Camp Tonkawa Springs, Texas, United States

5Travel33523 5:00 PM Jun 1, 2020

This place is WONDERFUL!
Took a day trip on Saturday from Houston. Could not have had a more wonderful experience at this swimming hole. My best friends daughter found this place by searching the internet. She was looking for a place to go and enjoy the outdoors after staying home and social distancing for a few of months. I must say I was concerned about the distance from Houston for only a day trip. Boy was I wrong! The 3 hour drive flew by and before you knew it you were at Camp Tonkawa Springs. We were greeted at the check in site, We could not believe all the deer and peacocks walking peacefully throughout campground. Then it was on to the “swimming hole”- WOW - Just a beautiful carved out of nature old time swimming hole. Our party consisted of 2 high school seniors and 2 life long Best Friends. The girls enjoyed swimming and the tree swings over the water. Us older ladies enjoyed relaxing on our chair floats. For me the best part was you could be in the sun and then when it got to hot you could retreat by the bank and find relief under the low hanging tree branches and still be on your float. We enjoyed a picnic lunch. A man overseeing the park was always visible on his golf cart for any questions or concerns. He was very kind to us in answering our questions as first time visitors. I just want to say in closing, Ravin you could not have picked a better place to swim, picnic and relax. Can’t wait to go back!

3Dreena T 5:00 PM Sep 24, 2016

50/50 on Whether We'll Return
There are not a lot of RV parks near Nacogdoches Texas and it is someplace place we frequent as our daughter attends the university here. We tried Tonkawa Springs on her recommendation as she loves swimming in the clean springs here. The springs are actually very nice and cool and clear and clean. They even smell good. We enjoyed our time down by the springs but the picnic tables are decrepit. Bring a blanket. There are lots of ants too so foot wear is recommended. You can have day entrance to the springs for $10 a gead. Frankly, it's cheaper to camp! Everything here (including the campground) is very sandy. Think "beach." So be prepared. Nothing beyond the entrance is paved, so you will have a lot of contact with the sand. While we enjoyed the springs, the RV park leaves quite a bit to be desired. The picnic tables there are also in very poor repair, and many of the shaded sites are unusable because the electric boxes have fallen off of their posts. The sites are not level which is not a problem for us, it might be something to consider. The bathrooms are very clean, but also in poor repair. All of this we probably could have overlooked, if not for the roving dog. There's a dog in the campground clearly quite comfortable with being there and off leash at all times. This dog roams from site to site begging for food and pestering the campers. When people are at the Springs he also runs that area. He will take food off your table, knock over your trash and generally become a nuisance. This soured the whole experience for us. The dog does not as appear to be harmful, but with young children you are taking a chance. On the plus side, the scenery around the camp is lovely and there are very few mosquitoes. There are guinea fowl in the camp as well as some sort of exotic deer or antelope. These animals are quite tame as the owners feed them. So they do roam quite close to your camp and it's easy to get a very good look at them. I'm personally not a fan of feeding wild life, but it does make for some good scenery. We will likely not return but if something were done about the dog, we probably would. It's tolable for the price and the springs are special.