Cagle Recreation Area

We spent two nights near the water for our first time at Lake Conroe. Spacious sights fit our big rig. Full hookups, beautiful scenery, close boat ramp and near to necessities in New Waverly.

Nice forest service c ampground on lake Conroe. Great trails, bank fishing and wildlife observation. Sites are spaced out but the lack of vegetation between sites makes the sites less private.

Summary: Nice small older park with mature trees & two loops. Sweetgum and sycamore. We stayed in the sycamore loop site #28. Sycamore loop has a boat ramp on the southern end as this park is on lake Conroe. Pros: IMO there is allot to like at this quiet park. Shade, mature trees, most sites had adequate space between them, full hook-ups,30 & 50 amp, newer style fire rings with adjustable grates to cook on. Although there was a fire ban when we went. Access to the lake if you like to boat or fish. Grounds were well kept up while there, no stickers in the grassy areas of you have pets or little ones. I hate if we go somewhere and there are thorns in our dogs feet when we walk them, that is no fun but not here. OHV area trail head with miles of trails are minutes away.

Cons: Our site was really off level side to side. We have auto leveling and it wouldn't work it was so far out of level. We had to manually do it. Side to side isn't fun. Front to back is much easier to set up. So I would say bring leveling blocks or boards with you in case you need them. Be prepared. Also as with any park sites rig size vary as to what can fit where. So my advice is to go visit it and pick which one you think you'd fit into best and mark it down for when you want to go. Some sites I couldn't fit into. And no pull-thrus if that's your thing. Sewer hookup on some we're a ways away so bring an extra hose. Mine was close but I seen others that needed 3 hoses. I always carry two 10 footers and one 15 footer. No swimming area for the kids. No fishing pier. Fishing access is not great at the campground. Huntsville 20 miles away for supplies, food, etc. No store close by. Hope that helps.

Pros 

Senior pass discount 

Quick check-in( in fact, we were still backing into our site) by camp host who delivered vehicle pass 

Asphalt parking pad surrounded by grass 

Non moveable metal frame wooden picnic table on an oversized concrete slab 

Metal fire ring with cooking grate 

Lantern pole 

Shady site #4 

Spacious area between campsites 

Quiet 

Good night sky viewing as there are no street lights in park and shower/toilet facility had minimum lighting 

Cons 

Campers ignore basic rules/courtesy such as keeping dogs on leash and letting children run thru everyone’s campsites 

Entrance gate unmanned (closed) 24/7) so lots of“drive-by” gawkers in the campground Non campers consistently showered in the campground showers facility

Gates to campground not locked overnight 

TP not available in women's restroom SWEETGUM most of the 2 nights of our stay 

No security drive-throughs by park staff 

Unlevel parking pad Site #4 

No privacy from any other campers as there is absolutely no brush/vegetation between sites 

No firewood for sale in park 

Non-climate controlled shower/toilet building, but did have a box fan sitting on the floor running, but he was a sweat box in that facility!

Site picnic table at the rear of the site and it was anchored to the concrete pad 

No WiFi 

1 bar Verizon

Overall a nice campground on a lake. There's a 2 mile hiking loop in the campground, and you can drive a few miles to a really nice section of the Lone Star hiking trail. Our site was configured a bit weird, the paved pad wasn't very level and the picnic table and fire ring weren't very close to the RV or tent pad. And they weren't close to each other either. There isn't firewood for purchase in the campground. If you can get a site near the lake you get a really nice view. There is a small boat ramp so you can launch a canoe or kayak. The mountain bike and multi use trails just to the east of the campground were closed for an unknown reason so I didn't get to check those out.

Reserved 183 days prior to arrival. 

PROS 

Quiet even on Halloween weekend except for road noise from FM1375 

Night sky friendly. NO STREET LIGHTS in Campground! 

Two FHU Campgrounds. Sweet Gum with 19 sites and Sycamore with 28 sites. 

Metal picnic table 

Cooking grill on metal fire ring 

Site level and asphault parking pad in good condition 

Friendly camp host who came directly to site on our second day for our check-in 

Not charged a fee to make my own on-line reservation 

Campsite discount with America the Beautiful Pass 

CONS 

Campsite water hook-up sprayed water everywhere. Even tried using plumber Teflon tape that didn’t even reduce the large spray. Talked to camp host about it and he just laughed and agreed it was needing some repairs, but no one ever came by and it sprayed like that for 4 nights! We had quite a large puddle.

