Best Glamping 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 have seen this place a million times living in the community nearby and never thought to check to see if they all tent campers. I was shocked to find out they do accommodate them so I passed through and checked out the grounds and wanted to let people know it exists!

There are two entries at the front of the property each easily accessed from the highway. Though they are gravel they are easy to navigate but do hold a little water in the rain. As you drive into the camp there are 4 main rows of camping, mostly in use by RVs however they do also accommodate tent campers. These sites can be picked up nightly or for more long term use so many people at this park have called this their home for a bit. Despite obvious signs of the long term dwellers, the grounds are clean and well maintained and don't look cluttered like some long term campgrounds will begin to look.

The site offers nice restrooms with showers, a bbq for general use, a rec room perfect for having your breakfast or dinner or perhaps a game of cards with friends and has connections for RVs up to 50 amp as well as a dump station.

For the tent camper sites are wide enough to be comfortable to move around and have scattered picnic tables. The tent camping sites are located on a grassy area next to the pond so they are not squished between big rigs and have a bit more privacy.

This site might not look as elaborate as some, but it more than makes up for the few things you do not have by its friendly staff and on site mechanic.

TIPS:

• Call in advance if looking for an RV site, they do have several spaces available but during certain times of the year they do fill up as they are centrally located to many things.

• Check out the LBJ Grasslands which are nearby when visiting this location, a great get away for some outdoor activities.

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.

We found Lake Ray Roberts as a nice swimming spot near Dallas to go cool down during the hot Texas summers and we LOVE it to go grill and hang out as a day long activity. So when my husband and I decide to start camping 🏕 we chose this park as our first trial, and we found it a bit inconvenient for Car camping since the spots are walk up and you gotta leave your car behind in a parking lot. Also, is very primitive style, so clean bathrooms and close-by water is not really part of the package. We loved the view from our spot and if you are up for a primitive experience within a park, then this is great. Just not for us and the type of camping we wanna do 😊

The entire park was well maintained. The restrooms and showers were modern, neat and clean. The historical site was closed for tours on the day that we stayed, but we were able to walk around the site and visit buildings. The signs on the outside of the structures were very informative and we were able to peek in the windows to experience life during those times.

Our stay in Site 41 was perfect for solitude and comfort.  No bright lights from other RVs. There was only 1 other RV in this section. The partially shaded site had electricity and water.  It is located quite a distance from the restroom/shower area.

This campground offers fun, history and camping all in one place!