Best Dog-Friendly Camping near Brackettville, TX

The RV sites are spacious, and the grounds are spaced out nicely. The river access is nice. There are a few drawbacks. There's isn't a dog park for pets to safely let out energy without tons of wildlife poo (it was EVERYWHERE). Disposing of dog waste was a challenge. There are only two bins on the opposite side of the grounds from the RV sites. One by the playground and the other by the river, additionally were no guest accessible dumpsters, and they don't tell you to put your trash by the curb. To have pets, it is $2.50 for each pet per night. Also, a second vehicle parked at a lot is an additional $10 per night, and the credit card fee is ~$10. They will also charge $50 for violating the pet policy. The site price range has gone up from $45-$75 to $55-$91(and that's still off-season pricing). This place is very nice, but they aren't pet friendly, and the hidden fees are ridiculous.

Let's start off with the positives:

• Awesome friendly staff.

• Old Pickleball court to practice on.

• The Rio Frio...you can't beat it.

• Friendly staff.

• Quiet on the weekdays.

• Dog friendly.

• The front part of the park is level parking.

• Great staff.

• A Well-behaved pet gets a treat from the gals in the store.

• Well-maintained sites.

• Clean bathrooms, laundry, and shower area.

• Wonderful staff.

Ok, the negatives which really aren't:

• Not a fenced-in dog area but is that really an issue for a well-behaved dog?

•  Can be dusty....but when is camping not some form of dirt, dust, or grim.

• Can get a little noisy on the weekends but it's fun to hear the children having a great time away from this electronic world.

We would love to keep this place a secret BUT we want Parkview Riverside to succeed so come one come all!

Type of Park: Private- book with them through Campspot. 

Check In: 2 pm for RV sites, 4 pm for cabins Check Out: 12 pm

• 🚻 Restrooms
• 🚿 Showers
• 📶 Wifi(did not use)
• 🧺 Laundry facility
• 🐕 Off-leash dog park
• 🛒 Store has RV supplies, necessities, few groceries, souvenirs, ice
• 🚶🏻‍♀️ Trails
• 🌊 Water access- Frio was very low but still had some water from the springs
• 🏚 Cabins
• 🦌 Wildlife: Scarlet Tanager, bats, woodpeckers
• 📆 Nightly activities- mostly geared towards kids Volleyball, tetherball, gaga ball, horseshoes, playground
• 📡 AT&T had good signal. Verizon was non-existent
• 👩🏻‍💼 Staff was friendly and helpful 
• Can bring golf carts or rent them here 
• Recycling bins for cans
• ❗ Note: CP 3 is directly across from the dumpsters, but has a good shade tree

📋 Site#CP 06, Central Park 

Premium site, Central Park sites have a patio area looking toward the river with pergola top

• 🔙 Back In
• 🅿 Site Pad: Raised in the back to be level(watch small children), river rock base, level, long enough for camper and truck when unhitched, wide enough for another vehicle
• 💧 Water- low to the ground so hose and filter come off to the side along the ground
• ⚡ Electric max 50 amp
• 💩 Sewer connection in good condition
• 🔥 Fire Ring- but in a burn ban 
• Picnic Table: wooden with metal legs 
• Close to restrooms/showers 
• Shade in the afternoon 
• Full sun in the mornings 
• A little green space between the next campsite and lower campsites 
• Next to a road that leads to lower level and river- so a little extra traffic(but no campers on the front side of camper)

In the Area:

🛒 Several small stores, tube/kayak rentals

🍽🍺 Bar& grills on the way to and in Leakey(15 minutes) 

Garner State Park is very close- a Texas Parks Pass is very handy

My wife and I had never been camping together. Why not roll the dice and go on an adventure for our 5 year anniversary? We really wanted to be far from everything we knew, we wanted it to be beautiful, we wanted to get away from the city and close to the stars, we found “the camping spot”.

Ms. Donna is as honest and good hearted as they make here in Texas, she was super helpful from the start! We never had a problem! She has a truly unique piece of property for primitive camping chocked so full of wildlife we could hear the deer breathing next to our tent as the sun was coming up!

There are a couple short nature walks through her acreage that let you cut through the thicket. There is ample shade underneath some of the biggest oak trees in the area!

It’s a short distance to the Nueces River which will completely blow you away. I thought the Frio River had the bluest water and whitest limestone until Donna showed us the small private river access point where it’s deep enough to swim. Spring can’t get here fast enough.

I wouldn’t recommend driving a car out there, you’re going to need some clearance getting through rugged dirt roads, for the most part it’s very groomed.

We spent 4 days/4 nights there, if you can get there during the week, it’s as quiet and tranquil as you can dream up. Weekends naturally have a bit more “traffic” as it’s a semi popular area for the weekend warrior getting away with the family. Met the neighbors as our dogs roamed freely and stumbled upon their dogs, all were very friendly.

Not for the unprepared, town is not close!

