Best Tent Camping near National Forests and Grasslands in Texas

There are only 43 sites at this park, but most have no hookups. Only 9 full hookups, which is what I prefer if staying more than a couple days. The FHU sites are really close together and not private at all. Our picnic table and fire ring were at our neighbors sewer connection. The water and electric sites are more spacious and private, but some were a long way from the restrooms. There are many beautiful sites at waterfront, but that is all dry camping.

The sites are all paved, and all seem pretty sloped, so make sure you have levelers. All picnic tables have shade covers, and most sites have good shade. The grounds are well kept and the park very quiet and tidy. If you like to fish, there are plenty of spots for shore fishing. There is also a boat ramp. The lake is clean and beautiful, also huge.

There is only one hiking trail, but it is not paved and seemed a bit overgrown so we did not hike it for fear of encountering a snake.

This is a nice park, but not a “do over” for us because of the lack of space and privacy at the full hookup sites. Also you can hear some road noise at times, which is really a distraction, especially if you are a person who enjoys the peacefulness of a nature setting.

Beautiful campground. Stayed in last loop camp 36. Was too close to 35. Not much privacy. Wish I would have chose 43, drive down the hill a bit to unload, had its own private beach. The last loop 35-43 is primitive campsites. Still has bathrooms though with flush toilets. Each loop has flush toilets, the first 2 loops has shower houses. Didnt check the water temp. Have my own hot water privacy shower. Dogs must be on leash. Quiet tim 10pm to 6am. Cute couple in matching shirts comes around on golf cart several times a day checking on guest. First 2 loops are for electric amps for RVs. But the primitive loop still has water hook ups as well. There is a dump station. And must Reserve Online only! No cash, cards, checks accepted on site. Boat dock is $5 a day with a credit card machine as soon as you go through gate. The gates do not lock at night. Was there for 2 weeks March 2021. Many fireflies,, which was like a fairytale,, through the forest and down by lake.. cell service was good for Verizon, Sprint, and Tmobile. Kinda slow but worked. Fire rings, and tables at each site. The primitive loop had no tent pads, just set up where you like. I paid $7 because I get half off with my American is Beautiful/interagency pass which is available online for $80 annually. Saves me %50 @ most parks. Price is $14 a night for the primitive loop. And goes up to like $40 depending on amp. They have 3 shelters, which is just a box with windows and electricity for $38 a night in the first loop. All sites are basically on the water, some are too close to one another, some are very private. Gotta look at the park map online. Only 1 walking trail with 2 benches through the walk. Very short, not much to see, kinda muddy. Trail ends at a picnic table by the water. There is a short cut if you follow the path to the boat ramps so you don't have to turn around and walk back out. No wildlife messed with our food out side. No coons. Saw red cardinals, blue Jay's, woodpeckers, white tailed deer, bunnies was about it. There are some fat dark brown squirrels tho. If you come out gates for gas/ice/food make a left. Twice the ice 16lbs for$2 is a mile on your right. As is food and ⛽ and doughnuts 🍩 😋. Being next to a major road and the giant trucks and boats driving through to get down by the dock kinda killed the forest, fireflies, lake, sunset ambiance for me a little. Very windy up on the primitive loop, mind you its a peninsula 30ft above the lake!

