Best Tent Camping near Leona, TX

We tent camped in a primitive spot #47. Overall the spot was nice but not very level making the best placement of our large tent a bit of a challenge. Vault toilets were clean and had hand sanitizer. The nature and hiking in this park was our favorite part. Even rented a canoe and paddled across the lake to the river. Park staff were friendly and helpful. Some primitive tent sites are right on the edge of the lake and after a big rain were very swampy. I believe all sites had partial shade and some have more privacy than others. We did spot some full hook up sites in the RV section that have good space for a tent set up and we may try that next time cause we definitely will be back.

Old campground, nicely maintained. Wooded; big pines. Two restroom/showerhouses; old, but clean. Camped for 2 nights in a camper van at site #24. It was a very large site surrounded on 3 sides by a thick forest of trees & shrubs. Private. Water faucet on site. No electric. The Lone Star Hiking Trail conveniently located in the campground. Nice hike through a thick forest. Canpground road & campsite driveways are paved. Sites have tent pads & appear pretty much level. Sites have a table, fire ring & lantern poll. The road toward the campground is paved, but broken up in places with several potholes. AT&T service is okay, but no T-Mobile service. This campground is great for tent campers, campervans, car campers & truck campers. I don't recommend this campground for large RVs.

You’ll find Huntsville State Park six miles southwest of Huntsville, TX in Walker County in the Sam Houston National Forest. Huntsville State Park has over 20 miles of trails to explore along with a pretty great lake to fish, paddle or swim. Fish for crappie, perch, catfish, or bass. Lake Raven also has a boat ramp, fishing piers, and fish cleaning stations. Bring your own canoe or rent one from the little supply store. The supply store also has miscellaneous supplies and bait for purchase.

Campsites are spaced modestly except those in the full hookup loop. If you are looking for full hookups, book in advanced as those are in high demand at this location. All sites have a two-day minimum on Friday and Saturday.

Available sites:

• Full hookup campsites - pull-through, picnic table, fire ring, water hookup, lantern post, restrooms & showers nearby 20/30/50-amp hookup
• Electric sites - picnic table, fire ring, water hookup, lantern post, restrooms & showers nearby 20/30/50-amp electric hook up
• Campsites with water - picnic table, fire ring, water hookup, lantern post, & restrooms & showers nearby

We went Thursday - Saturday, and will go again during the week to avoid crowds.
The check-in process is a bit troublesome if you're picky about getting a good tent site- you can't reserve specific sites ahead of time. Also, your visit will cost you more than listed on the website because they charge entrance fees for each person on top of the campsite rental. That was an unpleasant surprise. The only other unpleasant surprise is that the campground store is closed on Thursdays. Lesson learned- bring your own Snickers!
However, the scenery, quietness, and availability of rental boats was wonderful. We camped in tent site #70, and I would grab that one again in a heartbeat. The 70's sites have water access and beautiful views, and are generous with their square footage. Plenty of trees down there to hang hammocks and clotheslines on, and more than one flat spot for tents on each site.
I normally would not devote a whole paragraph to restrooms at a state park, but I will this time. These were the CLEANEST restrooms I've ever seen at a state park, and the most updated. The stalls had modern dividers, the toilets all had clean, functional seats, the showers had separate bench areas with lots of hooks, plus normal faucets you could just turn on once (as opposed to having to push a button every minute), and the sinks also had great faucets with good pressure and reliable water temperatures. Very easy to use.
All our issues with this park were related to unexpected costs and logistics, but the park facilities were fabulous. We will definitely be back!

28 campsites! Not too close together either! They fixed the water spigots throughout the camp just recently. Bathrooms get cleaned daily, super clean during the week, but gets crowded on weekends. So bathrooms get kinda overused. The showers are hot! Many places have luke warm, but they turn up the heat here which is great. New host Robert is cool AF. Nice guy, doesn't bother anyone who isn't being a nuecince. Walker County has many fire bans, so check before you head out. First come first serve. No reservations. Gets overcrowded on weekends. Fishing, kayaking, the LSHT ( Lone Star Hiking Trail), all are great fun. Dogs are welcome , but forest workers come regularly, like 2xs a day drive by to check if people got them on leash. Alcohol permitted, but not publicly. Only on your site. Verizon service is great here! Sprint sucks. Att was marginally working. You may stay up to 14 days at a time here. I actually love it here, been back 5 times! $15 a night, if you have Americas Beautiful Pass, its half off! $7.50 a night folks! Pass is $80 annually online at National Forest. Just Google it.

I like Huntsville State Park campground for a long weekend getaway.  It is about an hour north of Houston not far off Interstate 45, so very easily accessible.  They have a large campground section which is only campsites, and also another section on the other side of a cove that is more of a recreational section which has a swimming beach, cabins, screened shelters, etc.  This state park gets very crowded in the summertime, with campers as well as lots of day use folks enjoying the water.  It is hard to get a campsite reservation, so plan ahead!  

The sites are spacious as in most Texas state parks, and there are many shaded sites.  The waterfront sites are tiered.  The upper tier is where you park your rig.  Then there is a retaining wall and steps to walk down to the lower tier where the picnic table, fire ring, lantern post, etc.. are located.  We really didn't ever go down to the lower part of our site because it was inconvenient.  It was a good place to walk the dogs though.  The campground does slope slightly and the sites are not all real level, so be sure to bring your "legos" if you don't have a leveling system on your rig.  The grounds did not seem to be as well maintained as some other state parks I've been to.  We couldn't use the picnic table because it was surrounded by tall weeds and had a lot of spider webs under it.  Bath house was not well maintained and kind of dingy.  It was also not ventilated well and felt like a sauna as it was so humid in July. 

There is a nice fishing pier and several places to fish off the bank.  A ranger told me there are alligators in the lake, so be careful.

This is our favorite local (2hous from home) park. We’ve been coming here almost every year for close to 20 years. We’ve done primitive tent camping, tent camping with power, shelter camping and just recently became glampers!😂 Site 142 in the prairie branch loop is our favorite site. It’s on the water and at the trailhead. It’s recently been designated Accessible so our last two trips we chose the shelter sites 10 and 11. These sites are also on the water and have lots of space. The showers on this side are individual rooms as opposed to the semi private (too small shower curtain) ones in the big restroom. The water is nice and hot but I suggest bringing a broom or you will be sharing with some pretty big spiders. Overall the restrooms are clean but the campgrounds are busy lately so I’m sure it’s difficult to keep up. Staff are super friendly. Firewood is on a suggested donation basis and is available most days before 5pm.

So this was my first time staying here and I promise won’t be my last! First off the camp hosts were very friendly and informative. The hiking trail although wasn’t very long at around 2-3 miles max were a pleasant walk in the woods and along the lake shoreline. There’s a very nice boat ramp toward the back of the park with a very nice pier and plenty of parking. Campsites were very nice with fire ring, picnic tables and full hook ups including sewer for the RVs the atmosphere was very quiet relaxing and I will definitely be going back.

Edited Came back to Cagle with my son for 3 nights and we absolutely loved it. My son enjoyed the trails and walked all over the park and I wasn’t worried about him getting lost since the parks not that big and the layout is pretty easy to follow. Birding was awesome and so were the sunsets .