Security gates are NOT closed overnight

Extra high sided campfire ring

No privacy from any other campsites

Toilet/shower facility without temperature control

4 Camp Hosts for 47 campsites. Sweet Gum Loop #11 Camp Host site packed to the max with all kinds of stuff that isn’t seen at other Camp Host sites. Definitely hording homesteaders.

Only park amenity is boat ramp for Lake Conroe.

No swimming is permitted.

Never saw any park rangers or park security driving through campground Wildlife sightings of grey squirrels

Zero to 1 bar AT&T

No park Wifi

Just finished another camping trip to Cagle Recreation Area in the Sam Houston National forest.  It was pretty chilly in the beginning of March, but we camped during the week when all the weekenders had left, and there were only a handful of campers there.  So peaceful and serene.  Lots of clearly marked trails to hike.  The campsites are so spacious, with full hookups.  Our site was sloped a bit so had to use 9 leveling blocks.  All sites have asphalt pads and are kept clean.  The hosts gave us some firewood to make a fire in the pit, and we got to roast some hot dogs.  Camped in Sycamore Loop, which is the campground loop closest to the boat ramp.  Great views of Lake Conroe, and I'm told there is great fishing here.  We walked miles and miles on the trails and just enjoyed the beauty.  Saw a bald eagle, which was an awesome experience.  The bathhouse was cleaned daily and was always well stocked.  Sites are very large, so social distancing is no problem.  Cagle is one of my favorite places to camp!

Older campground, but well maintained with larger sites providing privacy. Also, wouldn’t expect full hookups in a National Forest campground, so that was a plus. Verizon signal was virtually non-existent, but nice to be off grid for a couple days.

Cagle Recreation Area is one of my favorite places to camp.  It's just an hour north of Houston and in a beautiful, peaceful wooded setting.  Although you're not far from the city, you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere.  The campsites are mostly level, well kept, and there's ample shade.  All are full hookups I believe.  There aren't too many waterfront sites, but if you book early enough you may be lucky enough to get one.  Even if your campsite isn't on the water, many have great views of the beautiful lake.  There is a boat ramp.  Sites have fire pits and are large enough to provide lots of privacy.  Bath houses are sparkly clean and nice.

We arrived at the Sweetgum loop 181 after making reservations. Sites nicely spaced, but open view to all campsites, so no privacy. No lake view from this loop. Level asphalt site with metal picnic table and unusually high sided metal fire pit. No site grill. Screaming kids running through the campground until 10am made our campfire time less enjoyable. During our Thursday, Friday and Saturday night stay, we noted the women’s restrooms were without toilet paper most of the time. We spoke to the camp host about it and they said that restroom maintenance was performed by a contractor, not the camp host. There are two camp hosts in this Sweetgum loop and the host in site #11 has a hideous collection of STUFF everywhere– around the site, into site #13, out onto the side of the campground roadway and even continuing behind the site into the woods! Looked like a junkyard complete with numerous rats we saw running around the mess. Obviously, USDA permits this as we saw this same collection of stuff and junk at one of the camp host sites in another Cagle campground loop. This kind of hoarding mess makes the entire campground look hideous not to mention the unhealthy conditions presented by rats running about!

Quiet and comfortable, we stayed during the week so there wasn’t many people there. Decided to stay an extra day, the process was a little complicated, we had to pay by cash, but not really a big deal. Really isolated area which was a good and bad thing. Good because we were able to get away from everything, bad because when we needed something from a store we had to travel a ways to get it. The only thing we wished was there was a swimming hole.

March 22-29, 2019 Located in Sam Houston National Forest. Electric, water and sewer. Dump station. Showers and flush toilets. TV reception - CBS+. Received 1/2 price with lifetime sr pass but had to pay additional $10 per day.

Very relaxing

We've camped here several times and it's very comfortable. Pets allowed and it has fire rings.

We had a great time at this park we camped w a buddy in his camper and the site we had was huge. There were tons of trees and very shaded. There is a huge lake w a boat ramp and pier. There are tons of trails you can get lost on. We walked many miles. There are restrooms and showers. The site had full hookups as well.

Full hook up sites are nice. No swimming allowed but I did launch my paddle board from the site. I also saw some campers launching their kayaks and fishing. Our site had a big drop off from the asphalt pad and the picnic table was a long way from the pad. We were a short walk from the bathroom. Park hosts make it a point to drive by and say hi. They also offered firewood for free, if we wanted it.

Very nice, heavily-shaded water/electric campsites.

Some of the best camp hosts you’ll ever meet, and access to the north end of Lake Conroe to boot.