Best Tent Camping near Mathis, TX

This Texas State Park is located in Goliad Texas. This is in the south central area of the state between Victoria and Austin on Highway 183. The park has some great historical sites including a 16th century Spanish mission. The campground is situated along the San Antonio River. You can kayak along the 6 mile long kayak paddle trail or try your luck at fishing. The campground is well maintained and offers a nice range of sites from tent to RVs and small cabins. The sites are located along the river with no privacy. They have some walk in tent sites as well. The town of Goliad is a hidden gem with a rich history and some cool antique shops and cafes. We plan to stop again here on our next trip to the coast.

Early spring 21 just went and had a blast. Fairly packed now that the state opened up fully. Over all though that time was perfect weather for kayaking and hiking the short trails that this park has. Tent camping is great and the spots are well payed out with plenty of space between them. Shower and bathroom facilities are in decent shape and do the job. Was impressed for havi g never heard of it prior to arrival. Online reservations available to make it easier.

I'm not from a coastal area so I don't know if the wind is constant, changing w/season, weather or what BUT, very strong wind while I was there! Very clean and well maintained, staff was informative and helpful. 5$ to get in, plus your site fee. Bring your own shade. There were little gazebo sleds but no guarantee you'll get one. Tent camping was right on the beach, RV camping basically a parking lot....showers under the visitor center.

I’m from Goliad, so whenever I feel like getting outdoors I can just drive 15 minutes down the road to the park and enjoy a day hike or a weekend out in the woods. The park is awesome lots of Historic sites and lots of history in such a small town. The park has Tent sites, small cabins for rent and restrooms with showers that are always clean. They also have RV hook ups with plenty of room and shade trees. The nature trail is nice too. Definitely recommend for anyone that has not visited before.

Very nice, isolated area. All kinds of water birds. 5$ admission plus your fee for camping. The tent area has no shower, but the RV shower house isn't to far away. The just tent area is right on the small 75 acre lake which has gobs of birds! Kayaking would be a blast, but the boat ramp isn't really "operational" due to the water being low. Several short trails that you can link all together.On the RV side it's pretty spacious and there are several pavilion areas too. Only issue I had was the day use crowd drives through the camp ground.

It’s not bad for a Texas beach campground. Very little shade, picnic areas could be a bit bigger- it’s texas a s it’s hot, shade is a must.

We enjoyed very much our stay at Choke Canyon.

Nature is all around! We camped there and just some meters from our tent we got to see a bunch of deers, bunnies, wild turkeys and plenty of colorful birds!

The campground and all the facilities were clean! And the staff members very helpful.

With no doubt we will repeat the experience! 🙂

The sites weren’t too bad, but there were a lot of ants and insects around that’s even more than usual. Definitely bring a tent screen. I don’t think it’s specific to the campsite as there were insects all around town, or probably due to the time of the year. Other than that, campgrounds were clean and easy to enter. Historic sites were close by and interesting.

Historic Texas and Mexican sites within a quaint little park.

This spot gets 4 stars based on location, though it does have limited sites. If you prefer your space, book in advance and secure one of the few beach primitive spots where you can pick your tent pitch locale. Great location for sunset/sunrise with fun adventures close by: walk the jetty, ride a horse along the beach, or visit the Sea Turtle Rescue site further down the coast.

Each site is very spacious. Lots of trees and shade for South Texas. Bathrooms were ok. Lots of bugs but clean.

Goliad is next to a historic site for Texas history. The river is beautiful and during the spring time there are tons of blue bonnets that bloom.

Spent a week in the developed campsite area of the park in December of 2015. Wonderfully maintained table, grill, and tent area. The showers left something to be desired, but I had never been beach camping - so that might be normal.

Loved that the beach was walking distance from camp, but the sites were guarded by the dunes. Really helped fend off the wind.

One of my favorite places in the park was the recreational area further inland. Beautiful sunset (see picture) and lots of crabs to catch!

Stayed here for a weekend with my family. So nice to have AC in the cabin with shade on the little patio area. I’m convinced site 13 is the best. Only con was that others were using it to get down to the lake so we had a few people walk right up next to the cabin with their fishing gear. Bathrooms are a short walk away, as well as trash cans/dumpster. Woke up to a large group of javelinas at our site who were sniffing around. We set up a tent at the cabin area and were able to have lots of shade.

What a lovely beach! I had a great time visiting last summer. There's a $5 entrance fee per person for day use. They also offer camping for both RV's ($20/night) and tents ($10/night).

We got there pretty early in the day, and were able to secure one of the little hut/gazebo things for our belongings. If you see one of them available, grab it! It's nice to have a shady spot to retreat to. The beach was very clean, and much less crowded than I was expecting.

There are porta potties and outdoor showers by the beach, and indoor facilities closer to the road.

This is a great RV park with very close access to the beach in Port Aransas and the wonderful gulf coast in Texas. The host and maintenance crew were wonderful and were very helpful with everything we needed at the park and the beach was fantastic! Highly recommended!

We had planned to spend 3 nights here at the beginning of a months-long road trip and loved it so much that we ended up staying 8 nights! Nice, long, level concrete pads, well-maintained hookups, good laundry facilities and rec hall. Super friendly and helpful staff and it's beautiful to boot. Would definitely stay here again when we're back on the Texas coast.

