Best Tent Camping near Karnack, TX

Reserved on-line 152 days prior to arrival. 

Pros 

Pristine clean restroom/showerhouse. Seemed recently renovated 

BIG PINE camping area only big rig friendly(longer than 20 ft) out of 40 FHU sites. Big Pine, Dogwood and Mountain View Campgrounds FHU so 40 FHU sites with no park dump station. 

Aluminum picnic table and fire ring with cooking grate 

Very quiet campground except for highway and train noise 

4 camp hosts 

Good night sky viewing in BIG PINE 

Good view of lake in BIG PINE 

Privacy from side neighbors 

No leveling required from side-to-side 

Asphalt parking pad heaved various places due to tree roots creating numerous tripping hazard 

Campsite utility hook-ups in good condition with no problems encountered 

Security gate that closes overnight 

No street lights in BIG PINE 

Campsite and entrance fee discount with Texas State Park Pass 

Not charged a fee to make my own on-line reservation 

CONS 

Most FHU sites (other than BIG PINE) are extremely short in length. Barely room for single axle TT, so need to review site details carefully 

Site 8 had an extreme amount of above ground roots causing tripping hazard

Picnic table approx 50 feet from Site 8 parking pad

Highway and train noise

BIG PINE sites barely off campground road, so therefore no privacy from campers across the road

Restroom/shower facility not heated

No lantern pole

No wildlife sightings

No park Wifi

1 bar AT&T in BIG PINE

Camped at site #63 in the Mill Pond Camping Area - tent area. This site backed up onto Saw Mill Pond - beautiful cypress swamp. Bugs were not too bad. Gravel drive on site. Level tent pad. Water only; no electric. Clean fire ring. Lantern post. Large site, good separation from other sites. Campground is heavily wooded, lots of shade. Campground is clean & nicely maintained. One restroom is at the entrance to the Mill Pond camping area, just off of a day use parking lot. No shower in this restroom. A newer, nicer restroom/shower house is located in the Woodpecker camping area. Quiet campground; no issues. Good AT&T service. Despite saying it's allowed in the campground features list, alcohol is prohibited. Excellent T-Mobile 5G service.

PROS 

Saved $42 With TX STATE PARK PASS 

No fee to reserve online. 

No sales tax. U

pon arriving at Site 23, we had no power at the pedestal. Called Park Headquarters and 2 park personnel were at our site in 10 minutes and resolved problem 

Site 23 level asphalt 

Site 23 partial shade 

Aluminum picnic table, 2 hook lantern pole and metal fire pit with cooking grate 

Donation firewood available 

Soap and hand dryer in toilet/shower facility 

3 bars TMOBILE when not storming 

CONS 

No overnight security gate closure 

Site 23 was 1/3 covered with poison oak and remaining living area covered with tall weeds. 

Some highway noises. 

Two PARK HOSTS occupy sites in Woodpecker Hollow. That reduces full hook up sites to 6. One of those sites were used as a temporary dump station due to out-of-service park dump station 

Woodpecker Hollow toilet/shower facility needs some deep cleaning 

11 windows in Woodpecker Hollow women’s toilet/shower and only 4 were open. Camp host said rest of windows were painted shut.  Floors were continuously wet and slippery. What a mess! This place needs a fan or two.

Most pets we saw were NOT on leash 

No privacy from surrounding campsites 

No ranger drive thru Woodpecker Hollow 

No park WIFI

Lake Bistineau is a great state park park near Shreveport, LA. We stayed 2 nights. The sites are very shady. The park streets and sites are asphalt. Some roads need repaving. The park was clean and quiet, and the staff was friendly. Unfortunately, the lake was drawn down to eradicate an invasive water plant. But, this presented a unique opportunity. We could walk on the dry lake bottom and see the parts of cypress trees that are normally under water. 

Stayed in back-in campsite#14 which was level side to side, but the front was higher. The site has a nice view of the lake and a large wooden deck. There was just enough parking for my 34 ft TT and truck. Neighbors are nearby, but not too close. The site included: picnic table on concrete, BBQ pit, trash pole, and fire ring. Utilities: 20/30/50A electric in back. Water in back, good pressure. No sewer, but a dump station is available. 

AT&T had 2 bars of LTE and Verizon 2 bars of LTE service. AT&T Speedtest: 5.1 Mbps down, 0.7 Mbps up. Verizon Speedtest: 7.4 Mbps down, 0.1 Mbps up. No WiFi. 

Would stay here again. We camped at Lake Bistineau State Park in a Travel Trailer.

We were in site B5 (one of 15 sites out of 124 that have FHU), for 12 days in September and October 2020. This site was not very level but we had great views of the lake out the front and side of our MH. It had a grill with table, picnic table and a fire ring. The sites are nicely sized, well-spaced apart and angled, providing nice privacy. This is our second time visiting this CG because we enjoyed it last year. It’s a fairly quiet campground– even the weekend partiers quieted down around 10ish. There is no WiFi or cable, Verizon 4G was 3-4 bars, 8 OTA channels. We did not use the bathrooms. The Park Hosts that arrived in October were very friendly. Beautiful sunsets on site B5!

There are many options to camp at this state park. There’s RV sites, tent sites (both primitive and “cushy”), cabins, cottages and screened shelters. my past experience with screened shelters were always dusty, dank, spider-filled shacks that I would only store my cooler and belongings in (tightly sealed) but these at Martin Creek were IMMACULATE to say the least! They seem cob-webby from the outside but once inside, the concrete floor is smoother up the edges of the walls about 2.5’, reducing entry of insects via cracks in the joints of floor and wall. The park employees vacuum these areas, as observed when I passed others that had recently vacated. The rafters in these shelters were spaced out far enough for me to hang my hammock. 4 people slept inside without air mattresses or camp pads and slept wonderfully (flat surfaces are good for our spines sometimes) not a big in sight. There is an electrical outlet inside as well as a light, and there is an outlet outside as well. Small lock on inside, watr spigot and doIble lantern hook nearby as well as a wooden/metal picnic table (good condition). I slept in Shelter #6 and it was a few yards away from the water’s edge. Great views of a small lilly-pad laced bay and we caught 7 catfish using normal nightcrawlers as bait. Fried them up for lunch the next day and they tasted like heaven! But, everything tastes better when you’re camping. We had also set up 4 tents around the area (not disturbing local flora/fauna) and we slept to the deafening croaks of frogs. Only 1 raccoon came upon our camp area to a spot where someone had thrown a corn cob, otherwise, we take all the necessary steps to avoid crossing paths with those relentless nighttime furry bandits. Shelters 7-9 are also located in great areas of the lake nearby, there is the power plants across the lake and for some reason, we like to believe that it was the reason we had ZERO mosquitoes! Many house flies and the non-biting ants were everywhere but not to the point of insanity... they list this ant as an issue on their website I do believe. I’d take this shelter over a hotel stay ANY TIME!