Bring your bike!
Written: Sep 23 '07 (Updated Nov 19 '07)
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Pros: Biking, hiking, swimming
Cons: Noise from the concrete plant next door
The Bottom Line: Awesome park
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| jlundquist1's Full Review: Cleburne State Park |
I love Texas State Parks. I’m just going to come right out and say it. Lately every time we visit a new, un-discovered-by-us Texas park I find the hardest part is coming home and re-viewing it. Why? Because I seem to find that I love them all, and each one has something or a combination of things that make me want to say, “this is my favorite Texas State Park.” Well, I admit defeat and while some are much better that others I love them all.
We visited Cleburne in September. We camp (now) in a 20 ft. hybrid travel trailer. Cleburne is medium sized as Texas State Parks go at 528 acres. The park encompasses a 116 acre spring fed lake and says it has 5.5 miles of trails. I suspect there’s a lot more than those 5.5 miles when you consider 1. the park road is a continuation of the Coyote Run/Spillway trail that loops the park and 2. we found there were quite a few un-marked trails. Cleburne has about 58 camping sites, almost half of which have full hookups (water, sewer, 30/20 amp) and the rest with water and 30/20 amp only. This was a bit of a surprise to us since we’ve noticed most Tx parks are about 1/3rds full hookups. This park is VERY tent friendly. We camped in the Cedar Grove loop which was water/elec. Only. We were pretty much the only travel trailer there. We noticed that throughout the park sites had the typical Tx state parks fair: pads level(ish), fire ring and pick-nick table (although on some sites they seemed to be on the wrong side if you have a trailer), and close-enough hookups. We did notice that the full hookup sites were more trailer friendly since they had longer, leveler pads. We also noticed, strangely enough, that the sites without sewer had the longest walk to the bathrooms. The bathrooms were typical, clean and well used! Only the Poplar Point area has direct lake access. There is also a primitive group camp area and several cabins that are all together. Prices are $15 for water/elect, $25 for full hookups, $30 for a screened shelter. Plus $3 per person, per day except for Texas State Parks Pass holders (Buy one, they’re worth it!!!!) A full listing of fees is avail. At: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/cleburne/fee.phtml The park also has a store/concession area however on our trip it was closed and didn’t look as if it had been open in a while. Next to that is the park playground. It has only one, but unlike other parks we’ve visited the equipment is brand new.
Unfortunately we didn’t bring our canoe on this trip. My fault I guess, I just wanted to relax this go round. Every time I bring the canoe I feel guilty sitting down, because I should be fishing. I really regretted not bringing it to Cleburne. The park has very varied terrain and unfortunately lake access is limited. I wouldn’t advise bringing a large boat because speed is limited to 5mph. However if you have a pontoon boat, canoe, or basscat Cleburne is perfect.
You absolutely positively should bring your bike to Cleburne! The park has a trail/road that goes around the perimeter. All trails at the park are bike/hike friendly and have lots of scenery from elevation changes to wild life. As I said though there are a ton of unmarked trails, plus the marked trails have lots of switchbacks. I had to convince my wife a few times that every trail has a beginning and an end, so don’t worry. There are cliffs giving beautiful views of the lake and spill-way and we saw lots of deer and wild hog in the park. Unfortunately my wife’s bike broke a pedal at the beginning of our trip so we didn’t get to ride much. We did hike plenty. The area below the spillway (s) is absolutely beautiful. The lake drains into a limestone cavern. The CCC impounded a dam to form the lake, but created a gorgeous set of three spillways below the dam. Since the lake is spring fed the water is very clear for Texas. As the water comes over the spillways it gets progressively clearer and we found that the individual pools under each of them were PERFECT for swimming. Since fish also go over with the water we pulled a few ok sized bass out of the pool underneath the first spillway (which is also the deepest). The lake is very refreshing if swimming above the dam or below.
Ok, to the cons: The park is on a narrow-ish part of land as state parks go. This is great because is makes the park road twist and turn in. It’s bad because next to the park is a quarry where they have decided to drill a natural gas well. Unfortunately they’ve decided to set up the derrick right next to the park boundary so you hear it all the time. Fortunately drilling isn’t forever and I hope on our next visit the it’s done! The only other con I have is that the park is full of cedar trees. We were sneezing more at this park than any other! Cedar is beautiful though! We also came home with poison ivy and chiggers, but hey that’s nature! Overall this park is great. It has that “man this is what I remember as kid” feel and the camping is awesome. We’ve already decided that we’re going to Cleburne again.
UPDATED 11-07
I said we had to go back with our canoe, so we did. This time we set up camp in the Poplar Point area, which had full hookups. As I said previously Cedar Lake is spring fed, leaving the water very clear as Texas lakes go. We also noticed that the North Creek, and screened shelters do have direct lake access...sort of. Both sit on the banks of a creek which feeds into the lake. We took our canoe back into it and noticed that it is very deep (at least a paddle length) even up in the camping areas. You could absolutely put in a canoe there, and definitely drop in a line with prospects of success.
Unfortunately, they were done drilling, and the derrick was gone, but the noise was not. I noticed, and was told that it's due to the 24/7 concrete plant which borders the park, where they had been drilling. Oh well, while it's noticeable but it didn't bother us too much.
Another note: 2 trips, and we noticed that the park staff are consistently friendly and helpful.
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: Anytime
Recommended for: Familes
Review Topic: Campgrounds & Lodging
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Epinions.com ID:
jlundquist1
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Member: J Lundquist
Location: Central Texas
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
We camp ALOT!, we're frugal and we love bargains.
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