Campground review: Brazoria County Free Beach

Texas has 367 miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, much of which you can camp and drive on.  (Texas treats it's beaches as two way roads).  I traveled to the town of Surfside, TX which is just to the east of Freeport, TX to camp on the Brazoria County Free Beach where you are allowed to camp for up to 14 days ----for FREE!  Thus the "Free" in Brazoria County Free Beach.

The Tank's campsite at high tide.

While driving a road vehicle on sand might conjure up need for oversize tires and 4-wheel drive that's not the case on the Free Beach, the sand is hard packed and discernible "roads" that vehicular travel have created make that portion of the beach as solid as asphalt roads.  The "hard pack" also almost eliminates blowing sand which is welcome in the steady wind that's always present.

Here's the Free Beach data sheet:

Hookups:                                 None

Fire ring:                                  No (you could dig a hole in the sand)

Water Access:                         Yes

Fresh Water:                            No

Trash Service:                          Yes

Toilets:                                    Port-a-Johns in some places

Showers:                                 No

Dump station:                         No

WiFi:                                       No

Level sites:                              Yes

Laundry:                                 No

Store:                                      No

Pool:                                       No

Shade:                                    No

Verizon reception:                   4G, 2 out of 5

Internet reception:                   2 out of 4

Cost:                                      Free for up to 14 days

 

That's a shrimp boat out on the horizon.

If you decide to camp at the Brazoria County Free Beach you need to insure you're on THAT beach and not the Surfside Beach where camping is prohibited (and the sheriff patrols daily).  The GPS data for the site in the top picture is:  28.990895, -95.235838.  Anywhere east of that is the Free Beach and you shouldn't have a hard time finding a great campsite.

Did I mention the great sunrises?

Being an early riser has some benefits!

In the late spring and early summer the Gulf had experienced a massive seaweed die off that resulted in tons of dead seaweed clogging up the beaches and, with the accompanying smell, left most of the beach around Surfside unusable.  I'm very glad to say that problem is no longer a worry and you can see from my pictures that the sand is relatively clean.

The strong steady winds make kite flying a widely embraced pastime on the beach.  One of the days of my stay the local kite club had an outing.  Here's some pics:

Kites and seashore just go together some how.

If you're by the Gulf you have to have a pink shark kite.

The round rainbow one was like a parachute with a hole in it.

The weather was just perfect during my six day stay, 80 in the day with nice breezes and 50's at night.  The windy conditions have the added benefit of eliminating most annoying bugs from the equation too.  Although I just waded around a bit the water temperature was warm enough to be swimable and many families near me were doing that.  You have to camp on the beach by the Gulf at least once in your life and if you do you'll find it relaxing and fun....and the price at the Brazoria County FREE Beach can't be beat!

Thanks for reading!

Campground Review: Spring Creek Park Tomball, TX

Every now and again I'm tempted to keep a really great campground to myself and not review it so as to keep camp traffic down.  There is a city park in Tomball, Spring Creek Park, that tempted me to not review it it's such an uncommon value.

A few miles west of 249 in Tomball, TX.

Once every 30 days campers are allowed to reserve one of the 8 RV camping sites for up to 7 days.  There is NO CHARGE for the 7 days camping and the RV sites come with full hookups....that's right, FREE electric hookups, and water and sewer.  Now if Spring Creek was a run of the mill city park you might think "Meh!" but the park is meticulously cared for by a large staff and boasts a shower house that is also cleaned daily.  It is hands down the nicest park I've been in in Texas.

The park is spread over 114 acres.

Here's the Spring Creek Park data sheet:

Hookups:                                 15, 30 & 50 amp.  Water and sewer.

Fire ring:                                  No

Water Access:                          Yes (Spring Creek)

Fresh Water:                            Yes

Trash Service:                         Yes

Toilets:                                    Yes

Showers:                                 Yes

Dump station:                         No (sewer hookups instead)

WiFi:                                       No

Level sites:                             Yes

Laundry:                                 No

Store:                                      No

Pool:                                       No

Shade:                                    Yes

Verizon reception:                   4G, 3 of 4 bars

Internet reception:                   3 of 5 bars

Cost:                                      Free for 7 days

Tent camping is also allowed although the tent sites are "primitive camping" (no hookups).  Additional park features are:  one unlighted softball field, one lighted basketball pavilion, two lighted tennis courts, a small barbecue pavilion, a large barbecue pavilion, three tent camping sites, one primitive camping area, a playground, trails, picnic tables, barbecue grills, a sand volleyball court, and a rest room/shower pavilion.

