Waxahachie Ck
- Right now
- Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 14:51 UTC
- A night
- $28–$30When it reopens, per site
- Sites
- 60In the agency’s record
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Waxahachie Creek Park is on the western shore of Bardwell Lake, less than an hour south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area in north-central Texas. City-dwellers frequent the park's campground and day-use area to enjoy outdoor activities without going far from home. The lake has favorable fish and wildlife habitats, providing plenty of opportunities for fishing and hunting, and great locations for camping, boating and hiking. Deer, armadillo, rabbit, squirrel and a variety of bird species inhabit the area. Keep reading
Recreation
Many local fishermen consider Bardwell Lake one of the best kept secrets in the state. Bass fishermen seldom leave empty-handed. Crappie fishing is moderate, and catfish are usually excellent. The lake has a marina with fishing piers, two of which are enclosed (a small fee is charged for the use of these facilities), and there are several designated hunting areas around the lake, including those for duck hunting. The Bardwell Lake equestrian and multi-use trail begins at this facility. It provides over 13 miles of trails for horseback riding, biking or hiking. Visitors should be advised that the trail is located within a designated hunting area from September through March.
Facilities
Waxahachie Creek Park offers something for everyone with 65 campsites with water and 30-amp electric service, seven non-electric picnic sites and one reservable group pavilion, which can accommodate up to 200 people. There is also a day use area for visitors who are not camping overnight. The boat ramp at the upper end of the park is very shallow at normal lake level and not suited to launch ski boats or larger vessels. The boat ramp at the lower end of the park is suitable for all types of boats at normal lake level and has a courtesy dock for loading and unloading boats.
Natural Features
The park is located on the upper reaches of the lake, near the mouth of a main tributary, Waxahachie Creek. The word "Waxahachie" is believed to be the Tonkawa Native American word for "Buffalo Creek." The lake's waters provide a refreshing break from the Texas heat and enormous blooms of bluebonnets and other wildflowers surround the lakeshore each spring.
Nearby Attractions
Numerous amenities, as well as cultural and historical attractions, lie in the nearby cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.
What the agency tells you
By using U.S. Army Corps of Engineers parks, you agree to adhere to the written policy of EP 1165-2-316, Title 36. See Here.
All U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds are a maximum use of 14 days within a consecutive 30-day period per water resource project, which includes all of Bardwell Lake's parks.
The entrance station is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Day use closes at 9:00 pm
Everything else this campground posts · 11
Visitors with a pink 'visitor' car pass must exit the park by 10 p.m. daily
To reserve an equestrian site, guests must have a horse with them and proof of a current Coggins test at all times
Swimming pools, sprinklers and water slides are not allowed
Nothing may be nailed or screwed into trees or other plants.
A permit is required for special events or activities occurring in the park; applications must be submitted no later than 10 days prior to the event; Contact Bardwell Lake Office at 972-875-5711 for more information from Mon.-Fri. 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Multiple site rentals may be made by advance reservation only
All camping vehicle passes must be returned to the gate house upon final departure and check-out
Reservations made with a discount pass require presentation of the pass with valid photo ID upon check-in and re-entering the park. For more information about discount passesClick Here
All boats are subject to inspection for Zebra mussels, an invasive aquatic species; For more informationClick 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.
50 amp services are available only for 50 amp campers. 30 amp services are available only for 30 amp campers. Converters/“dog bones” are not allowed.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 60 · 5 tent-only, 4 equestrian
- Hookups
- 43 electric, 55 water
- Longest rig
- 60 ft
- Paved pads
- 31 of 60
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed at 58 of 60 sites
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Boating
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Night sky · 133rd darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 5
Nothing to book until it reopensread 14:51 UTC
recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend
Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.
Tell me when it reopens
Watch for it to come back
One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 17
What you actually pay
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 · 4
Why this page can’t say why
recreation.gov lists every site at Waxahachie Ck closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.
There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.
Open within 150 miles · 2
The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.
