Westcliff
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 8 of the next 30 nights read 16:02 UTC
- A night
- $20–$30Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 3128 on recreation.gov
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Westcliff Park is a day-use area and campground located on the southwestern shore of Belton Lake. The lake provides some of the best fishing and boating in Central Texas in addition to amenities such as a swimming beach, boat ramp, playground and picnic areas for RVs and tents, including four tent-only primitive sites. Belton Lake was created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the construction of Belton Dam in 1954. The 12,300-acre lake is located on the Leon River, just upstream of the confluence of the Leon River and the Little River. It is a long, narrow and winding lake with many curves and coves perfect for fishing. Keep reading
Recreation
With 136 miles of shoreline, Belton Lake offers a wide variety of recreation activities. West Cliff Park is most popular for it's close proximity to the shoreline for campers. Westcliff Park offers a day use area complete with one multi-lane boat ramp, a playground, and campground. The lake is also a popular fishing spot for hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, white bass, catfish and sunfish. White-tailed deer, hawks, great blue herons, ducks, geese, many species of songbirds, bobwhite quail, Rio Grande turkey, and even an occasional bald eagle visit the lake area, yielding year-round opportunities for wildlife enthusiasts and kids alike!
Facilities
Facilities List: 1 Gatehouse (Months, days, hours, and pass availability subject to change) On-Site Park Hosts/Maintenance Volunteers 27 Campsites (w/ hookups) 4 Primitive Tent-Only Sites (w/ water only) 1 Restroom Facility (w/ sinks, showers, and flush toilets) 2 Restroom Facilities (w/ sinks and flush toilets) 1 Vault Restroom Facility 1 Boat Ramp (Multi-lane) 1 Courtesy Dock 1 Playground 1 Swimbeach (Seasonal)
Facilities
Description: West Cliff Park boasts sunny campsites with excellent water access and convenient amenities, including flush toilets, day use areas with a playground, swimbeach, and a multi-lane boat ramp with a courtesy dock for easy loading. Let the kids enjoy the swim beach area and playground while you relax! This park is seasonal, and all but the main road and main boat ramp will close Oct 1 - March 1.
Natural Features
The campground is mostly open with a few trees providing shade at picnic areas and at some of the campsites. Westcliff is on a bluff overlooking the lake; while many of the campsites are directly on the shoreline, all campsites have a view of the lake. The lake area is habitat for deer, wild turkey and water birds such as Great Blue herons, ducks, geese, many species of songbirds and even an occasional bald eagle. A man-made wetland on the opposite side of the lake was constructed to provide an additional 25 acres of wildlife habitat in the lake area.
Nearby Attractions
Belton Lake is located adjacent to the Fort Hood Army Base, which has several points of interest for the military buff. The mural painted on the spillway wall of Belton Dam depicts the history of the Bell County area. Contact Info For facility specific information, please call (254) 742-3050.
Charges & Cancellations
Changes and cancellations are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee. Refund requests are processed through recreation.gov website or app.
What the agency tells you
Gatehouse: Gatehouse attendant available Thursday-Sunday beginning March 1st through October 31st. Limited quantities and types of America The Beautiful and USACE passes will be available. NO CASH/CHECK PAYMENTS ACCEPTED, Credit Card Only.
Day Use: West Cliff Park has Day Use areas and Day Use fees apply ($5/vehicle). Parking is based on first-come, first-serve. Boat ramp opens at 6 a.m. Day use hours are 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily. Visitors are required to physically arrive at the park to claim a parking space and pay the fee. Once on-site, follow the posted instructions to pay via QR code or from pay machine near the gatehouse. For additional information, you can download and sign into the free Recreation.gov Mobile App on Android or iOS prior to your arrival to make sure you can access the site when you scan the QR code to pay your fee. DAY USE FEES ARE STRICTLY ENFORCED; please display USACE or America the Beautiful Passes or kiosk payment slips in your windshield or ensure QR payments have the correct license plate. Failure to properly display passes or pay via QR may result in a citation.
Camping Check In/Out: Check-in time is 3 p.m. and check-out time is prior to 2 p.m. Early check-ins will not be permitted. See your recreation.gov confirmation e-mail for your 4-digit gate code, which will be located at the bottom of the email. *Camping at any one or more sites at any one water resource (Lake) project for a period of longer than 14 days during any 30-consecutive-day period is prohibited without written permission of the District Commander.*
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Park Specifics: West Cliff Park is open seasonally with camping closures from Nov 1 - March 1. Day use areas are open year-round. Additional Vehicles/Campers/Trailers/Boats to Campsites: Campsites are allowed: One (1) Recreational Vehicle (Motorhome, travel trailer, 5th wheel, conversions [any type], etc.), Two (2) Vehicles (Car, Truck, Van, Etc.), and One (1) Boat. Any additional vehicles will need to pay an additional $5 day use fee/vehicle per day AND be parked in overflow parking. Additional Recreational Vehicles must pay for an additional campsite which has the allowance of the above capacities. **While these vehicles are permissible at the site, if they do not fit properly (fully on pavement and in boundaries of site), they will need to be parked in overflow. Parking on grass or roadways is prohibited.
Swimming Pools/Inflatables/Bounce Houses/Etc.: Please be advised, the use of water slides or inflatable structures such as inflatable slides, bounce houses, or moon bounces and not permitted without a lake activity permit. Lake activity permits can be requested through the Belton Lake Office Monday through Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm at 254-742-3050 (Except Federal Holidays). Swimming pools are not permitted in the park, with the exception of kiddie pools. Kiddie pools may not exceed a water depth of 5 inches, height of 7 inches, width of 48 inches and length of 48 inches. Pools must be moved to a new location each day to prevent damage to the ground surface. Pools may not allow constant flow of water onto ground.
