Cranes Mill Park
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 6463 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Cranes Mill Park is located on a long peninsula on the southwestern shore of Canyon Lake in Texas Hill Country, halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Dramatic sunrises to the east of the park across Canyon Lake and sunsets on the western side of the park behind the Guadalupe River make this an unforgettable location. Keep reading
Recreation
Cranes Mill Park offers a ramp for boating and two fishing piers. The Canyon Lake area has many options for recreation including: helicopter tours, boating, kayaking, canoeing, jet-skiing, dining, hiking, biking, fishing, camping, waterskiing, parasailing, horseback riding, guided gorge tours , river tubing, and much more. Anglers are welcome to try their hand at trout fishing in the Guadalupe River between the dam and New Braunfels.
Facilities
Cranes Mill Park hosts 30 RV sites, 34 tent sites, water and electrical at most sites, a dump station, restrooms with hot and cold showers, boat ramp in the park with restroom facilities, two fishing piers, adjacent marina and many undeveloped acres of land where the wildlife is abundant.
Natural Features
The Guadalupe River flows into Canyon Lake on the west side of Cranes Mill Park creating tranquil, warm summer evenings as the sun rests across the horizon. The peninsula is home to wildlife including deer, squirrel, fox, armadillo, raccoon, Cardinals, dove, Mockingbirds, finch and swallow.
Nearby Attractions
Some of the local attractions include: Historic Downtown Gruene Texas, Natural Bridge Caverns, Wonder World in San Marcos, Comal River, Guadalupe River, San Marcos River, Lake Dunlap, Lake McQueeny, historic downtown New Braunfels, San Antonio River Walk, Six Flags, Sea World and many others.
Charges & Cancellations
The reservation system has the right to charge fees for cancellation of a reservation, or for changes to a reservation. Changes include shortening a stay, extending a stay, or site transfers.
What the agency tells you
BASIC INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW Cranes Mill Park is a Class A style RV and TENT CAMPING park - This means the park has a restroom with showers, personal sites, a dump station, gatehouse, park hosts, and that each site has a table, benches, a fire ring, a standing grill with a closable lid, and drinkale water connection, and electricity. The only exception in Cranes Mill park are sites which do not have electricity. Check each site before confirming your reservation to make sure you are getting what you expect. There is also access to the lake, nearby trails, two fishing piers inthe park, and a boat ramp that puts you in near the mouth of the river. Standard Park Season and Hours - Open 7 days a week, 365 days a year Park Hours and Seasons - Check in time: 3pm - No Early arrivals allowed! - Check out time: 2pm - On the day you are leaving. Park Gate Hours and Seasons - Summer Season: April 1st through the end of September - Gate Hours: - Sunday through Thrusday: 9am to 9pm - Friday and Saturday: 9am to 10pm - - Fall Season: October 1st through the end of March - Gate Hours: - 7 days a week: 9am to 9pm Rules for Gate Access and Entry - No one is allowed in the park unless they have a reservation or are a guest of a reservation. - Before entering the park, you MUST check in with a gate attendant. This includes both reservation holders and their guests. - You can not check in or drive in after the gates are locked each night. Speak with the gate attendants when you arrive so they can answer any questions you have about coming in after normal gate hours. - If you are traveling to check in and know you will not arrive until after gate closing, know that you will NOT be able to access the park until the next morning when the gates open again. - You may always leave the park after the main gate is locked, but will not be allowed to re-enter with a vehicle after the gates are locked. You may walk into your site, but the vehicle must be parked outside of the gate on the side, out of the way until the gate opens in the morning. - You may NOT drive through the locked gates or attempt to reenter the park with a vehicle after you have left and the gates are locked. If the gate is locked when you return to the park, you may walk to your site after hours if you have already checked in earlier with the gate attendants. - Anyone attempting to drive into the locked park after hours is subject to a citation, potentially punctured tires, and to pay for any damages you do to the gate(s) that are locked.
Maximums of the Park - 2 Camping Units - For any single use RV site this means an RV style unit and a tent, or two tents. For a tent only site this means two tents. No More Allowed. May not have two RVs on same site. May not have an RV and a pop-up on same site. - 10 People - This is for all single use RV or Tent sites. This includes all people including infants, children, pre-teen, teenagers, young adults, middle aged adults, and well seasonsed and wise older adults. - 2 overnight vehicles - 2 Guests vehicles: must be out of park by gate closure time daily - 1 boat trailer: per single use site (RV or Tent). You are limited to one trailer in the park, not one at your site and one at the boat ramp.
No feeding the wildlife in the park. - Do NOT attempt to interact with the wild life. Some are protective of their territory, homes, dens, food and young. If you encroach on their space, they may become aggressive. - To keep you safe, we ask that you do not feed, pet, handle, chase, harass, follow, hunt or attempt in any form or fashion to attract or interact directly with the wild life. You may observe them from a distance. If you find a fawn or other baby animal by itself, do not handle them. Mother animals often leave their young in a 'safe' place so they can go off and eat. The mothers will be back for their young, but if you touch it, the mother will often abandon the baby since the animal now smells like you. - Contact the gate attendants, park host or park ranger for assistance in any situation similar to what is described above. We will usually tell you to leave the naimal alone. Nature has a way of "fixing" what we perceive as an issue, when usually it is not. - Game wardens and Park rangers can investigate if there is a serious problem like a rabid or injured animal.
Everything else this campground posts · 2
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.
