Bastrop State Park in the United States

The team was incredibly accommodating and delightful. The location was neat, and the washrooms, including the showers, were impeccably clean.

3 years ago

I neglected to use Google Earth prior to making my booking, otherwise, I might have noticed the proximity of our campsite to Highway 71. This was our fourth visit to a Texas State Park in just over a fortnight, and I had assumed Bastrop would be as secluded as the previous ones. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The motorway is quite close, and the noise is quite audible in our motorhome, even at 9pm. The staff at the park's headquarters were very professional and accommodating, and they even have a gift shop that sells Blue Bell ice cream. The park boasts several short hiking trails, playgrounds for children, and a swimming pool during the summer months. The park's roads are narrow and the 30mph speed limit feels a bit too high, to be honest! We were nearly hit by both a motorcyclist and a bicyclist during a walk along the road, so I'd recommend sticking to the trails. The campsite loops are well-maintained and clean, but some of the sites are a bit too close together, and our sewage hookup was about 30 feet away from our connection point. As a result, I decided to use the dump station the following day when we left, rather than running three lengths of sewage hose over the ground for just one night. The bathrooms are clean and relatively new, and they come with showers. We stayed at a full hook-up site in the Cooperas Creek Camping Area loop, but next time, I'd prefer the Piney Hill Camping Area loop, sites 1 - 25, as they're a bit further away from the highway.

3 years ago

Copperas Campground. She's a doll baby. Tall loblollies sway overhead, a steep embankment makes for the perfect playground (since it's 1.5 miles on a lovely trail on way to the actual playground in the other camping area) and if you snag sites 62, 63 or the last two across from them in this corner, you'll have yourself a campsite larger than most people's yards. Very small spots though as far as RVs go. We fell in love with the town of Bastrop too, from cutesy Main Street to the arcade/bowling alley/theater. I'm getting old and so maybe that has something to do with it (wisdom might be the word) but I think I prefer the hip pizza joint bars and art gallery cafes of Bastrop to the buzz of always homogenizing Austin (you shoulda seen it ten years ago! hahah) these days. Did I mention 50¢ per log for firewood? A deal so good I busted my axe over it!

3 years ago

We needed to be somewhat near to Austin but it we arrived after all the snowbirds (and campers like us) had made winter reservations. No, this wasn't the cheapest monthly stay (private campgrounds were around 350-450), but it was available and it was far from a treeless gravel parking lot. The park has had a wildfire in the last decade but the beauty is still there. The campsites on the loop by the playground are pretty darn new and all pull-through. Concrete pads and full 30/50 amp hookup. They are up on a ridge so there is a little of a view. The bathhouse is gorgeous and new. Super clean. The playground equipment is new. There is a pool, fee charged. It wasn't open when we were there. My guess is that it opens the first of May along with most pools in TX. Some of the hikes are close to the camper loop. There are some with pine trees and some without. There are plenty grocery and restaurant options in the nearby town. This park is practically in town but still felt pulled away from it. Will definitely stay in this park in the future. While some TX state parks look like they have had a lack of funding or updates, this is NOT one of them.

3 years ago

During this hectic time of year, we often find ourselves all too wrapped up in the foibles of gift givery and the fortunes we might have bestowed upon us once that old fat Santa Claus commits acts of home invasion across the corners of the world which enjoy Coca Cola Classic. So it's nice to, in this time of greed and holly, find one's self in the throes of a burned down old-growth forest. To bask in the glow of an every night sunset, the buzz of busier-than-it-seems Bastrop's rushing traffic calming the sounds of nature to something more ephemeral while waiting for stars to shoot endlessly through the night sky. Hark! A bald eagle soars over. Two owls call to one another, presumably blind, all through the night, never able to quiet themselves and let the big white trucks of Texas hollar their unmuffled engines into the night. Trails come in the long, the shorter sizes. A swimming pool seems to taunt you, "Should've been here in the summertime," with its closed sign, though the days in December still ribs the heat of most of the north's August temps. I plead with the bathrooms to alleviate my agony, they are so clean, stocked with toilet seat liners and not a spec of spiderwebs or peeling paint to leave me certain I've stumbled drunk out of the park and into some maid service academy. I am humbled by the simple nature of the golf course now left to grow thick with woodlands. The staff of exceptional, delivering the gifts I feel obligated to purchase for those I claim to love directly to our campsite. When our dog escapes, as she often does, three of them return her. They offer to take her home. I accept. But alas, the offer was in jest. So here I am, happier than a clam that lives with the Joker, still a dog owner and loving every minute of this Texas State Park.

3 years ago