- Buckhorn Campground Loop AChickasaw National Recreation Area · 148 mi · walk-up · 19 sites
- Buckhorn Campground Loop CChickasaw National Recreation Area · 149 mi · 41 sites
recreation.gov availability, read 14:51 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
60 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 43 mapped sitesAll 60 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. 43 of the 60 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.
| WCRE | 01 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 89 ft | 187 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 02 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 89 ft | 216 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 03 | standard electric | 35 ft | 30 amp | 94 ft | 125 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 04 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 108 ft | 94 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 05 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 103 ft | 202 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 06 | standard electric | 60 ft | 30 amp | 103 ft | 148 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 07 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 225 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 08 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 95 ft | 151 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 09 | standard electric | 60 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 285 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 10 | standard electric | 45 ft | 50 amp | 85 ft | 212 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 11 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 105 ft | 242 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 12 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 113 ft | 354 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 13 | standard electric | 45 ft | 30 amp | 138 ft | 366 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 14 | standard electric | 48 ft | 30 amp | 138 ft | 495 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 15 | type not stated | 36 ft | 30 amp | 527 ft | ||
| WCRE | 16 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 72 ft | 541 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 17 | standard electric | 50 ft | 30 amp | 84 ft | 451 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 18 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 69 ft | 481 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 19 | standard electric | 54 ft | 30 amp | 73 ft | 373 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 20 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 53 ft | 427 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 21 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 73 ft | 322 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 22 | standard electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 53 ft | 392 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 23 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 273 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 24 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | 59 ft | 344 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 25 | standard electric | 36 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 235 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 26 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 72 ft | 294 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 27 | standard electric | 22 ft | 30 amp | 55 ft | 210 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 28 | standard electric | 21 ft | 30 amp | 75 ft | 296 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 29 | standard electric | 22 ft | 30 amp | 55 ft | 208 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 30 | type not stated | 20 ft | 30 amp | 210 ft | ||
| WCRE | 31 | tent only electric | 18 ft | 30 amp | 55 ft | 204 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 32 | tent only electric | 23 ft | 30 amp | 55 ft | 193 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 33 | tent only electric | 28 ft | 30 amp | 71 ft | 140 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 34 | tent only electric | 20 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 128 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 35 | tent only electric | 19 ft | 30 amp | 65 ft | 115 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 53 | standard electric | 24 ft | 30 amp | 64 ft | 169 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 54 | standard electric | 27 ft | 30 amp | 64 ft | 174 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 55 | standard electric | 30 ft | 30 amp | 99 ft | 202 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 56 | standard electric | 32 ft | 30 amp | 70 ft | 236 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 57 | standard electric | 38 ft | 30 amp | 70 ft | 215 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 58 | standard electric | 26 ft | 30 amp | 129 ft | 178 ft | $28–$30 |
| WCRE | 72 | type not stated | 318 ft | ||||
| WCRE | 73 | type not stated | 292 ft | ||||
| WCRE | 74 | type not stated | 265 ft | ||||
| WCRE | 75 | type not stated | 24 ft | 30 amp | 238 ft | ||
| WCRE | 76 | type not stated | 23 ft | 30 amp | 200 ft | ||
| WCRE | 77 | type not stated | 25 ft | 30 amp | 179 ft | ||
| WCRE | 78 | type not stated | 24 ft | 30 amp | 186 ft | ||
| WCRE | 79 | type not stated | 34 ft | 30 amp | 205 ft | ||
| WCRE | 80 | type not stated | 341 ft | ||||
| WCRE | 81 | type not stated | 25 ft | 30 amp | 363 ft | ||
| WCRE | 82 | type not stated | 28 ft | 30 amp | 309 ft | ||
| WCRE | 83 | type not stated | 38 ft | 30 amp | 342 ft | ||
| WCRE | 84 | type not stated | 28 ft | 30 amp | 315 ft | ||
| WCRE | 85 | type not stated | 28 ft | 30 amp | 322 ft | ||
| WCRE | 86 | equestrian electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 83 ft | 476 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 87 | equestrian electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 82 ft | 498 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 88 | equestrian electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 82 ft | 461 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | 89 | equestrian electric | 40 ft | 30 amp | 86 ft | 436 ft | $30 |
| WCRE | GS | type not stated | 60 ft | 30 amp | 497 ft |
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 60 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
High View2.1 mi
Mott3.1 mi
Love3.2 mi
WOLF CREEK (Navarro Mills Lake)22 mi
OAK (Navarro Mills Lake)23 mi
PECAN POINT PARK (Navarro Mills Lake)23 miFrom Ennis, Texas: From Interstate 45, exit onto U.S. Highway 287 Bypass (exit #247). Travel 4.5 miles and exit at the Bardwell Lake exit sign. Turn left onto Highway 34 and travel three miles southwest to Bozek Road. Turn right at Bozek Road and travel 1.5 miles to the Waxahachie Creek Park entrance complex.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ennis, TX
Typical weather
Typical October night 55°F, day 79°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 36°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
Waxahachie Ck is in Texas’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Jake Ellzey (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →