Best Tent Camping near Alto, TX

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.

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.

Pretty campground. Tall pine trees. Camped with our camper van along the loblolly loop. Not suitable for large rigs in this section. Level tent pads. Sites have access to the lake. Loved the tall trees. Restroom/shower rooms were very clean. See previous reviews about this. Paved roads & driveways in this section. No water & electric hookups in this section, but available in another section of the campground. Water spigot nearby for drinking water. Busy Hwy 7 is nearby; road noise from big rigs can get loud sometimes. AT&T cell/data service okay. No T-Mobile cell/data service. Would like to camp here again & explore some of the hiking trails.

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.