Wooded Getaway
Written: Oct 16 '06
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Pros: Scenery, wildlife, friendly staff
Cons: One potty
The Bottom Line: Worth a visit
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| jlundquist1's Full Review: Purtis Creek State Park |
We ventured out to Purtis Creek State Park in October. We camp in a small pop up, and went with 3 other families in tents. Purtis creek is located a few miles outside of Eustace, TX (about 20 miles from Athens, TX). I always enjoy drives in East Texas and this trip was no different. If you do come in from Athens be aware that US 175 is currently being widened and under some serious construction.
Purtis Creek is a smaller, newer park for Texas opened in 1988 with about 1580 acres. The park completely surrounds it's own 355 acre lake, which means as long as TPWD keeps the program in place you don't need a fishing license. There is a strict limit of 50 boats on the lake at any time and a $5 fee to put in a motorized boat. Boaters also have a "idle-speed" limit. This is for safety reasons as the lake is small, and there is A LOT of submerged timber. When we were there the lake level seemed about 6-8 feet low. At normal levels you could definitely tear up a motor, boat, or both all the stumps. We paddle in a canoe, and even though I'm biased I honestly can't see putting a boat with more than a trolling motor on Purtis Creek lake.
Dallas Outdoors magazine called Purtis Creek the, "Best little fishing lake in Texas." There are 2 fishing piers, one boat ramp, a park store that sells snacks, drinks, tackle, & live bait, and they rent paddle boats/canoes/kayaks ($10/hr $3.19 each additional hr, about $40 for 24hrs). Large mouth bass are catch and release only, but the lake also offers up catfish, blue gill, crappie, white bass, and gar. We however didn't catch ANYTHING. We also didn't see anyone else catch anything. As typical fishing stories go everyone told us yesterday was a good day. By the sheer number of day use anglers and guys willing to put in a big bass boat only to putter along I'm assuming that the fishing can be really good in this lake, just not when we went!
The park has 59 Water/Electric sites ($16/night), 14 primitive hike in campsites ($6 night w/ minimum hike of .65 miles each way), 5 walk in campsites ($10/night), a group pavillion that can be reserved for $45/day and a nice playground for the kids (not near most of the campsites though).
We stayed in two of the Water/electric sites. All the sites are fairly close together (I'd say about medium sized as far as those I've seen in other state parks), but because the park is so wooded with Oak, Cypress, & Holly the sites seem more private than they really are. Each site has a level asphalt pad with water & 30/15 amp hookups nearby. There is a fire ring/bbq, picnick table (un-covered), lantern post, and some sites have a framed out sand pad for tents. We really enjoyed our campsite, it was very comfortable. We had enough room for our 8ft camper a crew cab truck and a car. All the sites seemed to have enough room for a large trailer & truck. There is some overflow parking, but I could be a bit of a walk depending on where your site is. Ok, the bad news: one bathroom for all 59 sites. Let me break it down more than that; Mens: 3 stalls,3 sinks, 1 urinal, 3 showers with no private changing area. Womens: 4 stalls, 3 sinks, 3 showers with no private changing area. Both have handicapped acess. The bathrooms are smack in the center of the sites and were kept very clean. There is also an ampitheater behind the bathrooms.
We didn't hike on this trip, but I did notice plenty of trails. I'd imagine the hiking is very nice with the foliage in the area. I also need to warn everyone about some very very friendly and "not-so-scared-of-humans-at-all" racoons that inhabit the park. Hanging your trash doesn't seem to fool them, heck I caught one that had opened our cooler, dug an 18pk of eggs out of the ice, opened it, and helped itself to two. It's ok though
because we go camping for stuff like that. In Eustace, the nearest town, we noticed a bait/tackle store, gas station, & Dollar General. I believe this area is dry so byob.
Purtis creek was a lot of fun, just wish the fishing was better. I'd visit again
Recommended:
Yes
Best time to go: September-November
Recommended for: Anybody
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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