Rating - Lake Mineral Wells State Park, Texas

Back a couple of summers ago, Sharon and I drop up to the far north of Texas to a Campsey family reunion (which is held each year in Jacksboro, TX). We decided to take our tent and camp instead of trying to find a hotel for the nights. So, we decided to stay one night at Fort Richardson State Park in Jacksoro and the other night at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. In fairness, both were great parks and each deserve their own rating. Therefore, today I’ll talk about Lake Mineral Wells State Park.

Located east of Mineral Wells and completely surrounding the 640’ish acre Lake Mineral Wells, the state park isn’t too far from Jacksboro so we had most of the afternoon and evening to set up camp and just relax.  Our check-in at the park entrance was very quick (having made our reservations well in advance usually helps) and finding our camping site was also easy and quick.

We put our tent together quickly (this was before our Pop Up Tent Camping days), set up our chairs, and enjoyed the relaxing sounds of nothing. OK. There were birds, bees, and boats but overall nothing was annoying. As you can see, the tent was pretty well camouflaged and covered! We weren't worried about having to share our camp with anyone!

We walked along one of the paths that paralleled the lake where we enjoyed seeing the birds and wondering what else we could do today. The trails were rough in a few places but no where as strenuous as the trails we've taken in Palo Duro Canyon, Seminole Canyon, or Big Bend. The underbrush was fairly thick so there was little chance that we would take off and leave the trail here.

We did see a couple of folks walking towards the lake with their fishing gear so we assumed the fishing was good here. We didn't ask the park rangers about fishing. Our loss. No fishing poles so we didn’t have the chance to try to catch our supper!

Towards suppertime, we finally broke down and opened up our wine and grilled our steaks. And Sharon seemed to be very relaxed as I struggle mightily over the hot, gas grill. As usual, I had too many steaks so we had left overs.

During the night, Sharon and I were awakened by what sounded like dozens of four-footed, nocturnal bandits – raccoons! Turning the flashlight on had absolutely no affect on these critters. Eventually, I gave up and went back to sleep.

Next morning, we got up to discover those beasties had torn open my small cooler and had absconded with my leftover steak, our breakfast bacon, and our eggs. Plus, since they were clearly in my cooler, the ice and water in there was no longer appealing to our palates. So, we went hungry that morning.

 

However, the park is great. I loved being able to not even see another campsite from where we were and to walk down to our own private little fishing spot. Apparently, there are many things to do at the park that we didn’t have time to do so maybe we’ll check them out the next time we go.

I would rate Lake Mineral Wells State Park with two trailers!