Best Glamping near Telephone, TX

McGee creek State Park is a beautiful state Park. It has beautiful campsites nestled along the lake shore. Their campsites can accommodate big RVS. The lake is beautiful. The fishing is great from boat, shore or covered fishing dock. I love swimming and kayaking in the cool water. They also have campgrounds for people with horse. The lake is surrounded by the kiamiche mountains. There is no lights around the lake except at the park. Star gazing is amazing. The lake has 2 dams. The park has beautiful hiking trails going through the Pines. If you like to hike you can choose the type of hiking you want to do from just a few minutes hike or carry gear for camping in the forest. You have to sign in when you go hiking back country. I went hiking in the winter and because I took a trail that was new to me I was 5 minutes late getting back to the Ranger Station and when I came out of the Forrest their was a search team assembling. Very embarrassed but it felt good to know if I had been lost or injured they would have found me. The state Park also have 8 camping huts that are air condition and heated that have a fireplace, screened in porch that you can relax and look out over the lake. They are nestled in the Pines along the shore at Potapo Hill.They are unique. They were built back in the 40s I believe by WPA. The huts have a set of bunk beds, picnic table, heat and air, fireplace, fireplace, barbecue grill. The huts do not have bathrooms in each hut but have shared bathrooms outside that are clean and kept up. The huts are not equipped with refrigerator, cook stove or bed linens. So if I'm going for a few days or longer I take a mini fridge, hot burners for cooking. Basically this is camping with the luxury of having a roof over your head with the comfort of heat and air without bugs bitting. The huts have plenty of room for 2 queen size air up mattresses. They also give good discount for vets, military and disabled.

I had never heard of McGee Creek State park but had a blast here last weekend! We stayed right on the water at Potapo Landing. Definitely the nicest campsite I’ve seen. Aside from electricity, water, picnic table, fire pit and grill, each site also had their own deck! We got lucky as our site was not directly next to other campers, however most sites were pretty close together. It seemed like many of the RVs that were parked were there permanently (or at least for a very long time). Every now and then we’d catch a whiff of sewage smell but other than that it was very quiet and peaceful weekend.

One big issue with this park is the distance to the actual lake itself. You will need a cart or be ready for a hike to the beach area as it is quite a ways from the campground. that is an issue for us as my wife is disabled and needs a walker and we have no cart. But, lucky for us we were in the B section and decided one of the days we were there to attempt the picnic walk. Well worth it, even with a walker we managed to make it down to the waters edge within 15 minutes and its an easy gradual walk. Bring a picnic basket. tables to sit at or on the waters edge.

As for the rest of the camp, most amenities due to winter months and covid were shut down. Did see people enjoying the hot tub. The roads in many of these TT campground in the loop around Dallas do need attention so take your time going through them. We did need to use the laundry and they had ample enough machines and the basic price which was 1.50 and 1.75. The sites are nice, many shaded but snug not of other campers but trees. Some have fire pits, some do not. As with more and more campgrounds these days many annuals throughout the park.

First RV stay so this review is from the perspective of a family that has no experience with any RV Parks. 3 Stars is my starting point and as we stay at more campgrounds I would like to think that we will have a better understanding of what makes an RV stay "5 stars". This location is "first come/first serve" sites so for a beginner that can be a bit challenging. Working with Thousand Trails and the experience with that service was great. The road into and around the park was okay, there was room to drive around the entire park while looking for a spot. The spot's varied in size and there were no fire pits or grills provided by the park in the spots that we were able to see. The picnic tables have seen better days and i'm sure that is not uncommon. The 30 amp S/E/W hookups were clean and no issues with any service during the stay. There was not cable so TV was over the air antenna only. Cell coverage was fine during our stay. The park had activity areas but with COVID restrictions most were still unused. There is road to the lake that you can take to go to a small fishing pier and some rocky lake area access. The restrooms/showers were clean and the garbage bins were full but never overflowing with trash. There are multiple pools and the water appeared clear from a distance. Saw lot's of pet's and every size RV, there appeared to be quite a few long term RV sites. We would visit again since this is part of our Thousand Trails membership.

I am always pleasantly surprised with 'national' organizations' campgrounds. Whether a national forest or like this one, national grasslands, they are always pretty good, and this one is no exception. The campground is small, maybe 12 sites, vault toilets decently cleaned, and multiple water spigots. There was only one other camper, but there is access to the lake at this site with a few cars in the parking lot when we arrived, so you will see people even though it is secluded on the whole. We also saw a lot of horse riders. The sites have picnic tables, fire pits and are well spaced. You basically have your pick of sites so you can choose wooded areas or open without trees.