McCLELLAN CREEK NAT'L GRASSLANDS, TX

McCLELLAN CREEK NAT’L GRASSLANDS,  TX

RUN BY:   USDA Forest Service

LOCATION:   Gray County, TX.    (35.215144 -100.866271)

UTILITIES:  Water and Electricity

COST:  $10

DISCOUNTS:  Senior and Interagency passes (50%)

OUR RATING (1-5):  Category I.  Rating - 4

NOTES:  There is no way you can beat this for $5-10. (We’re seniors, so … wow!) There are two areas designated as campgrounds. We stayed in the McDowell Campground coordinates 35.215929  -100.866125.  We were directed here by the camp host as being one of the best areas in the park.  We were camped in a parallel spot right on the north end of the lake. The camp host said that there are a lot of ATV toward the southern end of the camping area.  It was a very pretty area and I’m sure it is filled with fishermen during the summer.  You are definitely out in the country but it is pretty and peaceful. 

Environment:   As the name says, you are in grasslands. The campground is on a lake in rolling grasslands. Elevation is around 2920.  We were there the first of December. The day was warm and the night was in the high 30s.

Amenities:  None

Dump:  Yes

Public Water:  N/A (water at sites)

Toilets:  Yes

Showers:  No

Laundry:  No

Phone Service:  Verizon 4G – 2 bars

Nearest Propane:  (unknown)

Location:   Exit I-40 at the  Farm-to-Market Rd 2477E exit. Coordinates for the exit are  35.181510                -100.847946.  The exit is 24 miles west of Alanreed, TX  and about 57 miles east of Amarillo, TX.  Follow the signs.  Go north on Farm-to-Market Rd 2477E for 4.2 miles to the entrance to the campground.  

Proximity to shopping:  We didn’t need any shopping but, having been there, I would suspect that Alanreed, about 28 miles east, is the closest shopping.

Camping Population:  We were there in early December. There was only one other person there.  

Sites:  Parallel, pull-through and back-in.  Big rigs should have no problems.

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RATING KEY:    category - score 

Categories:  I - established campgrounds where one might spend a vacation or several days

                    II -  boondocking, dry camping where there are no designated sites and no amenities but

                               one might choose to stay for more than a night.

                    III - over-night areas 

You must remember that we are scoring 1 thru 5 according to things which are important to us: the environment, cost, amenities, location, safety, camping population, site, phone service 

* There are people who are not full-timers and van-dwellers by choice. We try hard not to be demeaning or assume that they are bad people but sadly, as you find in the poorer parts of a city, there seems to be more crime. Many call these people van-dwellers. That isn’t really accurate even though they do often live in vans. We know quite a few van-dwellers who have good incomes, are full-timers by choice and prefer a van to other types of vehicles. To try to show some respect for people who have a difficult lot in life, I’m calling them ‘residential campers’.  It is only when you get a high proportion of residential campers in an area that you find an increase in petty theft, etc.