Lake Corpus Christi State Park — Attraction in Mathis

Lake Corpus Christi State Park May 31-June 4, 2018

First time my wife has ever said; "We will not return to this park". We have been camping from Virginia to Texas for over 25 years. The lake is beautiful and the covered picnic tables and bbq grills look great from a distance. Up close the grills are overflowing with old charcoal with piles of charcoal and ash build up on the ground around the grills. The build up of cigarette butts, bottle tops, wire tie wraps, plastic, etc. around each picnic table is disgusting.

This lack of detail in cleaning carries through to the camping areas. After thirty minutes even I quit picking up debris in my campsite. The campsites need attention, but it is definitely not occurring. I shoveled off a build up of dirt to get down to the concrete pad for my trailer. A long term build up of run of during rain had hid half the slab. There is a lot of riding around in the air conditioned Texas State Park trucks though. The campsites are all mini drive throughs one after another with minimum separation. The number of vehicles on a site appears to be up to you. The fifth wheel, three trucks, and a boat on the first site on our loop made a tight fit. Directly across was a large trailer and three vehicles. Make sure you bring a scrub brush if you plan on using a picnic table. Be prepared to stop on a dime as the those towing boats to the boat ramp whip around corners.

Routine information: the park does not have laundry facilities and WiFi is spotty at best. Drop outs were numerous. This is not unusual at State Parks.

The bathrooms deserve their own paragraph. To start with there is not a soap dispenser in any bathroom in the park. When I asked why I was told people steal them and Then "I have worked here for 8 years and we have never had soap in the bathrooms". I challenged this by asking what about employees of the state using the bathrooms, the reply was they are not handling food. Not sure this is legal, but it is disgusting. My wife witnessed two little (9-10) girls totally stunned on what to do without soap. They kept repeating to each other "There's no soap" This was a first and hopefully a last for me. Even the dingiest gas station bathrooms have soap. The bathrooms were filthy at best. Trash on floors, dirt and grime on all horizontal surfaces. There are no fans or ventilation of any type in the bathrooms so the heat is unbearable. It was 100 degrees during the day during our stay. The hand dryers are all rusted and at least 8 years old and though not stolen. The shower curtains do cover a solid 3/4 of the opening so don't be shy. There is only one barrier per stall in some bathrooms, not the double curtain or double door that you find in decent state parks. We tried multiple bathrooms throughout the park trying to find a compromise. An old 10" x 18" bench type board looked to scary to use. We did drive to the far end of the park to use the showers one night and these were only unacceptable. I did ask on our second day camping for the bathroom near our campsite to be cleaned and was told they are cleaned daily. I said I have been watching the same trash on the floor, in and on the shower stalls for two days. I will call someone then. I asked about all the dirt daubers (wasps) in the bathrooms and was told; "Don't worry they won't bother you." Not once was there a "Thanks for bringing that to our attention." This place sure misses the normal Texas pride. Unlike my past experience the facilities for the bathrooms for the campers are the same ones in use by the day use people. This makes the experience even worse on weekends.

The shame is; with the proper attention to detail on cleanliness, some basic maintenance, enforcement of rules, and an attitude change by the staff, this could be a good park. Don't get me wrong the staff wasn't rude, just complacent. Currently the park caters to the day users who don't seem to care about the long term impact of their actions and the staff has joined them rather than...

Nice, clean, & well-maintained park. The rangers & volunteers are super nice, too. Bathrooms are OK. Could be a little cleaner, but they're older structures - so not surprising. It doesn't seem as if they're scrubbed daily, like some other Texas State Parks, however.... All campsites are nice (whether for tents or RV/travel-trailers). Most sites have both tree shade & a covered shelter over a picnic table. Tents sites are extremely spacious. RV sites have more than average space for back-in or pull-thru sites. Lake is beautiful & if you have a boat be sure to check the fishing report & lake levels before you haul, but if the lake has plenty of water there is usually a lot of fish, too. My only suggestion is that it would be nice if they repaired the Old Pavillion/Historic CCC Castle & then sponsored country-western dances there, like @ Garner State Park. They could either do the jukebox thing, like Garner - or even better yet, there's an inexpensive country-western DJ in the area that could do @ least an occassional live DJ dance, who plays both classic & current country dance tunes. We look for his dances because we always have a great time. This might bring the park in extra revenue from the locals who would come & pay for a day pass to go to the dances. I will give one forwarning about this park for those folks traveling from out of the Coastal Bend area... Many families from Corpus Christi & surrounding areas make this park a tradition for large family camping gatherings on weekends & holidays. And these families like to play their music LOUD, for the entire park to hear. Seriously - this can be very annoying. Most are courteous about turning the music off @ 10pm (as required), but just be warned that this is one of those Texas parks. It is particularly prevalent on holiday weekends - such as Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, & Labor Day. So if your goal is peace-&-quiet and/or to commune with nature, your best bet is to visit during the week when school is still "in". That's what we do.

Update 4/2025: The updates they have made to this park are outstanding. The new restroom/shower is beautiful. This visit was mid-week & it was very quiet & peaceful. The park was only about 50% occupied. Additionally, this was the week after Easter weekend & the park was very clean with not a remnant of a cascarone found anywhere. ...

This is truly an amazing park to tent or RV camp. They have a wonderful and functioning website with tons of information to check out. Which we appreciated! We visited in January and the weather was mild but I would recommend preparing for any type of weather such as rain gear, warm clothes for night, preparedness for high winds, and shorts for sunny warm days. If tent camping prepare for strong winds. The park also offers cabins to rent which are incredibly affordable. We had tent camped the previous two nights at another park and they were booked beyond our second night. We were disappointed but they recommended we try Lake Corpus Cristi State Park. We stayed three nights and really enjoyed the park. Once we got there we decided to book a screened in cabin overlooking the lake (it was only a few dollars more and with our state park pass the 2nd night was half off!)

Some features of the park are:

Camping: tent, RV, and cabin camping. They offer different options which include water only (spigot), water & electric for RV ir camper, or primitive tent camping. There are shower houses and restrooms throughout the park. If tent or cabin camping I would recommend bringing a portable camping toilet. Cabins have two options: 1. Screened structure with two twin beds, a built in table, and shelf. There is no privacy with these as they are open structures. Enclosed structure with glass windows with curtains, two twin beds, built in table, shelf, and heating/air unit.

Fishing (see photo for list) Off pier or bank. They have cleaning stations at various points.

Hiking trails: I would recommend boots and if you are bringing fur babies watch for thorns and burrs.

Wildlife: we had a javalina around our site and various species of birds. One RV camper told us they had a coyote under their rig. There were many fire ants around our site but none were in our cabin. Mosquitoes were around but not a nuisance as it was winter. Education on safety measures to take existing among wild life would be recommended. In particular if...