I can’t recommend this place enough if you’re looking for that real private camping experience where it feels like you can see the far side of the moon at night. (Was awesome listening to the mountain lions screech and the coyotes howl)

This place has gone unnoticed for too long. It’s one of those places you’d like to be selfish with and keep quiet but more need to experience ALL this place has to offer!

This park is a great escape to disconnect, view the DARK SKY and witness Mexican free-tailed bat emergence! Park campground is 25 miles after the turn off of US90. We stayed Friday and Saturday nights in mid-March. Few bats emerged during our stay; much better emergence in April as experienced in previous visits to Stuart Cave. 

Pros:

• Excellent DARK SKY campground

• Stuart Cave bat emergence nightly from a very nice viewing deck

• Small park

• Extremely quiet park during March Spring Break

• Good campsite privacy due to good brush coverage

• Most sites had a nice distance from neighbor sites

• Clean campsite

• Picnic table in good condition, especially eating surface

• Our site had aluminum picnic table on a concrete slab under a metal shelter; not all sites had metal shelter

• Clean restroom/shower facility

•  Campsite hook-ups in good condition.

• Level gravel campsite.  

• Pedestal BBQ grill, fire pit with grilling grate, double hook lantern pole and aluminum picnic table at each site.   

• Park roadways in good condition. 

• Park Ranger patrolled campground numerous times throughout day/evening 

Cons:

• No AT&T signal; no park WIFI, so completely without phone service and no public phone available for emergerncies. Had to drive outside of Park about 3 miles for AT&T signal.

• County burn ban prohibited wood campfires and ban posted on Park’s website. Park Ranger stopped by our campsite to tell us to put out our campfire, but we showed him it was a propane firebowl.

• Limited shade in campsites

• Must pack out all personally generated trash. Absolutely NO dumpsters; no garbage cans in park

• No campground host

•.  No entrance gate locked at night

• One and only restroom used by entire Park, so campers and day users. Women’s restroom had 2 toilets, 2 sinks and one shower stall

• Women’s restroom lacked consistent supply of TP and wall dispenser soap• Wildlife sightings limited to squirrels and armadillos

• No park store, so come prepared with all necessary supplies as Brackettville is closest small town which is 25 miles away with only a grocery store and couple fuel stations. Ulvade and Del Rio have the typical box stores.

Just 5 miles outside of Del Rio, Texas lies the limestone lined Amistad Reservoir which gathers the waters of the Rio Grande river on its journey to the gulf. Amistad means friendship, and as a dam project, was co-sponsored by the US and Mexico.  This park is a confluence of three distinct ecosystems, which makes the flora extra special.

There are many developed campgrounds throughout the Recreation Area, the San Pedro campground has a few sites that offer more privacy away from the main campground, and dozens in the larger, more open area.  Each is set up with a grill, picnic table and shade shelter. A large group campsite is available for reservation, but not during COVID. There are no electrical hook-ups (bring your solar!), and no water available at this campground.  Pit toilets were clean and hopefully they'll fix the lock on the doors soon (in the meantime, just use a stick).  Whaddya want for 6 bucks a night?  The stay limit is 2 weeks, and the rangers do check.

San Pedro is further away from the water than some of the other camping areas, but it was quiet, comfortable and lovely. Since the Verizon signal was super strong we were able to get a ton of things accomplished while also squeezing in some hikes, bikes, paddles, and runs. There are a few trails around, but lots of quiet dirt roads to stay active.  The boat launch was a short 2 mile drive away. And of course the crystal blue lake offers everything from swimming, fishing, paddling, and powerboating.

Del Rio is one of the larger cities along the border between Loredo and El Paso, so there really isn't much you can't get in town just a short drive away. We even got some work done on our truck and were able to just bike back to the campground whiel it was in the shop.  Drinking water can be filled at the Diablo East Campground dump station, about 4 miles away for no charge, and of course the town is full of water filling kiosks like all southern desert towns.

Bathrooms were VERY clean, water stayed hot and we never had to wait in line for a restroom or shower. 99% of the time we were in there alone.
The customer service at the store was amazing and everything was reasonably priced.
The store offered: Meats produce Camping supplies and tools Pool floats, tubes, Shirts and MUCH more. There was a free pump jn the back for us to blow up the tubes. We thought the river would be too cold to float in October but there were several people swimming to our surprise! So we joined them all four days. There are some sites with plenty of shade and some with no shade. The grounds are well kept and everyone staying there short term or long were very friendly. We will stay at this campsite again for sure! Oh! There are two river access points fairly close to each other. One is a dirt ramp and the other is a steep set of metal stairs. The stairs creeped our 4 year old out making her feel like she was going to fall through and it was painful on our dogs feet. The stairs are very stable though. All that being said there is a completely different entrance that was more comfortable for the entire family very close by. LOTS of squirrels! We are “distant learning” with the kids do to Covid. We had to connect to the wifi every morning for zoom meetings. GREAT wifi!!! No problems. We have Verizon and had NO cellphone reception which was fine. Great place.