Best Dispersed Camping in Texas

Free beach camping, No reservations needed! We went on a weekend late July 2021, NO PROBLEM finding space. Recommend some type of canopy or awning, Texas Sun is HOT! Plan ahead, stores are few and far between. NO amenities, water, showers or hookups of any kind. Tmobile Cell service wasn't the best. Generator usage is allowed, but you barely could hear any due to all the space between campers & the WAVES SOUNDING SO AMAZING! Sunrise was beautiful! I'll go again!

Pros: Amazing View, Lots of Space, No harassment, Ice Cream & Food Trucks pass throughout the day (if you have a sweet tooth), beach sand is compacted so you shouldn't get stuck, several beach access roads to enter from. Camp fires 🔥 are permitted & I found firewood laying around.

Cons: North part of island has LOTS of debris, dead trees, branches, etc. No trash cans or porta pottys either (we didn't mind that, but be prepared to take your trash with & have a bucket for your business, lol). A goofball left all their trash scattered when they departed after their 3 hr beach adventure. Most everyone was mindful of leaving things clean. MORE trash cans could help.

This is a review of the primitive (dispersed) campsites along the San Gabriel River Trail. 

Upon entering one of the access points, park your car for free near the trailhead. It is good to advise one of the park attendants that you will be hiking or place a note inside your car that you are hiking. 

The trail circles Lake Georgetown and is 26.2 miles. It passes through forests, grasslands, over some small hills and across a few tributaries. 

This is prmitive (dispersed) camping. There are no facilities or amenities are these camp areas. Pack in some water and bring a water filter to obtain more. Leave No Trace principals should be practiced. 

There are a few areas with tent pads or clear areas where you may camp. But there are also zones where you may simply camp wherever you can setup a tent or hammock.  I'd say that 40% of the trail has some tree coverage, but 60% is exposed. 

In the summer be aware that the combination of the temperature and the exposure can make this trail uncomfortable to hike. Take precautions, drink lots of water and stay in the shade all that you can. While you may be hiking within site of Lake Georgetown and the water, it is not always convenient to access the water. So be sure to carry plenty of water - at least 2 liters.

The trail is getting more and more popular with backpackers, so it is likely that you may see others on the trail. On weekends you may encounter scout troops practicing backpacking. During the weekdays you may not see a single person.

Dogs are allowed on the trail, but it is nice to keep them on lease.

Located between Port Lavaca and Port O'connor, TX. A mile or so of no-fee camping. No designated sites. Hard packed sand/sea shell surface, with paved access roads. Beach is pretty clean but beach appropriate footware is required. There is a bath house with free lavatories. We were there in August 2019 and March 2020 and the inside showers (4) were locked. There is a free use outside shower. There are picnic tables covered with 4 open sided concrete shelters. There are trash barrels in front of all the shelters. The picinic shelter closest to the rest rooms is wheelchair accessable. No electric, sewer or water sites. This is a very windy place. If you tent camp, low profile strong tents are recommended. I've seen many RVs with generators, PV solar arrays and wind turbines. There are small convience stores and bait and tackle stores nearby. There is a fishing pier towards the Southern part of the beach. A few RV campgrounds in the area. It is kept pretty clean. In the warmer months the crabs like to hide in the bathrooms out of the sun. Don't be alarmed, they stay away from people. Don't miss the Camel memorial at the Southernmost entrance. There is a Geocache in the area.

FCFS

FREE

This is a pretty good campground especially since it is Free.  You have a stay limt of 14 days and who doesn't need to kick back and just enjoy the simple pleasures of doing nothing.  There is no water but you will have picnic tables with shelters for the tables, fire ring, trash and a pit toilet.  You have a lot of shade around the perimenter of the campground which makes it nice.  There is no electric but who needs it.  You should have plenty of time to hike the grasslands, find a great fishing spot around the lake.  We are looking forward to a return trip to spend more time around the lake.  Hunting is another reason to check this place out.

LNT

tRAVEL SAFE.

4 Stars based on Dispersed / Free Camping w/ a clean pit toilet.
Easily accessible from FSR 511, near the 4C Trail northern trailhead (although some sections are currently closed), clean pit toilets, and nice observation deck overlooking the Neches River.  Used as a hunters' camp during deer season.

Close to Mission Tejas State Park and Ratcliff Lake Recreational Area (showers). 4C Trail southern trailhead is located in Ratcliff Lake RA. I've also accessed the trail from where it crosses FM277 (there is a FS dirt road just south of that crossing on the east side).

This is a review of the Sawyer Park primitive (dispersed) campsites along the San Gabriel River Trail. There are no facilities or amenities are this campsite. Leave No Trace principals should be practiced.

Upon entering one of the access points, park your car for free near the trailhead. It is good to advise one of the park administers that you will be hiking or place a note inside your car that you are hiking. 

The Sawyer Park site is only accessible by hiking or by a boat. It is about 5 miles from the Tejas Campground and 5 miles from Cedar Breaks Campground. This is primitive (dispersed) camping. There are a few areas with clear land or tent pads where you may camp. But there are also zones where you may simply camp wherever you can setup a tent or hammock. There is an old latrine at this site, but it is in poor shape and no-one really uses it. Be prepared to dig a cat hole. 

Many people stay at this site while hiking the San Gabriel River Trail. The trail circles Lake Georgetown and is 26.2 miles. It passes through forests, grasslands, over some small hills and across a few tributaries.

In the summer be aware that the combination of the temperature and the exposure can make this trail uncomfortable to hike. Take precautions, drink lots of water and stay in the shade all that you can. While you may be hiking within site of Lake Georgetown, it is not always convenient to access the water. So carry plenty of water while hiking - at least 2 liters. 

The trail is getting more and more popular with backpackers, so it is likely that you may see others on the trail. On weekends you may encounter scout troops practicing backpacking. During the weekdays you may not see a single person. Dogs are allowed on the trail, but it is nice to keep them on lease.

My son and I went in mid-November, so your experience will vary depending on time of year.

The LSHT is the longest hiking trail in the state. It is broken up into sections. We started at Section 1, which is the easternmost portion, hiking east-west. Each section has a trailhead with a parking lot. We hiked all of Section 1 and half of Section 2. Each of the 2 sections was about 8 miles long. The length of the LSHT is about 130 miles.

Zero amenities. No restrooms. No electricity. No cell coverage. Nada. The LSHT is in the Sam Houston National Forest, about an hour north of Houston. So it’s not a "campground," per se, but you can camp anywhere that’s feasible. We just didn’t find very many feasible places to camp. There is a lot of dense undergrowth along the trail portion we hiked. And mud. Lots and lots of mud. It had been raining a lot in the preceding weeks. I’d call the ranger office and ask about trail conditions and what the weather's been like if I were you. I hope you have a good pair of waterproof boots.

We found a decent spot about 4 miles in, set up our hammocks, and had a good night's rest. The first day's hike was great - plenty of sunshine, cool but not cold, few mosquitoes. It got cold within a couple hours after sunset. I’m glad I brought my underquilt, sleeping bag, and blanket. I’m also glad I brought an extra pair of warm socks, flannel pajama bottoms, and a sock cap. My hiking clothes were soaked with sweat, so changing out of them was essential for a good night's sleep. Well, I don’t actually sleep on these trips. I doze off and on. Anyway, there were no big surprises during the night. The sound of insects. Leaves and branches falling. Coyotes howling in the distance. But nothing scary or annoying. It was very pleasant.

The original plan was to hike both sections, so we parked my son's pickup at Trailhead 6 and drove back to Trailhead 1 to park my Jeep and start the hike. The plan was solid as long as we started early in the day and could average 2 miles an hour. But we wound up starting out late in the day and did I mention the mud? There was a lot of mud. And obstacles to cross. And creeks to cross. And mud. And more mud. Lots and lots of mud. So we were only able to do 4 miles before we had to find a place to camp. Otherwise, we'd be hiking in the dark.

So the morning of day 2, we packed our gear and trudged on as quickly as we could. We had about 12 miles to cover. It seemed doable at the time. But the weather changed. It got considerably cooler and overcast and rainy. It wasn’t constant, and it was never a downpour. But it was 50s and damp. Drizzly. We trudged on for about another 8 miles and decided to leave the trail at Trailhead 4 and hit the pavement, for fear that we'd again run out of daylight somewhere between Trailheads 4 and 6.

My advice? Do your homework. Read up in the LSHT. Peruse the website http://lonestartrail.org and buy the book. Prepare for a long slog through mud. I’m glad I took a hammock because there weren’t many places suitable for tent camping. Take plenty of water and a water purifier because there is no potable water available on the sections we hiked. Two people in 2 separate vehicles is a must unless you’re a thru-hiker or just want to hike a bit and hike back to your car. It’s mostly flat with no steep ups and downs, rock climbing, or anything like that. But there were quite a few creek crossings that required going down into a gully and up the other side. I did mention the mud, right?