Best Cabin Camping near Quitaque, TX

Planned on spending only one night here but due to weather ended up staying for two nights. The campground is in a little town that basically has nothing. The campground owners Leisha and David are super nice and live there. The campground is in great shape. Sites are level and full hook ups with pull through sites were $30. They also had laundry, Wi-Fi, showers and also cabins for rent. Wednesday through Sunday. They also had a food truck that was open from I believe 5 til 8 where they served a bunch of different types of food.

Wild Horse Campground Spot 74 

I showed up at the welcome center with a reservation for primitive camping, not realizing the only spot to set up my RTT would be the parking lot. A nice lady working the desk, slide me into a spot that had cancelled earlier that day at the Wild Horse Campground. 

Wild Horse is the equestrian camp and each spot has horse pens, picnic table, fire ring(though burn ban was in effect while we stayed) and water. No restrooms. The campground is behind a drive through gate that you have to close to keep the buffalo out. 

Only one slot had horses while we were there. Several had mountain bikers staying in them. Everyone besides us and the horse folks were in ground tents. Plenty of room for us and the horse trailer setup didn’t look too cramped either. Slots are well spaced out, but not much privacy– see tree comment below. 

Not much shade to be had except what little you get from scrubby mesquites, but if you are looking for lots of shade, this probably isn’t the park for you. The park itself is great. Easy to get around. Lots of well-marked trails. Bring water and what for snakes. Gorgeous canyon views and features. 

Very quiet after sundown.

Quitaque(kitty-quay) is a couple of miles from the main entrance and has a convenience store, a grocery store and a couple of cafes. We drove ten miles further to Turkey, Texas for dinner– very cool setup at Hotel Turkey. Good food, good music and fun casual outdoor atmosphere. Be sure to check their website for hours. Speaking of website, we had no service on Verizon cellular except very slow spotty connections from 10 pm to 7 am. Service in Quitaque and Turkey was very spotty and very slow. 

Definitely glad we stopped here. Wouldn’t hesitate to do so again.

Located in Briscoe County, TX, this park is over 15,000 acres and the third largest state park in Texas. There is hiking, biking, and an equestrian rail trail extending through three counties. The canyons and ridges, carved out by erosion, are beautiful. The area is home to sheep, deer, coyotes, opossums, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, porcupines, prairie dogs, over 175 various birds, golden eagles, numerous snakes and lizards. The animal that stands out is the plains bison herd. There is also Lake Theo here, which has bass, catfish and rainbow trout. Temperatures average from 19F to 91F. There are cabins for rent and camping sites. Great staff and clean bathrooms. It was very windy and hot in May. Advisories were to have plenty of water on hand at all times. We stopped here on our way back from a trip and wished we could have camped there after seeing the area. They were all booked, so we just napped in hammocks by the water. We awoke to the awesome sight of bison coming down to the lake to drink. It does not get any better than this park.

Created by the Red River, Caprock Canyon State Park, lies about 125 miles to the southeast of Palo Duro Canyon. While many similarities exist between the two state parks, the differences are striking. For starters, this park features the remaining heard of Southern Plains Bison (related to the Bison heard managed in Yellowstone N.P.) who wander the park roads and graze upon the local vegetation. So, keep your speed down and pay attention around every corner, especially at night!

We stayed in the Equestrian Camp (water only, no toilets, no electricity so come prepared with your solar panel).   Spacious sites, corrals for horses at each site, and one very squeaky windmill that will keep you awake at night if it's windy, which it always is.  Try to get a spot that is NOT right next to it!  The campground has a gate to keep wildlife out and horses in.  You'll have to open and close it each time you leave/return.

Hiking might just be the best way to see this park, but miles and miles of horse trails offer an unique experience from the saddle. Many trails crisscross the dry washes so pay attention to your trail markers so you don’t get turned around. Opportunities to hike up to the highest point in the park are strenuous but well worth the effort. So too is the hike back to the year-round springs that keep the wildlife running.

The nearby town of Quitaque also has an ice/water kiosk and a convenience store which is less than 5 miles away.  The closest town with a real grocery store and restaurants is Plainview, about 55 miles away.

The park has a free roaming bison herd (ancestral to the original bison that once roamed Texas in the 1800's) and a large prairie dog colony. They have hiking trails for all levels. Campsites are not stacked on top of one another, so there's a bit of privacy. Lots of different camping areas depending if you want to tent, backpack or RV. The scenery is different than we'd experienced prior, but it's a breathtaking beauty. Our girls, 5 and 7, begged to have a few extra days at the park. We cannot wait to get back in the fall to do more hiking! Also, we took a day trip on the Texas Plains Trail up to Amarillo, to Cadillac Ranch and ended up at Palo Duro State Park for their TEXAS! show. It was a big day, but a great way to see more of the region.

Caprock Canyons is as good as it gets for equestrian sites in Texas. Stay away from summer temps, but go in late fall or early spring and plan to stay awhile. Lots of trails to explore in the area and plenty of pen space at Wild Horse. Take the Wild Horse Trail from there for the scenic windmill tour.

Let me preface this by saying that our woes during our stay here didn't really have anything to do with the campground or the hosts. Our stay here was, however, eventful. 

