Best RV Parks & Resorts near Buchanan Dam, TX

Catching up on my reviews…Inks Lake SP is a superb park about 40 minutes from Austin in the Texas Hill Country.  Great lake with a large no wake zone in one area that makes it very family friendly and paddler friendly.  There are sites away from the NWZ that allow you to ski/tube right from your campsite.  Great choice of flat, easy access spots.  Tent-only spots with only water are available as-well.   Decent hiking and easy biking around the park is available.  The area around Devil's Hole is great for floating about and jumping from the rocks.  Just wish that folks would clean up after themselves better.  Great camp store with lots of products.  Lake was lowered in 2019 to update the docks and boat ramps (very nice now), lake is back to normal seasonal levels.  ILSP is close to Austin, so it stays busy during the season, so reserve well ahead of time.  No Wifi at the campsites, but decent mobile reception (ATT).  30/50 amp and water at most sites.  Fire ring and table on concrete pads at all sites.  Tables are not covered, however.  I've been told that there is Wifi available at the camp store, but I cannot personally verify that.

RV camper here. I rate campgrounds from the viewpoint of wanting a place for a brief family vacation. When we arrived here we made a reservation online (easy) so that was good. But the woman up front had trouble finding our reservation and was unpleasant (happily we had a screenshot). I think she’s one of the owners. It wasn’t a great way to feel welcomed especially with COVID where most parks have contactless check in anyway. Despite the customer service, the stay was otherwise uneventful. 

Good: The park has beautiful river access and was very quiet. Anyone in the area can get the same river access by parking to the side of the bridge over the river on 190 and walking down. Landscaping is beautiful and security is good. Almost every site is a pull through. 

Bad: The park is almost entirely full of full time residents with everything from FEMA trailers and 60s era camper vans to new Grand Designs. Lots of sites have permanent structures/trailers/patios and there’s bits of trash in high use areas like around the dumpsters and picnic area. The sites are also gravel and not concrete. Sites are close together. 

Neutral: There are some cool looking cabins by the dumpsters. We didn’t go in them though, of course. 

Summary: This may be a peaceful option for long term residents but I wouldn’t vacation here if I was looking for a weekend getaway. Average rating.

Amazing resort. Great monthly rate. They go above and beyond with their amenities providing an indoor play room, full kitchen, business center, etc. Very family friendly resort with plenty of activities planned. Lots of full time families staying here long term which makes for a fun time. The one downside was that we didn’t get the sites that we had put a deposit down for. There seems to be a lot of turnover in the office so when we checked in it wasn’t the same lady who had helped us pick out our sites and reserve them. We travel with my parents and always try to stay next to them but they were unwilling to accommodate that even though they originally told us they would. All in all I do recommend this park for the amazing ambiance and amenities.

The sites are large which means you aren't right on top of your neighbors. Lots of shade. Each site has its own shelter with picnic table, grill and fire pit. Electric and water but no sewer. The sites along the outside of the loop have lake views and are level. The sites along the inside are scary unlevel! Some of the big rigs were backed in and jacked up 4 feet or so in front. Saw a lady break her ankle stepping out of her camper. Be prepared to level your camper! I suggest odd numbers 19-35 and even numbers 36-42 as the most level sites with the best lake views.

The park has hiking trails, boating and swimming access, but none of these are accessed right at the camp area.

Restrooms are very basic with no hot water. They were clean but a little creepy for showers. I used the toilets there during the day and my camper shower and toilet at night.

Pros Just 3 miles from the popular downtown shopping district 

Level gravel site with mini picnic table and fire ring 

Very nice rally hall, group fire pit and group pavilion 

Very nice and very clean shower and toilet facilities 

Combo code required to access toilets and showers 

Majority of sites are pull thru

$1.50 on-site laundry 

Residential size hot tub 

Small pool 

Volleyball net 

Small Playground 

100% occupancy during our 2 night stay 

Park WiFi 

4 bars Verizon signal 

Cons 

Just an open field. No shade. This is not even a vineyard! 

Very tight check in parking 

Lots and lots of tall speed bumps throughout park 

Small tree between site prevent our awning deployment 

Sites tightly packed together; Our sewer connection was inches from next site’s picnic table! 

Most of the time during our stay in site 80, there was a horrific odor from the sewer lift station 100 ft away 

Not dark sky friendly. 

Street lights and utility pedestal lights. 

Initially assigned site was changed without any notice so our request to be sited away from a street light not honored 

Significant traffic noise from Hwy 87 (even at night) and we were half way down the park Unable to access all 24 cable TV channels; could only connect to 6 channels.

