold winter nights and create a vision of fort life. It was a great educational visit and a great way to see a bit more of the State Park.

With this being a short drive for me from my home, I find this campsite and full facilities to be very exciting to return for other events. Well maintained and with friendly staff it is well worth the trip.

I mean, a bad day camping is still better than a good day at work. We stayed in the Walnut camping circle and got site 62. The site was actually pretty nice. It had the most trees over the sites around us, to give us a “in the woods” feel. One thing wasn’t great about the site was the the fire ring is pretty close to the street, and sits in front of the parking bump (this was an rv site). We brought our Bonfire Solo Stove, so we were able to have a fire pit further off the road for a little privacy. Another thing that wasn’t my favorite was a paved walkway came right past the back of our site. People couldn’t really see us, but we could hear them as the walked/talked/yelled down the walkway. The last “con” I have to say it that on the Johnson Branch I didn’t see a store on the map. We didn’t need to buy anything, but other places we’ve been have stores and that’s where we’ve gotten the 411 on good hiking and places to see on the grounds. One of the nice thing was the tree coverage, like I said. We had a lot of trees so we could but up some lights and a slack line for the kids to play on. The tent pad was big enough for a 6 man tent and a four man tent, with room to spare, which was nice. The other nice thing from our site, was that we were about 1/4 mile from a little playground for the kids. The playground wasn’t anything grand, but it broke up the days for the kids some, which as all parents know is a gift.

We stayed one night at the equestrian camp on our way through the area. We prefer leaving the equestrian spots for horse owners but it was the last one available in the park. Although, of the 5 sites in this loop, none of us had horses!

With only a couple of small pens and not much space, we could see why equestrians might not flock here. Hard to say from one night though.

The sites are long and narrow without much space between them. Road nosie is noticeable during the day but quiet at night.

There are no bathroom facilities in this loop, so be aware of that. There is a small dumpster available. The bathroom/shower facilities and dump station are down the road at the main campground. You do have 20-, 39- and 50-amp electric plus water hookup at your site.

The good part about this loop is that you're camping within site of the historic Fort Richardson and visiting the grounds is a short walk. The buildings are only open from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but you're welcome to wander the grounds and look in the windows. Make sure you grab a self-guided your brochure at check-in.

This was fine for a night or two, but for longer we'd encourage a stay at the main campground instead.

Phone service was good: Verizon 4 bars / T-Mobile 4 bars.