Best Glamping near Lufkin, TX

Lake Livingston State Park is a fantastic state park for water activities. The fishing, boating, canoeing, kayaking and paddle boarding is all fantastic.

Campsites: The sites were all well maintained with the best spots being in Piney Shores & Red Oak. We were in spot #69. It had a great view but lacked in flat playing space for young children and hammock trees.

Trails: There were a few trails in the park, none of which were all that long. The main Trinity Trace Trail was flat dirt, good for young bikers. Though trails are short, they connect so you could do a few trails for a longer run/hike if you so desired.

Bathrooms: Each campground loop has one bathroom and shower. They can be a bit of a walk if you don’t have a close site. They appear to be older but maintained and cleaned well enough.

Park Specific Activities: Getting on the water was awesome, it’s the largest lake in Texas, so lots to explore. Fishing was fantastic. We caught bass, perch and catfish and lots of them! Getting in the lake left some to be desired. The bottom has many large rocks, tree stumps and is very mossy. Swimming can be fun but a little dangerous and slippery. The duck pond and frog pond are nothing to get excited about. We saw no birds in the bird blind and the frog pond is so small you almost can’t see it. We did hear a frog though.

Other: Connected to the park store they had a small educational space for young kids with a functioning beehive. The kids (ages 2-6) loved it. The park store is not open Mondays and Tuesdays. Kayak, canoe and paddle board rentals were only Thursday to Sunday 8:30-3:30. $10-20/rental. The pool was not functioning when we went in August 2018. They have a small amphitheater and near by a room available for rent which can have 50 guests. It was air conditioned and had nice hardwood floors.

In Summary: We would absolutely recommend it for water activities and relaxation. It’s a beautiful spot! We wouldn’t recommend it for just birding or hiking but the park as a whole is great.

1/26/23-1/30/23- This is a great COE campsite that is spacious, clean, quiet, and site#63 has lake views on 3 sides. A picnic table, fire-pit, lantern post, 30A electric, and water are provided. This is a back-in site that slopes significantly to the rear(lake side) though. I needed to lower the front of my 34’ fifth wheel trailer 16” to level it; L/R leveling was reasonable needing 1/2” on the right side. The grassy area around the site would be great for outdoor games and the water access would be great to fish from shore, boat access to the site, or swimming. The staff were very congenial and the dump station is conveniently located on the right side just before exiting the campground. Verizon 4G was 4-bars with 20Mbps download and 2Mbps upload speeds. I paid$13/night with my Interagency Senior Pass. Too bad that it was rainy most of the weekend and we didn’t have nicer weather.

We love this state park and it's one of our favorites! This was our third time camping here in the Piney Shores Loop. We arrived on Memorial Day for four nights with reservations made 54 days prior. We weren’t loving Piney Shores#52 back-in campsite much due to: Steep drop-off of the concert pad and the narrow roadway making backing in challenging, but not impossible for our 27ft trailer.  Any larger rigs might not be able to swing it.

The dirt area around the picnic table, fire pit and lantern pole was a huge MUD hole! What a mess due to daily rains. 

No concrete pad under the picnic table, so your feet were in the MUD hole! HINT– Park Maintenance needs to apply some medium size gravel around the table and fire pit. 

Picnic table (chained to the ground) and fire pit were right next to each other. WHO DESIGNS THESES CAMPSITES?? 

Power interruptions, albeit short. Very glad we had our power surge protector. 

We loved: 

Very level concrete pad requiring no additional leveling efforts. 

Huge campsite along the lakefront with access to launch kayak/canoe or even swim(which we didn’t). 

Gorgeous sunsets over the lake. It was wonderful to sit at the fire facing the lake and watch the sunsets. 

The squirrels that ate from our fingertips! It was also really amusing to find the squirrels VERY friendly. They just hoped up onto our laps and took peanuts in the shell from our fingertips! 

Super quiet as only 6 full hook up campsites were occupied due to COVID operating restrictions.