HELP US REDUCE ENERGY COSTS WHEN YOU ARE GONE…DON’T LEAVE IT ON! Turn off the AC/Lights/Fans Turn Down/Off Electric Water Heaters WHEN NOT IN USE…TURN OFF THE JUICE! Unplug Chargers and Appliances Turn off Radios and TVs KEEP THE PARK OPEN BY SAVING ELECTRICITY.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 64 · 34 tent-only
- Hookups
- 58 electric, 64 water
- Longest rig
- 80 ft
- Paved pads
- All
- Accessible sites
- 10
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- 32 of 33 sites
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets
- FLUSH TOILETS on 64 of 64 campsite records
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- SHOWERS on 63 of 64 campsite records
- Drinking water
- Yes
- DRINKING WATER on 61 of 64 campsite records, WATER SPIGOT on 64 of 64 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Camp host
- On site
- recreation.gov lists “Host”
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, River
- Boating
- Hiking
- Night sky · 118th darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 5
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 63 of the 64 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 9
What you actually pay
“The reservation system has the right to charge fees for cancellation of a reservation, or for changes to a reservation. Changes include shortening a stay, extending a stay, or site transfers.” · this campground’s own terms
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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
64 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 63 mapped sitesAll 64 sites
| 1 | 01 | type not stated | 55 ft | 50 amp | yes | 618 ft | |
| 1 | 02 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 542 ft | |
| 1 | 03 | rv electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | yes | 94 ft | 645 ft |
| 1 | 04 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 536 ft | |
| 1 | 05 | rv electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 94 ft | 643 ft | |
| 1 | 06 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | yes | 93 ft | 646 ft |
| 1 | 07 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 591 ft | |
| 1 | 08 | rv electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | yes | 68 ft | 415 ft |
| 1 | 09 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 526 ft | |
| 1 | 10 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | yes | 68 ft | 369 ft |
| 1 | 11 | rv electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 84 ft | 452 ft | |
| 1 | 12 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 51 ft | 297 ft |
| 1 | 13 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 84 ft | 389 ft | |
| 1 | 14 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 126 ft | 244 ft |
| 1 | 15 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | yes | 102 ft | 162 ft |
| 1 | 16 | rv electric | 55 ft | 20/30/50 amp | 51 ft | 251 ft | |
| 1 | 17 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 102 ft | 151 ft | |
| 1 | 18 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 316 ft | |
| 1 | 19 | rv electric | 80 ft | 50 amp | 101 ft | 224 ft | |
| 1 | 20 | rv electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 392 ft | |
| 1 | 21 | rv electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 75 ft | 312 ft | |
| 1 | 22 | rv electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 90 ft | 451 ft | |
| 1 | 23 | rv electric | 70 ft | 30/50 amp | 74 ft | 326 ft | |
| 1 | 24 | rv electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 458 ft | |
| 1 | 25 | rv electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 331 ft | |
| 1 | 26 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 64 ft | 453 ft | |
| 1 | 27 | rv electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 342 ft | |
| 1 | 28 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 96 ft | 487 ft | |
| 1 | 29 | rv electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 378 ft | |
| 1 | 30 | rv electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 145 ft | 561 ft | |
| 2 | 31 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 111 ft | 182 ft | |
| 2 | 32 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 111 ft | 228 ft | |
| 2 | 33 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 113 ft | 189 ft | |
| 2 | 34 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 158 ft | 255 ft | |
| 2 | 35 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 158 ft | 264 ft | |
| 2 | 36 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 93 ft | 265 ft | |
| 2 | 37 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 93 ft | 258 ft | |
| 2 | 38 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 116 ft | 364 ft | |
| 2 | 39 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 75 ft | 434 ft | |
| 2 | 40 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 125 ft | 289 ft | |
| 2 | 41 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 75 ft | 402 ft | |
| 2 | 42 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 78 ft | 268 ft | |
| 2 | 43 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 63 ft | 375 ft | |
| 2 | 44 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 78 ft | 258 ft | |
| 2 | 45 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 63 ft | 362 ft | |
| 2 | 46 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 109 ft | 340 ft | |
| 2 | 47 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 68 ft | 417 ft | |
| 2 | 48 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 109 ft | 415 ft | |
| 2 | 49 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 68 ft | 431 ft | |
| 2 | 50 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 125 ft | 321 ft | |
| 2 | 51 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 50 ft | 344 ft | |
| 2 | 52 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 108 ft | 199 ft | |
| 2 | 53 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 50 ft | 309 ft | |
| 2 | 54 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 108 ft | 192 ft | |
| 2 | 55 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 61 ft | 315 ft | |
| 2 | 56 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 116 ft | 189 ft | |
| 2 | 57 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | 89 ft | 340 ft | |
| 2 | 58 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 83 ft | 126 ft | ||
| 2 | 59 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 83 ft | 111 ft | ||
| 2 | 60 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 108 ft | 99 ft | ||
| 2 | 61 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 102 ft | ||
| 2 | 62 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 84 ft | 95 ft | ||
| 2 | 63 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | yes | 122 ft | 177 ft |
| 2 | 64 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 20 amp | yes | 122 ft | 183 ft |
25 of 64 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Potters Creek Park1.6 mi
North Park5.4 mi
Tejas Park62 mi
Russell Park63 mi
Cedar Breaks Park63 mi
Jim Hogg Park64 miFrom IH 35 take Exit 191 north of New Braunfels, Texas. FM 306 is exit 191. Drive west on FM 306 for about 14 miles. Turn left on FM 2673 at the red light just after the first Guadalupe River crossing. Cranes Mill Park is located at the westernmost end of FM 2673 and South Cranes Mill Road. Drive until FM 2673 goes down to a two lane road going through a neighborhood. Continue through the neighborhood. You will go down a steep incline and be at a Y in the road. Go left on at the Y and you have entered the park. The gate house is at the far end of the road past the marina.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Canyon Lake, TX
Typical weather
Typical October night 59°F, day 81°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 40°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
Who answers for this land
Cranes Mill Park is in Texas’s 21st congressional district. Its representative, Chip Roy (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →