Clear Lake (TX)
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 14:52 UTC
- A night
- $30From, per site
- Sites
- 2423 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 3 notices
In the agency’s own words
Clear Lake Campground has a prime location on the shores of Lavon Lake. It is the only shaded campground at the lake, and provides a quiet space for anglers, bird watchers and photographers. The park is just northeast of Dallas, Texas, and just east of the Southfork Ranch, where the hit TV series, "Dallas," was filmed. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors of all ages enjoy outdoor opportunities like fishing, boating, hiking, and picnicking. Anglers often find channel catfish, crappie, striped bass and hybrid bass.
Facilities
The Clear Lake Campground offers 23 sites with water, sewer and electric hookups. Hot showers, a boat ramp and fishing dock are also available. The group campground fits 200 people and has toilets reserved solely for group campers. The picnic shelter at the group site comes with electric and water hookups, four cookers, and a campfire ring. There's also a large playing field for sports.
Natural Features
Grassy flat fields and leafy shade trees cover the campground. The Lavon Lake spans 21,400 acres and stems from the East Fork of the Trinity River.
Nearby Attractions
The town of Wylie is home to a wildlife rescue and education center. Visitors can see lions, leopards, cougars, bobcats and more.
What the agency tells you
Help reduce energy costs when you leave by turning off the air conditioning, lights, fans, and electric water heater. When not in use, please turn down the temperature on the electric water heater, unplug chargers and appliances, turn off radios and the television.
The park entrance gate closes at 10 p.m., and the gate re-opens at 10 a.m. No vehicle entry allowed into the park between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. Day Use Area closes at sunset.
Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24 · 1 group
- Hookups
- 23 electric, 23 water, 23 sewer
- Longest rig
- 98 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Hot showers, a boat ramp and fishing dock are also available.”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Night sky · 149th darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 6
Full this Saturdayread 14:52 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
2 campgrounds have sites open within 30 miles, read 14:54 UTC. See them
OpenBooked
Every one of the 19 sites on offer is taken this Saturday. 17 are free on Tue, Oct 20. read 14:52 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $30 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
Open within 30 miles this weekend · 2
Sites the agency is offering this Friday and Saturday that nobody has taken, nearest first. read 14:54 UTC
- East Fork (TX)Lavon Lake · 2.0 mi · 6 of 55 site-nights open
- LavoniaLavon Lake · 2.4 mi · 2 of 18 site-nights open
recreation.gov availability, read 14:52 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 24 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 24 of the 24 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 23 of the 24 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| CLEAR LAKE | 01 | type not stated | 79 ft | 30 amp | 491 ft | 471 ft | |||
| CLEAR LAKE | 02 | standard electric | 63 ft | 30 amp | 115 ft | 431 ft | 451 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 03 | standard electric | 61 ft | 30 amp | 105 ft | 472 ft | 288 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 04 | standard electric | 63 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | 570 ft | 231 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 05 | standard electric | 64 ft | 30 amp | 84 ft | 448 ft | 194 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 06 | standard electric | 52 ft | 30 amp | 84 ft | 518 ft | 122 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 07 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 89 ft | 404 ft | 161 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 08 | standard electric | 61 ft | 30 amp | 89 ft | 451 ft | 101 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 09 | standard electric | 56 ft | 30 amp | 83 ft | 360 ft | 194 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 10 | standard electric | 53 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | 371 ft | 221 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 11 | standard electric | 54 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | 427 ft | 215 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 12 | standard electric | 52 ft | 30 amp | 116 ft | 447 ft | 140 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 13 | standard electric | 54 ft | 30 amp | 111 ft | 474 ft | 130 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 14 | standard electric | 51 ft | 30 amp | 111 ft | 464 ft | 219 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 15 | standard electric | 87 ft | 30 amp | 101 ft | 549 ft | 282 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 16 | standard electric | 98 ft | 30 amp | 101 ft | 626 ft | 358 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 17 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 101 ft | 538 ft | 400 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 18 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 101 ft | 628 ft | 365 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 19 | standard electric | 61 ft | 30 amp | 115 ft | 707 ft | 306 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 20 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 687 ft | 201 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 21 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 78 ft | 606 ft | 171 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | 22 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | yes | 103 ft | 594 ft | 76 ft | $30 |
| CLEAR LAKE | 23 | standard electric | 78 ft | 50 amp | 103 ft | 599 ft | 178 ft | $30 | |
| CLEAR LAKE | Group Camp Shelter Pavilion | group standard electric | 436 ft | 455 ft | 175 ft | $150 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
East Fork (TX)2.0 mi
Lavonia2.4 mi
Lakeland Pavilion4.1 mi
Hickory Creek (TX)33 mi
Murrell Park36 mi
Damsite Texas53 miWhile traveling on US Highway 380 in Princeton, TX, take South 2nd Street (County Road 982) South. County Road 982 changes into County Road 735. At the 4 way stop sign (just past the Lavon Lake Camp and Conference Center), take a right on County Road 436. Watch for Clear Lake signs. Take County Road 436 and follow into Clear Lake Park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Wylie, TX
Typical weather
Typical October night 55°F, day 77°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 34°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it · a letter you can send
Who answers for this land
Clear Lake (TX) is in Texas’s 3rd congressional district. Its representative, Keith Self (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyKeith SelfU.S. Representative · Texas’s 3rd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn CornynU.S. Senator · Texas
- Your senator, on the same appropriationTed CruzU.S. Senator · Texas
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clear Lake (TX), Texas
Dear Keith Self, I’m a constituent in Texas’s 3rd district. I tried to camp at Clear Lake (TX), Texas, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 23 of the 24 campsites the agency files at Clear Lake (TX), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Lake (TX) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Lake (TX). I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clear Lake (TX) (Texas) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clear Lake (TX), Texas
Dear John Cornyn, I’m a constituent in Texas. I tried to camp at Clear Lake (TX), Texas, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 23 of the 24 campsites the agency files at Clear Lake (TX), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Lake (TX) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Lake (TX). I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clear Lake (TX) (Texas) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Clear Lake (TX), Texas
Dear Ted Cruz, I’m a constituent in Texas. I tried to camp at Clear Lake (TX), Texas, and couldn’t. recreation.gov lists 23 of the 24 campsites the agency files at Clear Lake (TX), and every one of them is booked ahead, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, all 19 sites recreation.gov was offering there were already booked. 1,623 of the 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Clear Lake (TX) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Clear Lake (TX). I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Clear Lake (TX) (Texas) via campanac.com