Camping Recommendations.

April 13, 2006 1:23 PM

Rustic camping near North Texas recommendations, please.

Two couples are looking to go out with some tents to some place and go camping near North Texas. We are willing to drive a couple hours from the DFW area. Would prefer some place where there aren't other people around. Looking to camp, have a campfire, and some peace and quiet for a couple of days. On a lake is a plus. Don't want to go to some touristy thing where we are stuck in between the Johnson family and the Smith's RV. Don't need RV, bathrooms, etc.

posted by dios to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

Caddo Lake. It's a *bit* of a drive, but seriously, man... the best place in the Northern-ish part of Texas in which to camp.

It's East of Dallas, on the TX/LA border -- like you're headed to Shreveport. Takes about 2-3 hrs to get there, and there's a state park with cabins, RV docks, and rustic camping....with each site a good distance from the next. Good hiking and canoe rentals also available.

Beautiful scenery: tea-colored blackwater, duckweed and lilly pads, huge knobby-kneed cypresses, pine forests...
posted by kaseijin at 1:55 PM on April 13, 2006

Turner Falls is one of my favorites. I haven't been up in a while, but it used to be if you went far enough back behind the falls, or wanted to hike out a little along Honey Creek, you could find some pad sites that were decently distant from the RVs and stuff.

It's really beautiful up there, and the hiking's a little more interesting than if you go east or west. No boats, either, which is my complaint about most of East Texas (I grew up in Nacogdoches, so camping-fishing at Caddo or Sam Rayburn were our standard weekend getaways). Plus, Turner Falls is in the Arbuckle mountains, where it's always a little cooler and drier than it is down here.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:10 PM on April 13, 2006

Thanks for the recommendations. I will look into them.
posted by dios at 2:27 PM on April 13, 2006

I would second Turner Falls and that whole Arbuckle area.

We made a similar two-couple trip there awhile back and it was a lot of fun.
posted by First Post at 4:39 PM on April 14, 2006