Preston Bend
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- A night
- $15–$26Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3534 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
Preston Bend Campground is located on Lake Texoma, in the Cross Timbers region of Texas. The lake is said to be the "Playground of the Southwest," where outdoor activities like fishing, boating, hiking and hunting abound. Keep reading
Recreation
Lake Texoma is a large reservoir with an excellent fishery and many access points. Boating, swimming, water skiing, hunting, birding and relaxing on the sandy beaches are the typical pursuits of most visitors. The lake is known as the "Striper Capital of the World," one of the few reservoirs in the nation where striped bass reproduce naturally. Other popular species include largemouth and smallmouth bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, white crappie, black crappie, channel catfish and blue catfish. Also available is the scenic Cross Timbers hiking trail, a very popular trail that winds for 14 miles above the lake on rocky ledges and through blackjack woodland. Forty miles of equestrian trails surround the lake as well.
Facilities
This small but popular campground offers 22 campsites with electrical and water hookups, and 12 basic sites without hookups. Other amenities include flush and vault toilets, showers and drinking water. A dump station, boat ramp and dock are located on-site. Many resorts and marinas are nearby on the Preston Peninsula.
Natural Features
The campground is situated on the Texas side of Lake Texoma. Post and blackjack oaks forest the rolling hills of the region. Deer, turkeys, bobcats, hawks, waterfowl and songbirds are abundant around the lake. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (903) 465-4990.
Nearby Attractions
The lake features two wildlife refuges, two state parks and 23 commercial concession areas dedicated to the enjoyment of over six million visitors annually.
What the agency tells you
Entrance gates are open from 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
For more information on Lake Texoma, click here
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.
Everything else this campground posts · 1
Park Closes during the off season months from October 1 to March 31.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 35 · 11 tent-only
- Hookups
- 23 electric, 35 water
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 2 of 35
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…Other amenities include flush and vault toilets, showers and drinking water. A dump station, boat…”
- Showers
- Yes, the record doesn’t say what kind
- “Other amenities include flush and vault toilets, showers and drinking water.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…flush and vault toilets, showers and drinking water. A dump station, boat ramp and dock are located…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Store
- Nearby
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, Beach
- Night sky · 101st darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 4
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
recreation.gov lists 34 of the 35 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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 16
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $15–$26 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
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
35 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 34 mapped sitesAll 35 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 35 of the 35 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. 34 of the 35 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| PBEN | 01 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 607 ft | 281 ft | 879 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 02 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 254 ft | 55 ft | 377 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 03 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 56 ft | 216 ft | 104 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 04 | tent only nonelectric | 70 ft | 50 ft | 176 ft | 125 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 05 | tent only nonelectric | 40 ft | 50 ft | 164 ft | 128 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 06 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 65 ft | 118 ft | 261 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 07 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 46 ft | 98 ft | 323 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 08 | tent only nonelectric | 60 ft | 46 ft | 89 ft | 368 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 09 | tent only nonelectric | 50 ft | 48 ft | 79 ft | 417 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 10 | tent only nonelectric | 45 ft | 48 ft | 115 ft | 460 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 11 | tent only nonelectric | 30 ft | 108 ft | 52 ft | 209 ft | $16 | |
| PBEN | 12 | standard electric | 65 ft | 30 amp | 83 ft | 91 ft | 114 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 13 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 83 ft | 124 ft | 132 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 14 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 188 ft | 208 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 15 | standard electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 90 ft | 157 ft | 284 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 16 | standard electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 51 ft | 65 ft | 376 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 17 | standard electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 51 ft | 71 ft | 368 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 18 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 42 ft | 91 ft | 361 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 19 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 42 ft | 132 ft | 324 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 20 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 34 ft | 108 ft | 527 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 21 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 141 ft | 582 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 22 | standard electric | 30 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 166 ft | 624 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 23 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 45 ft | 187 ft | 707 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 24 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 166 ft | 719 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 25 | standard electric | 35 ft | 50 amp | 44 ft | 131 ft | 721 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 26 | standard electric | 50 ft | 50 amp | 48 ft | 85 ft | 701 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 27 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 90 ft | 622 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 28 | standard electric | 40 ft | 50 amp | 34 ft | 80 ft | 498 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 29 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 87 ft | 116 ft | 820 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 30 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 87 ft | 142 ft | 855 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 31 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 105 ft | 153 ft | 860 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 32 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 139 ft | 198 ft | 1,028 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 33 | standard electric | 55 ft | 30 amp | 121 ft | 202 ft | 992 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 34 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 116 ft | 169 ft | 962 ft | $15–$26 |
| PBEN | 35 | type not stated | 65 ft | 30 amp | 95 ft | 902 ft |
25 of 35 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Burns Run West4.1 mi
Burns Run East4.7 mi
Caney Creek4.8 mi
Platter Flats6.5 mi
Damsite Texas6.7 mi
Lakeside (OK)6.9 miFrom Pottsboro, TX, travel 9 miles north on Hwy 289. Exit right at the campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Preston, TX
Typical weather
Typical October night 55°F, day 75°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
Who answers for this land
Preston Bend is in Texas’s 4th congressional district. Its representative, Pat Fallon (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →