Texas - Huntsville State Park

 

Huntsville State Park is located in the piney woods of east Texas about one hour north of Houston.  If you choose to visit Huntsville State Park you will have 2,000 acres to explore! Our family spent a weekend in September 2021 camping at this lovely state park.  Read on to learn more about our trip.

We arrived on a Friday evening around 5:30 PM.  The sun was still up, yet the temperatures had dropped from the daytime high, making setting up camp cooler. During September the summer heat begins to waiver in Texas.  This makes for much more enjoyable camping conditions. However, the sun starts to set earlier as well. Setting up camp in the dark is not an easy task.  Thankfully we had camp setup long before sunset around 7:45 PM. 

Huntsville is located ten minutes north of the state park.  With a population of 41,000, you will find a variety of restaurants and retail stores. Once we set up camp we headed into Huntsville to get some dinner.  We got takeout from The Farmhouse Cafe located near the campus of Sam Houston State University.  We chose this restaurant because of previous good experiences.  However, on this night the food was bland.  Based on our meal I do not believe we will eat at this restaurant in the future.  

The remainder of the weekend we spent enjoying the amenities at Huntsville State Park. We stayed in our travel trailer in the Raven Hill camping area.  There are 25 full hookup pull through sites available.  We were in site 6 which is located on a hill, making leveling difficult. We were able to level our travel trailer, but it was not an easy task. Most of the campsites in this area were unlevel. Here are some photos of our campsite:

Our campsite was very close to the road as pictured in the next two photos.

The campsite is pull through & has a pretty big drop off from the asphalt pavement. 

There is a picnic table, fire pit, and garbage hook.

Raven Hill is the only camping area at Huntsville State Park with full hookups.  Sites 14, 15, 16, and 17 have easy access to the lake. 

Lake access from Raven Hill camping area. 

 

The campsites at this state park do not allow for much privacy as there are no greenbelts in between spaces. All of the campsites at Huntsville State Park are asphalt. Campsites have old concrete picnic tables, a fire pit, and lantern hooks. 

There are 77 campsites with water and electric only. Some of the sites located in the Prairie Branch and Coloneh are scenic lakefront sites. 

This site is located in the Coloneh camping area.

If you prefer, Huntsville State Park offers 28 screened shelters and two air conditioned cabins to rent as well. 

Cabin

Huntsville State Park offers 20 miles of hiking/biking trails.  Saturday morning we hiked portions of three out of six of the trails.  This state park is heavily wooded so you can expect any hike you choose to be a "walk in the woods". The trails are mostly flat and wide. Expect to encounter tree roots on any trail in this state park.  On our hike we met several people on bicycles. 

After our hike and lunch, we decided to explore the state park on our bicycles.  We rode on the park roads, as trail bicycling is not our favorite.  There are just too many roots. The area is hilly, so be prepared for a few challenging hills as you ride your bike. The hills were not too much for this forty something year old to do, but I definitely got my leg workout. 

Our plan was to spend the late afternoon kayaking and fishing the park's 210 acre Lake Raven. Sadly we were unable to do so because of thunderstorms Saturday afternoon.  Kayaking is one of our favorite activities when we visit a state park. Lake Raven has two boat docks.  Be careful around the lake as alligators are known to inhabit the area. 

Other amenities we did not have an opportunity to use include the general use area. It has a large swim area that was heavily used during our stay. Also in the general use area there was a volleyball sandpit and playground. There are many picnic tables in this area as well. 

Huntsville State Park is a nice state park located one hour north of Houston.  If you are looking for a place to stay and still be able to explore the city, this is the place for you. However, if you are looking for a place that is away from crowds, you might be disappointed with Huntsville State Park.  The weekend we visited, it seemed really crowded to us. There is signage about the park reaching capacity which leads me to believe this state park is frequently at capacity. Would I go here again? Possibly if it was on a weekday.  It was just a little too crowded for me. 

I hope my blog helps you plan your next adventure.  

May God bless you wherever your travels take you.