The Pros and Cons of Camping At Choke Canyon State Park

As a mom of 4 kids, traveling becomes pretty expensive real quick. That is 4 more people to pay admission prices for, 4 more to pay to feed, and that means we have to pay for places that allow more people; which mean bigger, which mean more expensive. But I LOVE to travel so how do I make this work? One word….

CAMPING!!

Camping is how we afford to travel so much! So of course when we were driving home from visiting South Padre Island, we took the budget friendly place to stay and camped at Choke Canyon State Park. I had been wanting to visit this state park for a while, because I had heard that there were alligators there.

Beyond alligators I was not sure as to what to expect about this park and our experience at this state park was not what I expected it would be, but certainly not a bad experience. Let me explain why….

Visitor Information:

• Park Hours: 6am-10pm
• Entrance Fees: $5 adult, 12 and under FREE
• Website: https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/choke-canyon
• Activities: Fishing, swimming, visit the Nature Center, basketball, tennis, baseball, hiking, birding, and soccer
• Price For Camp Sites: with electricity-$22, 50 yard walk in sites-$12, cabins-$50
• Location: There are 2 separate parts of Choke Canyon State Park. The South Shore is 3.5 miles west of Three Rivers on State Hwy 72. The Calliham Unit is located 12 miles west of Three Rivers on State Hwy 72 to Tilden, TX.

Address: 358 Recreation Rd. 8, Calliham, TX 78007

Why You Need A Texas State Park Pass

Before I get off the subject of saving money and budget friendly travel, I have to mention the Texas State Park pass!! I love this pass! What makes Texas State Parks so unique compared to other states, Texas State Parks require not only a camping fee, but also a day use fee, per day, per person. This adds up really quick and almost makes hotels not seem so ridiculously overpriced!

This is where the Texas State Park pass comes in handy! Once you purchase you pass, those day use fees are gone! This may not seem like much, but it really makes a difference. For instance, my sister and I booked reservations at the same state park, for the same night, and with the same amount of people. She had to pay $48 for her site for one night, whereas I had to pay only $16.

So if you are from Texas or are even planning on camping or visiting multiple state parks in Texas, this pass will save you quite a bit! It is $70 and in my book, WORTH IT!!

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The Cabins

Choke Canyon State Park offers an assortment of camping options from tent sites, to RV camping, and even cabins (which is where we stayed). Don’t get me wrong we are normally big tent campers, but on our trip here we happened to be traveling with quite a bit of family so cabins was the better option. Also during the summer it can be pretty humid here and so it makes nights pretty muggy and miserable unless you have a nice tent fan!

Anyways back on point, the cabins were nice enough and they had A/C!! Honestly they had me sold on the A/C bit! The cabins fit about 8 people in them. They have 3 twin beds, but there is also room for 2 blow up king sized mattresses. Be sure to bring your own linens or sleeping bags for the beds.

If you don’t want to sleep in the cabins, tents are still allowed at these sites too.

These cabins are not cute or Instagram-able, they actually are pretty bland inside. Our cabin had one window, electricity with outlets, a couple of shelves, A/C, and the beds. It had a concrete floor and cinderblock walls. My point is, it is not a fancy place to stay; but it does the job of a place to sleep just fine.

Outside of the cabins there was 2 picnic tables, a fire ring with a grill, and a water spigot. The patio of our cabin overlooked the lake and had a gorgeous view of the sunsetting. I would say half of the cabins overlook the lake and the others are just across the street from a clear view of the lake.

There are no bathrooms or showers in the actual cabins, but there is a shared one nearby and also a nearby picnic pavilion. The showers and bathrooms were fine and stocked when we visited.

All in all we enjoyed our stay at the cabins, it wasn’t super fancy, but we sleep good and stayed cool. Only complaint I have was that there were black hornets in our cabin, but no one got stung. So that was a win!

Hiking

There are several short hiking trails offered at this state park. All of the hikes at Choke Canyon State Park are under a mile and they are all super flat and super easy. The hikes are simple hikes with not much more to see other than trees. The main purpose of these trails are to connect the park so that you can get to the different sections by foot.

The coolest part about these trails is all the wildlife we saw. We had a competition to see who could find the most rabbits, cause they were everywhere. We also saw an assortment of birds, so this is a great place to go birding.

Trails:

• Emperor Run- 0.4 mile
• Fly Catcher Way- 0.27 mile
• Wren Lane- 0.09 mile
• Owl Hollow- 0.4 mile
• Dove Place- 0.19 mile
• Hawk Alley- 0.52 mile
• Green Jay Pass- 0.19 mile

The Lake

The main attraction of this state park is the lake! Choke Canyon Reservoir provides water to the Corpus Christi area. It is a beautiful lake that is home to quite the variety of animals. Including alligators! We didn’t see any while we were there, but while we walked along the shoreline we definitely saw evidence of alligators. There were wallows and foot prints all over the shores.

The shoreline also had so many shells! My little girl had so much collecting them! We had just been to the beach in South Padre Island the day before and we found more shells at Choke Canyon then we did at South Padre Island.

The beaches are very rocky so if you are wanting to swim bring some water shoes! You can pretty much swim wherever, yes there are alligators, but it is generally pretty safe. If you aren’t wanting to swim, walking the shore is still fun! My kids could have spent the entire evening throwing rocks in the lake if we had let them.

Choke Canyon does allow motorized boats and we saw plenty of fishing boats out. I heard it is a really great place to fish! There is a boat ramp for this lake!                                                                      

How I Would Rank Choke Canyon State Park

Choke Canyon State Park has been on my list of top state parks to visit in Texas this year and so I was so excited to go! I think the main reason I was excited was to see the alligators. Which sadly we did not see any. I bet if you went on a boat you probably could find some on the shoreline, because we definitely saw evidence of them.

I loved that we saw so much wildlife while we were here though. Despite not seeing alligators there was no lacking in wildlife. While here we saw all sorts of birds, Herons, rabbits, and turkeys.

As for our stay it was pleasant enough, nothing fancy. It just really felt like your average joe camping experience. Nothing special and nothing awful. I probably would never go back to visit, unless I had a boat or kayak to go find alligators. The surrounding area was very plains and had a very West Texas vibe to it.

It is one of those places that I have marked off of my list and wasn’t so impressed with that I need to go back. If I were to describe Choke Canyon State Park I would just say average, nothing to impress and nothing to discourage.

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