Texas Camping & Campgrounds: Your
Next Adventure.

Planning a Texas camping trip? Trying to find nice Texas campgrounds but not sure where to start? This guide will help...

Camp Texas!

First off...

Texas weather is mild all year around although the temperature can average in the low 20's F (degrees Fahrenheit) in Amarillo in January. The summer temperatures usually average from the low 80's F to the mid 90's F during the day and in the low 60's F to mid 70's F during the night. That's my idea of nice camping weather. :-)

Sunshine days number between 210 and 290 per year depending on where you are in the state, with El Paso doing very well in the sun department. If you're looking to do some Texas camping have a look below for a smoother trip.

Texas Camping Guides/Books/Resources: Being prepared and having an idea of what you want to see will save you time, money, and frustration. These books are some of the best for Texas camping, hiking, and getting there. You'll be glad you threw them in with your equipment used for camping.

The Roads of Texas, by Texas A&M University, Cartographics Laboratory: The first choice in maps if you're planning a Texas camping trip. This map is pretty easy to use, detailed, accurate, and shows the county and farm roads. People that have bought this book have been known to buy it again when they've worn out their first and second copies. :-) The drawback to this book is that it doesn't have much for topographics, this may or may not be important to you, if it is read on...

Texas Atlas and Gazetteer, by Delorme: If you would like more information and listings Delorme makes a good second choice. This map has lots of back roads on it which makes it much easier to find remote destinations. GPS tick marks, topographic maps, listings of campgrounds, state parks, national forests, hiking, fishing, and more make this Atlas and Gazetteer a great investment even if you never do get lost. The one thing they could fix though is the binding, it has a tendency to shed pages.

Hiking Texas, by Laurence Parent: OK, technically this book is based on hiking, but it can give you some excellent ideas about where you would like to camp in the first place. After all most of us don't sit around at the campsite all day long. A good number of hikes are in the Texas National and State Parks and the photographs are very good quality.

Texas Parks & Campgrounds (Lone Star Guides), by George Oxford Miller: Although I don't know much about this book I didn't feel right leaving it off the list either. If you give it a go let me know what you think about it please.

Campgrounds And Parks

The Texas State Park site isn't organized as well as some of the other sites I've seen, so you can't sort the parks by activity to see if they have camping. I recommend going to ReserveAmerica.com as their site is well thought out, intuitive, and takes reservations for many Texas campgrounds. They make it easy to find campgrounds in an area with their clickable map or if you know the name they've got links too. There's also quite a bit of information available about the campgrounds which will help you to make decisions. It's definitely one of the easier sites I've found to use though they might not list every campground available.

With camping becoming more popular some campers are making reservations a half year in advance, so if you're serious you'll want to make reservations. There is a reservation fee, which is pretty common now. Depending on the park early departures, no-shows, or cancellations may not be refundable and there could be a cancellation fee. While this sounds a little harsh, they are holding the site for you. That sure beats driving several hours only to be turned away at the gate because the campground you planned on staying at is full.

If you have decided which Texas State Park you want to stay at, the Texas State Parks site can give you good information on the parks.

Texas National Forest and Grassland: The national forests in Texas offer camping, hiking, boating, swimming, and other outdoor activities. And at over 650,000 total acres, there's a lot to see. Rules differ by park so you may want to have a look before you leave for your Texas camping trip.

Texas National Parks: Click "more >>" under "Search by Topic", check off "camping" under "Activities", then check off the Park Type(s) you're interested in, select Texas, and click "Find a Park". Sorry there's no direct Texas camping link. :-(

I hope you've found my Texas camping webpage helpful.