Rayburn
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read Oct 15
- A night
- $14–$28Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 2725 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Rayburn Park lies on the north shore of Sam Rayburn Reservoir, a popular family destination with boating and fishing and access to hunting less than a mile away. Sam Rayburn Reservoir and the surrounding Angelina National Forest provide a wintering habitat for the bald eagle. During the winter months, forest visitors may see the bald eagle soaring over the lake, perched on a flooded snag or in a tall pine along the shoreline. Keep reading
Recreation
Sam Rayburn Reservoir is well-known for its largemouth bass, with numerous tournaments hosted here each year. Among the most impressive catches ever recorded is a 74-pound Flathead catfish. The lake is also popular for jet skiing, water skiing, swimming and birding. It's used as a feeding and resting grounds for migratory birds on their path to the Gulf Coast. A resident population of wood ducks remains in the forest year-round.
Facilities
Rayburn park is open year-round and features 16 campsites with water and 50 amp electric hookups. The park also offers 9 non-electric sites, one of which is a group site. Two boat ramps, a swim beach, and a playground are also available within the campground.
Natural Features
At 114,000 surface acres, Sam Rayburn is the largest man-made lake that is completely within the boundaries of Texas. The reservoir is fed by the Angelina River, a major tributary of the Neches River. The piney woods region boasts native flora like orchids, insect-eating plants and scores of animal species.
Nearby Attractions
From the eastern edge of the lake, hikers can embark on a 28-mile trail that heads east to the Toledo Bend Reservoir.
What the agency tells you
Camping is permitted at designated campsites only.
Camping fees are charged on a per site basis.
All park users (including campers) must register with the attendant prior to occupying a site.
Everything else this campground posts · 12
No golf carts or ATVs/UTVs allowed.
Use of developed sites for any reason (including picnicking) will require a camping fee.
The number of persons allowed per site is limited to ten (10).
Occupancy at each campsite is limited to two tents, or one tent and one trailer (including pop-up trailers, self-contained RVs and truck-mounted campers).
The number of vehicles per site shall be limited to two (2) per site. This does not include the camping unit. An extra vehicle tag may be purchased. America the Beautiful and Golden Age Passes do not allow entry into the park to visit a camp site.
Fires must be confined to fire rings.
All waste water, including gray water, must be properly disposed of at the park dump stations.
Quiet hours shall be observed between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Check-in time is 3:00 p.m. and check-out time is 2:00 p.m.
All pets must be on a leash under six feet in length.
Generators shall not be operated between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
Fireworks are prohibited.
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by obtaining firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 27 · 5 tent-only, 1 group
- Hookups
- 16 electric, 16 water
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Paved pads
- 21 of 27
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Night sky · 41st darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 4
18 of 50 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread Oct 15
recreation.gov lists 25 of the 27 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
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, $14–$28 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
recreation.gov availability, read Oct 15 · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
27 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 25 mapped sitesAll 27 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 25 of the 27 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.
| LOOB | 33 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 296 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 34 | standard electric | 65 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 309 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 35 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 298 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 36 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 89 ft | 286 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 37 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 268 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 38 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 92 ft | 245 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 39 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 188 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 40 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 60 ft | 147 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 41 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 128 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 43 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 111 ft | 127 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 44 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 84 ft | 130 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 45 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 145 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 46 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 81 ft | 142 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 47 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 141 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 48 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 157 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOB | 49 | standard electric | 99 ft | 50 amp | 93 ft | 154 ft | $26–$28 |
| LOOC | 55 | type not stated | 20 ft | 47 ft | |||
| LOOC | 56 | type not stated | 36 ft | 39 ft | |||
| LOOC | 57 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | 48 ft | 44 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 58 | standard nonelectric | 36 ft | 48 ft | 55 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 59 | standard nonelectric | 33 ft | 105 ft | 98 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 60 | group standard nonelectric | 39 ft | 108 ft | 106 ft | $28 | |
| LOOC | 61 | tent only nonelectric | 25 ft | 109 ft | 94 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 62 | tent only nonelectric | 15 ft | 77 ft | 107 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 63 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 77 ft | 111 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 64 | tent only nonelectric | 20 ft | 94 ft | 57 ft | $14 | |
| LOOC | 65 | tent only nonelectric | 15 ft | 94 ft | 37 ft | $14 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
25 of 27 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Ebenezer Park2.7 mi
Twin Dikes3.7 mi
San Augustine6.6 mi
Mill Creek (Texas)6.7 miCaney CreekAngelina National Forest · 9.1 miBoykin Springs CampingAngelina National Forest · 11 miFrom Pineland, TX, take FM 83 west 10 miles, then go south on FM 705 for 11 miles to FM 3127, then west for 1.5 miles and make a left into the park entrance.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sam Rayburn, TX
Typical weather
Typical October night 59°F, day 81°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 41°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
Rayburn is in Texas’s 1st congressional district. Its representative, Nathaniel Moran (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →