Kimberly G.

Plano, TX

Joined September 2020

All the amenities but little to do

Caddo Lake State Park looked amazing in pictures—shaggy, mossy trees in the bayou ecosystem, spring greenery, shady campgrounds—so my two friends and I booked it. It’s actually a very nice state park. The bathrooms are immaculate and have soap and TP, the campgrounds have water and electricity for cheap, and they have pre cut firewood you can pay for by donation. They had so many amenities compared to other campgrounds I’ve been to. However, I am more accustomed to having several miles of hiking trails. We hiked every single trail in 2.5 hours. The next day we were looking forward to canoe rentals, but unfortunately the park isn’t doing that during COVID. The park staff by the way is very friendly and helpful. They have several cute and kid friendly maps. The ranger at the desk also gave us the phone number of a boat dock in town, but by the time we got there all the boats were taken. I feel a bit guilty for the lower rating here, but we were pretty bored the second day then got rained out and left early instead of staying a second night. Our campground in Armadillo run was too swampy and our gear got muddy. Wish we’d had our own kayaks to bring!

Mossy views and lots of wildlife!

My friend and I camped here last fall, a last minute switch since we got rained out of other plans. We still got some rain in San Houston park, but it was tolerable. The sad hit was the firewood all around the area got damp, so we had fire trouble. Also, the park headquarters does not sell firewood or ice, so we had to hunt around for a gas station that did. The main trail is the Lone Star, which is neat, but you have to yoyo hike if you aren’t backpacking. The bridge to more views near our campground was out—looked like it was under construction. Might be done now! You’ve got to remember to bring cash to use around town and to put in the slot for camp payment. They don’t like credit cards around here.

The landscape of this area is not varied or incredibly interesting, but the tall mossy trees added some swampy grandeur, and we saw quite a lot of wildlife including a large hawk (at the campground) and a coral snake on our hike!

A hassle-free camping trip all around!

Usually when my friend and I go tent camping we have some hiccup in our plans—rain, damp firewood, lack of wood and ice to be purchased on site, trouble getting good maps, freezing to death at night, etc, but this trip really went without a hitch! They have a good website through which you can pick your campsite. We ended up with a pretty one by the creek that was more secluded than the others. It didn’t have a bathroom, but it was easy enough to drive over to the next site.

What is fun about Robber’s Cave is the variety of things to do. On our first day we went directly to the Cave area and enjoyed climbing on the rocks! Many views were pretty and the cave was not too puny either. The next day we explored more trails—one that was good and challenging—and then rented a kayak for the lake. It was only $5 for an hour! They’ve got mini golf, horse shoes, and a show cone stand to boot. The little camp headquarters also had plentiful ice and dry firewood to buy.

I guess if I have any criticism it would be that the bathroom was a bit dingy, but, heck, it had toilet paper! They also could have had better maps of some of the trails—we got just a little lost on one of the offshoot trails near the cave—but that’s what made it an adventure, really.