The park is next to the town’s rodeo arena. Site 11 is a nice long pull through spot. 50 amp electric and water are easily accessible with a park bench on the other side with a charcoal grill.

Spacious spots, 12 total. It’s $20/night, $100/ week and $350/ month. There’s a $5 fee for the dump station, but it’s very clean and easy to approach.

Not the fault of the park, but it’s close to US highway 183, so truck noise and the occasional train can be noisy, but your RV A/C can knock the sound out, no problem.

No Wi-Fi, but excellent cell signal, full bars of T-mobile and sprint, also Visible and Google Fi

I typically rate campgrounds as they fit into 1 of 5 categories. This campground will be rated as a Basecamp — grounds that offer a comfortable home base that you’re happy to return to after a day of exploring the surrounding area. Ratings for this category are based on: Value to cost: 5 Overall grounds: 4 Utility of sites (hookups, layout, accessibility): 4 Local Attraction Proximity: 4 Reservation Process/Ease of Getting a Site: 5 Amenities: 4 Customer Service: 5 Cleanliness: 4

A really lovely spot in Dripping Springs, Sunset RV Park is a small park in Hill Country outside Austin (this is not the one near Lake Travis). It’s clear that this is a destination spot for snowbirds to the area as most everyone was set-up for a long-term stay and we saw very few folks come and go during our one-week stay. The park is very quiet with close attention paid to COVID precautions (this is the first park we encountered that was 100% contact free check in).

The park is built somewhat into a hill, so some of the turns are a little tricky and our spot was a bit uneven. The space itself was a very wide asphalt driveway with a picnic table and metal fire ring below a stone wall, perhaps a bit close to our neighbors as I wasn’t totally certain it was definitely ours to use.

The amenities are pretty basic- clean laundry and bathrooms and a good enough wifi signal to allow us to use the internet easily. There’s also propane available on site. I enjoyed the layout of the grounds and each site was afforded some privacy thanks to the set-up and tiered spaces. The weekly rate of $300 was very reasonable.

Excellent access to Hamilton Pool (make reservations!), Reimers Ranch and Westcave Discovery Center. Also about 30 minutes to most of Austin including SoCo, McKinney Falls SP and 6th Street.

Reservations were made by phone with a very friendly woman and, as I mentioned, check in was contactless, so we really didn’t encounter anyone else aside from a friendly wave from folks maintaining the grounds in golf carts. The place is a nice find outside Austin and very close by to family for us, so we’re happy to have found it and will return!

I have never been treated as bad as this old crotchety lady treated me. I went to checkin and went inside the office, this lady came out of an office area and berated me for even coming into the office. She rudely said “we have a contactless checkin” and led me outside to a bulletin board where our paperwork was along with our credit card receipt. She made some other comments which then got me to respond in kind with the question “why are you being so rude?” Outside of that the park is clean and well kept. Probably her husband working really hard and staying out of her way. The bathrooms were very clean and the sites are comprised of a red crushed granite and concrete. Even though it rained a bit and was windy, dirt did not enter our rig via our shoes and kept our rig clean. The sites are pretty small. Our rig is a 43 foot toy hauler with a patio and it barely fit on the pull through site. There was barely any room for my tow vehicle up front. There is a food truck park with about five food trucks right next to the RV park and a great pizza food truck within walking distance. If you need gas our groceries, or just want to hit Main Street Fredericksburg, you will have to drive. Won’t stay there again unless they replace the lady with the serious customer service issues. This park is also very expensive, so I might try other parks in the area next time.

Our RV GPS took us right to the park where you check in at their headquarters building. Check in was quick and we proceeded to pull through site 9 with FHUs. Site 9 is only a pull though if site 8 is not occupied. The sites in this area are set up on both sides of the road with you parking in a line, parallel style. There are white lines painted on the road to designate where the sites begin and end. Once unhitched, we were able to park our F450 adjacent to our 5th wheel. The park has cable TV with lots of channels. We got 4 bars on Verizon. The utilities are towards the back of the site, and we needed 15’ for sewer, 20’ for water, and 20’ for electric. The water pressure was good at about 50 psi. We had a clear shot to the north sky for Starlink. A south sky satellite shot may be iffy due to the mature trees in that direction. The WiFi was okay for a CG this size. Site 9 is near the playground and one of the two shower/restroom facilities. The sites in this campground (CG) are for the most part close together, especially in the front area near the entrance. There’s a large fenced dog park along with plenty of areas to walk your dog. With the county airport adjacent to the CG, we enjoyed watching the wide variety of small aircraft. We enjoyed playing a round of golf at the course adjacent to the CG and touring the local wineries.