Lake Livingston State Park is one of our regular visits. During the school year it is hard to head out on a Friday, drive 2-3 hours and then setup in the dark for a weekend camping trip. Lake Livingston is just over an hour from our house and has lots to offer. They recently rebuilt one of the camping loops to where now this is one of the few state parks in Texas that have Full Hookups. Not all loops have Full Hookups but a couple do.

Like most state parks in Texas the sites here are large and offer a lot of shade. Each site will have a table and a fire ring. There are tons of hiking trails and geocaches throughout the park. It is also close to shops in town so that if you forget something you are only about 15 minutes from a Walmart. There is a shop on site that has most of the essentials.

Super nice staff and full saturday breakfast (eggs/bacon/pancakes/coffee etc--extra fee, but very reasonable!)

Pool, jump pad, playground, trike rentals, Rock/gem mining slough, movies/events, etc.

Sites are level pull-through sites and most have a clear view of the playground, which gives the kids a sense of freedom.  They have cabins and cool teepees as well, but have only ever camped in RV here.

Have been camping here in the summers and both Easter & Halloween weekends and they do easter egg/candy hunts and have other events for the kids/kids at heart.

We love coming here and the staff are always very kind to us. (photos on this review are during the halloween event--we decorated our campsite lol)

Campsites are modern, many have a waterfront view. The campsites are well shaded by trees, all have fire pits. Many sites have water and electric and facilities are easily accessed.

There are many things to do at the state park that are appropriate for all ages. Hiking trails are well shaded and not terribly difficult. Kayaks and canoes are available to rent, there are water trails mapped as well for those who enjoy boating. There are programs available for children as well.

The park is not far from town so there are many things to do nearby as well.

First & foremost, This park is not well-maintained, and the camping sites are right off of the highway. The splash pad does not work, and the bath house was terribly dirty and freaked of sewage. The group sites are basically a big parking lot- zero grass space between site numbers, although there is shared grass areas along the rows. We moved site numbers within the group sites so that our kids would not be playing right beside the highway (there is a gate, however it’s still concerning), and to slightly distance ourselves from the traffic noise. Beware there is also a large wedding venue directly across the highway & our kids were woken to the sounds of fireworks at night on the weekend. There were large fire ant mounds all along the concrete, and we had to purchase fire ant killer ourselves, as well as deal with some broken glass & the trash can for our site that wasn’t emptied before our stay. I spoke with the staff member working in the office and all she could say was “i will let management know.”

As far as the good: we had 6 kids and 4 adults staying, so despite the concerns and annoyances, we still were able to relax enough and enjoy our break from the daily grind. The kids played outside all day- making walking sticks, fishing a lot, catching bugs (spotted some really neat moths, too), and making up games.

The best: the nearly-daily trains coming right through the campground for various reasons (loading new cars or taking passengers on a local trip). My son is an avid train-lover and this was the main reason we booked our stay here.

This is an X-Texas State Park that really needs some overdue TLC.

After making reservations over the phone 163 days prior to arriving and prepaying the entire amount, we were told at check-in there was no record of our reservation. Once we got through that confusion we were had to ask for directions to the campground. No map provided. Even with a reservation campsite are selected once you arrive and drive through the campsite. FHU loop roadway was difficult to maneuver due to the roadway being covered with pine needles which blended it into the non-roadway. We saw most people driving thru campsites thinking it was the road as the FHU loop were mostly pull-thru sites. Limited sites for RVs longer than 30 feet. Most sites were designed for 20 feet or smaller. Not a slide-out friendly campground as most sites were very compact. Minimal vegetation between sites. At our site the wooden picnic table was partially rotted. Parking pad broken up by roots so very uneven surface. The firepit ring was mostly rusted away and was completely filled with ash so our fire was on the pi ash. Sulphuric smelling water. Highway noise. On our last night, the 30 amp breaker kept tripping without a full load. Happened twice within an hour so we scaled back our amp use under 20 just to have some heat during the night. Campground WiFi was probably one of the best we’ve experienced.

Highway noise even in our campsite the furthest from the highway.  Of course, lots of train whistles during depot operations.