Being that this is Texas, it's super hot all day and all night long. It's worse when there is no shade to shield you. Although the breeze is great off of the water, shade would be nice. The area is clean, the beach is clean, and it is about what you can expect from a Corpus Christi beach area camp site. Nothing special, just enough.

Overall, Choke Canyon SP is a nice park.  Large footprint in southeast Texas between San Antonio and Corpus Christi.  Good trails overall, however, could use better markings at trail intersections.  Choke Canyon Reservoir is large and the area we were at had very little motorized boat traffic, which made it great for kayaking.  That could be attributed to the low lake level and the overgrowth of hydrilla.  Saw a lot of wildlife, rabbits, deer, coyotes, alligators, many fish species, many birds and a sounder of hogs.  Sites are well kept and the boat ramp is large and long.  Could easily launch/recover up to 4 boats at once.  Lots of places to fish from the banks and jettys (but due to low lake levels, some are not accessible).  Will definitely return some day.

you are camping right on the beach. you will wake up to the sounds of the ocean, and gorgeous sunrises. since you are right on the beach, bring baby powder to remove sand from your skin. the restrooms here (prior to the hurricane) were not great. the campground has been closed since the hurricane, but they are building new restrooms and they are looking really nice! I’ve seen amazing sea life on this beach including: sea turtles, stingrays, starfish, and blue crabs. I’ve also had a great time shelling on these beaches. you can’t have public display of alcohol because it’s a Texas state park- so it’s not a party spot. however, if you are looking for a peaceful, quiet place to build a campfire and watch the waves roll in, this is your spot.

This is our 2nd time staying here.
This park is aka Shields. Park has 2 sections. Sect A has grass sites. Sect B has concrete pads and a separate area for tents. Each section has a laundry room and shower building. We stayed in B. Sites are wide and level and have full hookups with 30/50 amp. Good water pressure. Sites are all back ins, Big rig friendly and easy to set up. No matter where you park there is a nice view of the Bay.
I'd give it a 5 star rating but there are a few items that need to be fixed or prepared for. 1st the roads really need to be repaired. Potholes are horrible in some areas. 2nd the picnic tables are so rusted through that many are unusable. 3rd the goat heads or grass burrs are a nightmare especially if you step on one in the middle of the night. Ouch!! LOL If you have dogs (we do) they absolutely can't run in the grass. We bought our pups doggy boots which help some. And this time we brought our leaf blower to blow them off the concrete pad. 4th the winds here can reach 60 mph. Just prepare for it by never leaving awnings out and when bad bring slides in so awning toppers don't get ripped off. (It happened to our neighbors last year) Ants, there are tons of them. I use citronella spray around our leveling gear and tires to deter them from living with us. Lastly if you don't want salt on your rigs don't come here. There are times when its so thick you could use an ice scraper.
Even with those items we really like it here. You can't beat the location to Padre Island and Port Aransas. The sunsets are amazing and walking the private beach daily is never tiring.

We stayed here 2/13/21 to 2/18/21 during the Texas Extreme Cold and Snow event!

We had originally planned to go to Junction after our time in Lockhart State Park, but wanted to get further South away from the snow and cold. We easily switched our reservation to here although it was supposed to be full. Due to the weather, very few people around. Sites are huge. Had water and power at our site and we were close to restroom. We were in #108 which was also a Handicap site. After a day or so the water froze up so the bathrooms were closed as they were flush toilets' with showers. Luckily we filled our tank so we had water to use. We lost power for about 12 hours total but then got it back. It was down to 15 degrees a couple nights and we got a little snow and ice but we survived being from Wisconsin LOL

Also just down from us was a Bird Sanctuary where they put out fruit and seed. The Bird watching all over the park was fantastic. Not sure what's going on in the area where the buildings and nature center are, pretty run down and seem almost vacated. Saw tons of deer and feral hogs and Javelin  and roadrunners etc. 

Didn't plan to come here but really glad we did!

We camped in the RV area, which has electrical hook ups and water but you have to drive to the dump station. There are nearby bathrooms which are newly renovated and nice, although occasionally people using them to clean off from visiting the beach will make a big mess. Not just sand, but swim diapers and bathing suit tags and that sort of thing. The janitors clean every morning but it’s disappointing when people leave a big mess. Nothing against the park, only against the visitors. There are men and women’s bathrooms, family bathrooms/unisex bathrooms, as well as showers just outside the bathrooms.

Each RV spot is paved and comes with a picnic table and wooden pergola, also a grill for charcoal. We did notice quite a few burr plants so if you have dogs, you might have a problem later in the season when the burr seeds are dry.

You can walk to the beach or drive to the beach. There is tent and primitive RV camping on the beach if you wish, we did see people doing that. We visited around Easter Sunday and it was not too crowded, lots of picnic tables and plenty of space to have fun. We brought along a couple of mesh litter bags and were easily able to fill them up with random garbage that Washington to the beach, it was very satisfying to do that and there are dumpsters and trash cans conveniently located once you’re done with that.

It’s a short drive to Port Aransas or the other way to the edge of Corpus Christi, lots of restaurants and art galleries and all kinds of area attractions. Visit Snoopy’s under the bridge and eat on the deck. You can also take your RV on the ferry boat between Port A and Aransas Pass if you wish. It’s free.

Definitely visit, and go to the beach, and pick up a bag of litter.