We camped in Loop A during the week of Thanksgiving 2020 by making reservations 134 days prior to arriving. Very friendly volunteer gate attendants, but not sure when they work the gate as we tried to find them twice in one day and no one around and no info on how to contact/find someone, even tho there are four different campsites marked“attendant”. Overall, very quiet campground the week of Thanksgiving except for the highway noise from Highway 255, which was loud! Nine site FHU loop where sites are crammed together, weirdly and poorly laid out and spaced. No vegetation between sites so no privacy here what-so-ever! We could hear everyone’s conversations, even some that were inside their RV! Back-in site 12 was a tricky challenge to get into due to the terrain. First a dip before a narrow entrance over drainage ditch pipe, then a steep grade which almost had us scrapping the asphalt as we saw evidence of many that had previously. The narrow asphalt parking pad is deteriorating on the utility hook up side leaving a 6-8 inch drop off, so not very forgiving! Most asphalt site pads in this loop are in poor condition. Site 12 was not level side-to-side. Site 12 also has two wooden enclosures(wooden fence) that house utility panel boxes. At first, we thought we had our own outhouse! There is a slight view of the lake from Site 12. Recreation.gov states this site is"full shade", which we disagree. Our concrete picnic table on a concrete pad was fairly close to the parking pad. Our site also included a rotting shelter over the table, a rotting wooden bar-height prep table(aka fish cleaning table), a wooden lantern pole and a metal fire pit with a grilling grate that was one big tripping hazard due to the concrete slab the pit was placed on was broken up and huge hunks of concrete displaced around the metal fire pit. What a mess. Toilet/shower facility just for this campground loop fairly clean, but not serviced every day(during the week). Tent sites are along the lake in Loop A. There is a significant drop-off down to the water’s edge. Evidence of tent campsites that had been washed out/destroyed in recent flooding. Not a good stargazing location due to other close by campers with numerous outdoor lights burning all night! Super friendly squirrels that ate from our hands. No other wildlife sighting during our 4 night stay the week of Thanksgiving. Sam Rayburn Lake is beautiful. Park has a boat ramp and a large ramp parking area. No firewood for sale in this park. A bait shop, Valero fuel station, liquor store and a couple restaurants within a 5-minute drive of the Park entrance. Jasper has a Tractor Supply and a small Walmart. Lufkin has most chain restaurants, Lowes, Super Walmart, etc. Two bars AT&T signal

Beautiful place! Host Jerry is cool guy, loads of information. Rides around once a night around sunset on his golf cart to see if everyone is okay. Been here 5 times. Sawmill trail is very cool. 2.5 miles to the old sawmill and 2.5 miles back out. Loads of deer here. Many interlacing creeks. Water from down under pumps into creek which you may see by the 3 bridges. Fire pits, grills, huge tent pads, lantern post, and giant picin tables are at each campsite. Very spaced apart. Lots of privacy. 1 vault toilet which is super clean, and a bathhouse in center of park. Showers are luke warm at best. Verizon works well here, sprint sucks. Never really busy here. Its $10 a day to camp, but I have the America is Beautiful interagency pass for $80 annually, saves me 50% off, so I only pay $5 a day! Decent roads in and out, barley any pot holes. Dogs must be on leash, rangers come by once a day to check. No reservations here, first come first serve. Many trees for hammock and I did kayak on the small lake for fun. Fished for days, caught nothing. Woodpeckers are here! As many other bird species. Loads of 🍄. All different kinds, bought a book to identify them! Store is a bit far about 8 miles east. They got a water filter and ice house to fill 5 gallon jugs and 16lbs of ice for $2.

We came to tent camp and wanted to be on a lake shoreline. We stayed at #11 on Lakeside Loop.

The positive:

• The tent pad was nice and level and the site was very roomy (we had a tent & canopy) with tons more room to stretch out.

• We were about 200 yards from the bathroom facilities and about 30 feet from potable water for washing up.

• The traffic was minimal because it’s off the main road, and would have been peaceful if the group of campers at #9 had been courteous and acknowledged quiet hours.

• We had incredible weather with a wonderful steady breeze.

Negatives:

• We did have a lake view, but the shoreline is so incredibly overgrown making it difficult to fish. Lots of rotted wood and brush blocks a great deal of the view and access.

• The burn circle had a grate welded at an angle to the top, so it couldn’t really be used for building up a big fire or cooking.

• No one drove around/checked to make sure visitors are keeping to the quiet hours, which meant we were kept awake until about 12:30 am from yelling and loud music.

• The restrooms, while near, had not been cleaned before we arrived—toilet paper on the floors and in the shower area with lots of dead june bugs and spiders on the floor the whole weekend.

There are only around 9 full hookup sites and they are very close together in the group camping section. Very little privacy. All waterfront sites are nice and big, but no utilities. One section of the campground has a lot of private RV sites but only water and electric. There are 3 restrooms but only one has shower facilities. The group camp restrooms do not have showers even though the campground map indicates showers.

The sites with utilities are paved, and most slope, so need those levelers. All sites have fire rings and covered picnic tables.

Beautiful lake views and a boat ramp. Good fishing from shore. Lots of woods and birds. We saw a couple of eagles.