We stayed here because this is the only area that the state rangers said was open... more on that later. We did find it interesting that there were only out of state license plates here... but again more on that later (and maybe a coincidence?) 

It was toasty hot- we stayed in a roof top tent, so if you're not in a trailer, think about how you're going to stay cool. 

Late at night our roof top tent became overrun with small cockroaches. Yes I said it. It sucked. We fought them off for probably an hour before we finally plugged all the holes in our tent. Then we still found a few and got them out. Next the coyotes came in our site. Yes. You read that right. They were within 10 feet of us. We pick up our sites meticulously before we go to bed and store our food properly. Howling next to your tent is very... ominous. Yes, let's go with that. Then the wind came. This is an equestrian park, so there are horse corrals all around you. Just something... eerie about horse corrals (that we closed by the way because of the creaking) opening and closing in the middle of the night. THEN came the birds at 4AM who were singing the song of their kind... yep.. you guessed it, right next to our tent. 

Again- nothing to do with how the park is run, just our one night there. UNTIL- the next morning when we went and saw the RV portion of the campground. All. Texas. Plates. Full. Hookups. I bet they slept nicely. Could be a coincidence, but could not be- who knows! At the absolute very least- this gave us the most memorable story of our entire 6-week trip. So we are thankful for that. Also, cool fact- the Texas State Buffalo Herd lives here!

The park is full of wild bison, creating an experience as unique as I have seen. Be warned that they are in the roads and come in and near the campsites. When I left for a hike, I came back and found bison poop on my campsite!

Caprock Canyons part 2

A little complicated in terms of finding a place for camping if you have rooftops tents.

The designated tent places they have you have to walk into. Unless you want to be by all the RVs, which we don’t like. They have an overflow camping space, which was perfect for us. The place is very nice and has great views. We got visited by Bison at night and early this morning. Lots of coyotes howling at night and beautiful skies.

This campground is absolutely beautiful, and was excruciatingly hot. Given I was there one of the warmest days of the year. But no breeze, little shade.

The views are amazing and it's easy to get checked in. My dog loved hiking early hours when the sun just peeked up. Tons of views and wildlife.

Beautiful park. Clean heated bathrooms. Tons of Bison and the views cant be beat. We stopped here on a whim and the campground was full. They were able to accommodate us for the night dry camping in the equestrian section. Was nice, not many people camping there. Staff were all super helpful and nice

While there is no camping anywhere in the park, it does have a lot of recreational things happening in all corners. The “lake” is part of a larger controlled water way that is part of Lubbock Lake Park complex. The main entrance off of Broadway Ave is poorly maintained by the city (like many others around LBK) but once inside there are a multitude of things to do.

• Frisbee golf. A very large and meandering course through trees, grass, bridges and a floating island, it plays host to tournaments often.

• Canyon Run Dog Park. Do happy the city finally made this happen. Two sides of the same fenced area equal more than 5 acres of well maintained doggy play area. Huge old Oaks provide plenty of shelter with benches scattered about.

• Fishing galore in the lake. Busy all day long and stocked frequently. 4th of July fishing derby packs the lake.

• Joyland. A dated but busy amusement park is open late spring through mid fall.

• Scattered trails with signs giving length and direction can be found often through large trees areas and open grass areas.

• Baseball, softball, golf and a Prairie Dog Town can be found in the N and NE corners.

This damned lake (Army Corps of Engineers) recreation area offers some very inexpensive camping and OHV trail access. When the water is full during the summer, the lake is good for motoring, fishing, and other water sports. We visited during the draw down which offered a lot more beach area, but less water. 

Many of the campsites offer full-hook ups with all the usual amenities, picnic table, grill, sun shade and fire ring. A few of the campsites lie along the rim of the canyon and are way more beautiful, offering more privacy and sweeping vistas, but do not offer water or electricity. Bring your own solar panel and water and you are all set! 

Bathrooms were scarce, none close to the campground, unless we missed them, but there were some toilets by the office/campstore. So, come prepared with your own facilities, too if you don't have one in your RV.

Closest town for groceries and supplies is Plainview, about 45 miles away.

Good water pressure. Good amount of space between sites. ‘bout all I can say good about it. Call for res — do not use online system as you will be charged $5 for booking online. This should have been disclosed before payment. On second thought don’t reserve at all as there are plenty of empty spaces. Hard to get to from SB I-27 exit 51. I should have followed GPS to get off at exit 53. I was towing a car so had to pull through to clear road (almost clear). Since hook-ups are at the rear of the site I had to leave the toad in the road just a little and use two sewer hoses. 25’ water hose barely reached. Site is long enough and gravel covered. However when I pulled-through I had to drive on a field of dirt to leave. Glad it dint rain. I suppose $40 (35 Goodsam) isn’t too bad just don’t expect much.

The lots are nice and long. There are extra parking pads. The pads are gravel. You can use your outdoor mats. The bathhouse and laundry are super clean! I have no complaints!

Amazing time while there for a week. We spent most of our time traveling around the area to Lubbock. The campground is quite and spacious. The staff was great. We decided to leave a few days early and they refunded us the nights we didn’t stay.