There are several miles of hiking/biking trails.

Spring Creek runs along the northern edge of the park and I saw several people fishing from it's banks during my stay there.  The RV sites are in the southern portion of the park across from the rest room/shower building.  The community DOES actively use the park -- there were 3 high school cross-country meets in the park during my stay, and the teams practice there each afternoon after school.

Part of the north section of the park was once a cemetery

.

On another topic, I took the camper off the pickup during my stay and found this in the bed of the truck:

Thankfully, the mice were long gone!

 I was really grateful to the City of Tomball for making such a great park camping experience available for free.  If you plan on checking it out look at the park's website http://www.hcp4.net/parks/springcreek/ and be sure to call to make reservations as 8 sites get booked up fairly quickly.  

Thanks for reading! 

Campground Review: Stubblefield Lake Recreation Area Sam Houston National Forest

I spent a couple nights at the Escapee's campground in Livingston in order to pick my 2015 Texas state sticker for my truck up (The Escapee's are my mail-forwarder and they do a great job if you need one.)  Not too far to the west of Livingston is the Sam Houston National Forest, one of four National Forests in Texas which seems low given the immense size of the state, but that's all there are...just four.  There are several camping areas set up by the Forest Service within the Sam Houston and I went for the Stubblefield Lake Recreation Area which if just northwest of Lake Conroe.

New Waverly, TX is the closest town.

The Recreation Area was built in 1937 as part of the New Deal and consists of 30 RV parking sites (no hookups) and probably double that tent sites dispersed around a loop with two restrooms with flush toilets and showers at opposite ends of the Area.

Really spacious campsites under tall trees.

Here's the Stubblefield Lake data sheet:

Hookups:                                 None

Fire ring:                                  Yes

Water Access:                         Yes

Fresh Water:                            Yes

Trash Service:                          Yes

Toilets:                                    Yes (flush)

Showers:                                 Yes

Dump station:                          No

WiFi:                                       No

Level sites:                              Yes

Laundry:                                  No

Store:                                       No

Pool:                                        No

Shade:                                     Yes

Verizon reception:                   4G, 1 bar

Internet reception:                   2 out of 5 bars

Cost:                                      $15 / night

Stubblefield Lake is more pond-like than lake-like.

There is a covered pavilion at the Rec Area with picnic tables for group picnics but since you can't reserve a campsite there I'm not certain how one would reserve the pavilion.  The campsites are given out on a first-come basis and bring exact change because you pay by putting cash into a Forest Service envelope at the entrance gate and then into a metal mailbox-style envelope container.  There is a nice couple who act as park hosts and from the look of their campsite they've been at it for a long time.  They come by and greet each party of campers and check to make sure you've displayed an envelope sticker on your dash that proves you've paid.  The lady explained that a tow service promptly removes vehicles without proof of payment, and I saw him drive through the loop a few times, FYI.

A small island in the middle of Stubblefield Lake.

One of the things that first attracted me to Stubblefield Lake was all the online reviews mentioning that the nightly cost was $10.  No longer, somehow the Forest Service deemed a 50% rate increase to be reasonable and $15 per day is now the cost which I found a LITTLE steep for primitive (no hookups) camping without a dump station.

Spanish moss hanging from trees along the lake shore.

Only an hour north of Houston, Stubblefield Rec Area fills up almost every weekend so I wouldn't advise knocking off work at 5, driving home then heading up on a Friday night although there is an overflow area just to the east of the Rec Area that looked like you could stay in for free - without rest rooms or trash service though.  My stay at the Area was quiet and relaxing and the October weather was perfect.  If you can overlook premium primitive camping rates you'll enjoy Stubblefield.

Thanks for reading!