Golf Carts: By permit only; please call the Belton Lake Office for more information Monday through Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm at 254-742-3050 (except Federal Holidays). Off-Road/Motorized Vehicles (UTVs/ATVs/OHVs/Motorized Bikes): Off-road vehicles are not permitted in Corps parks unless they are registered, insured, and highway legal. If applicable, they are restricted to paved roadways only and follow all vehicle regulations while operated in the parks.
Events: Fishing tournaments, vendors and sale of food/products, or large events/parties, especially those with inflatables or special equipment, require an approved Lake Activity Permit from the Belton Lake Office. Lake activity permits can be requested through the Belton Lake Office Monday through Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm at 254-742-3050.
Dumping: RV/Trailer tank discharging is only allowed in designated dump stations. Discharge of holding tanks to include "grey water" is probited in all other locations, to include campsite areas. Washing of Vehicles/RVs/Trailers/Boats is considered dumping of "grey water", and is not permitted in the parks. Dumping of household trash (to include vehicle/boat/trailer parts) on USACE properties/parks is prohibited, including park dumpsters. Violations of the aforementioned rules may result in a citation.
Rules & Regulations: Title 36 CFR (EP 1165-2-316) governs the public use of water resources development projects administered by the Chief of Engineers. Visitors to any Corps project are bound by these Title 36 regulations, which are enforced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Visit the Title 36 section of this website for a copy of the rules and regulations or visit the local lake office.
For More Information: For more information, call the Belton Lake Office at 254-742-3050 Mon-Fri (8a-430p) or visit the Belton Lake Website . ALWAYS WEAR A LIFE-JACKET!
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 31 · 4 tent-only
- Hookups
- 24 electric, 27 water
- Longest rig
- 70 ft
- Paved pads
- 27 of 31
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Flush Toilets · Vault Toilets
- “…Facility (w/ sinks, showers, and flush toilets) 2 Restroom Facilities (w/ sinks and flush toilets)…”
- Dump station
- Yes
- recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Playground
- 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, Beach
- Swimming
- Night sky · 131st darkest of 154 in TX
- Bortle 5
12 of 48 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:02 UTC
recreation.gov lists 28 of the 31 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBookedClosed
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 · 22
What you actually pay
“Any additional vehicles will need to pay an additional $5 day use fee/vehicle per day AND be parked in overflow parking.” · the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’s own agency notice
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $20–$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.
“Changes and cancellations are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee.” · 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 · 7
recreation.gov availability, read 16:02 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
31 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 28 mapped sitesAll 31 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 30 of the 31 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. 28 of the 31 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| LOWE | 01 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 109 ft | 67 ft | 737 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 02 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 60 ft | 635 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 03 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 71 ft | 53 ft | 564 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 04 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 48 ft | 488 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 05 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 54 ft | 425 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 06 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 72 ft | 62 ft | 361 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 07 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 75 ft | 57 ft | 306 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 08 | standard electric | 52 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 68 ft | 255 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 09 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 68 ft | 74 ft | 230 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 10 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 69 ft | 225 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 11 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 76 ft | 67 ft | 241 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 12 | standard electric | 54 ft | 50 amp | 79 ft | 71 ft | 285 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 13 | standard electric | 57 ft | 50 amp | 82 ft | 73 ft | 339 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 14 | standard electric | 55 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 67 ft | 395 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 15 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 74 ft | 441 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 16 | standard electric | 51 ft | 50 amp | 78 ft | 90 ft | 480 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 17 | standard electric | 53 ft | 50 amp | 86 ft | 97 ft | 541 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 18 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 104 ft | 80 ft | 544 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 19 | standard electric | 56 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 140 ft | 550 ft | $30 |
| LOWE | 20 | standard electric | 49 ft | 50 amp | 74 ft | 212 ft | 611 ft | $30 |
| TENT | T-01 | tent only nonelectric | 93 ft | 50 ft | 815 ft | $20 | ||
| TENT | T-02 | tent only nonelectric | 93 ft | 46 ft | 900 ft | $20 | ||
| TENT | T-03 | tent only nonelectric | 71 ft | 49 ft | 992 ft | $20 | ||
| TENT | T-04 | tent only nonelectric | 71 ft | 50 ft | 1,062 ft | $20 | ||
| UPPE | 21 | standard electric | 67 ft | 50 amp | 167 ft | 307 ft | 701 ft | $30 |
| UPPE | 22 | type not stated | 70 ft | 50 amp | 335 ft | 557 ft | ||
| UPPE | 23 | standard electric | 58 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 373 ft | 417 ft | $30 |
| UPPE | 24 | standard electric | 64 ft | 50 amp | 77 ft | 368 ft | 341 ft | $30 |
| UPPE | 25 | standard electric | 70 ft | 50 amp | 137 ft | 401 ft | 209 ft | $30 |
| UPPE | 26-H | type not stated | 70 ft | 50 amp | ||||
| UPPE | 27 | type not stated | 50 amp | 359 ft | 136 ft |
25 of 31 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Temples Lake1.8 mi
Belton Lakeview Park2.1 mi
Live Oak Ridge2.6 mi
Stillhouse5.5 mi
Cedar Ridge (TX)5.8 mi
Dana Peak7.9 miFrom Interstate 35 in Belton, Texas take the 294 exit (6th Avenue or Farm-to-Market Road 93) west. Turn north onto 317 (Main Street) and drive for two miles. Turn west on FM 439 (Lake Road) and go four miles. Turn right on Sparta Road, then take a right on Westcliff Park Road to the park.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Temple, TX
Typical weather
Typical October night 56°F, day 81°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
Westcliff is in Texas’s 31st congressional district. Its representative, John Carter (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →