Copper Breaks State Park — Attraction in Quanah

On our way west and stopped here for 3 days before going to Palo Duro. Check in is 2pm, the office was closed when we got here at 1:30 so we went to our site and set up and I had to drive back to get our tags. Front doors have lots of paper signs taped to them, very unprofessional. Inside all the lights were off except for the one light behind the counter. They have some merchandise for sale, but you need a flashlight to see it because all the lights in the store area are off or don't work. Their interpretive center is closed. They had two registers but only one had a working printer. And there were lots of people checking in, so we had to wait while the one senior citizen volunteer working the register. The place smelled of decomp. The one paid staff said that they think something came inside the building and died. Really? They "think" that? That is literally the only way to have the smell of decomp. And I love how they acknowledge the problem without looking for the dead thing and removing it. Speed limits in the park are not observed by staff, especially the guy who races around on a cart through the CG at a very unsafe speed. Even though check-in is at 2pm, they don't start checking sites until 3:30. And the guy on the cart is so lazy that he drives up to the post at the back of each site and flips the signs without getting out of his cart. Bathrooms are neither clean nor properly maintained. You can see dirt lines on walls and around toilets where they simply push a dirty mop around. Rust and hard water deposits. Toilets wobble and leak sewage. It is clear that they don't use licensed contractors for repairs. One shower valve was replaced with a a garden hose valve handle. Drinking fountains don't work. Some lights don't work. Sinks dirty. Trash on floor. They put a handicap sign in front of a parking space, but it is not ADA compliant, nor are the bathrooms. And we checked other bathrooms, they are all just as dirty and poorly maintained. There are signs taped to the restroom doors, and they are so lazy that the last time the doors were painted they just painted over the tape. There are a couple of playgrounds, one in the CG and one down in the day use. Both are original 1960's. In the Comanche CG (main RV CG) there are ramadas shaped like teepee's. But they are all behind and on the wrong side of each site. Never saw any of them being used. Signs in the park are lacking, no exit signs, every intersection is not signed. You will need a map. The lake is about 10ft low, the swim area closed as is the boat ramp. Down at the day use area they have some overflow dry camping if you come in after hours and they don't have regular sites available. As well as some tent spaces. We found the old, abandoned amphitheater off the Comanche CG. Overgrown, hasn't been used in a while, no signs and not on map. There are a couple of hikes here, but other than that there is nothing to do. In the future we will not spend more...

*GOOGLE MAP NAV ERROR! AVOID FM925 SHORTCUT FROM US 287 !!! * If you're travelling north on Hwy 287, Google Navigation will direct you to turn off Hwy 287 approximately 2 miles north of Vernon, and then proceed west on FM-925. Do not take this route!! Stay on Hwy 287 until you get to Quanah and then proceed south to Copper Breaks State Park via Hwy-6. We followed Google Nav's directions and took FM-925 west. This route eventually turned into an extremely remote single lane dirt road with ditches on either side. A thunderstorm passed through the area right in front of us, turning the dirt road into a slippery, muddy, red gooey mess. This made the driving conditions extremely dangerous for the large RV we were in. We almost had to spend the night out there due to our RV's uncontrollable sliding and complete lack of traction. When we eventually made it to the park, the ranger laughed and said "Did you make the mistake of taking the Google Maps shortcut from US-287?!" We apparently weren't the first people to encounter problems after taking Google's suggested shortcut. Lesson learned.

As for Copper Breaks - It's a Cool, Little, Out of the Way State Park.

We rented an RV and spent 3 days in the park over the 4th July weekend. The camping areas were clean and there were plenty of RV sites available when we arrived (a rough guesstimate - park was at 50% occupancy, if that). We stayed at the Comanche Campground. The RV hook-ups and dump sites were good with zero problems. The sites were roomy, with each site having its own covered picnic table with an adjacent grill. The bathrooms were also well stocked and clean.

I did a several of the park's trails during our stay. I didn't encounter any other people until I got to the shorter trails adjacent to the lake. The lake itself appeared nice, albeit a little low. There were always several people around the lake fishing during the day (I didn't speak to any re fishing conditions). The bugs and mosquitoes were out in force once the sun slipped over the horizon, however, long pants and lots of "Off" prevented any bites. The bug spray was essential, because the night sky in Copper Breaks mandated extended star gazing until the wee hours. The sky was dark and clear. Satellites were visible to the naked eye, zipping across the sky. We watched a large thunderstorm slowly make its way toward us from out on the horizon, with sensational lightening strikes. I missed out on the Milky Way in all it's glory, I just couldn't make it to the pre-dawn darkness...too tired and too much other stuff... However, based on what I did see, the Copper Breaks night sky appeared close in quality to what I've seen in Big Bend - it was that good.

All in all a good time. The wife and kids were happy. Outside of the crappy Google Nav experience, the entire trip was well...

So very impressed with this state park! It's really pretty... different from what we're used to: tall pine trees, lots of green, etc. But it's beautiful in its own way, and OH MY GOODNESS!!! THE STARS!!! It's been years, probably, since I've seen the Milky Way, and I just wanted to cry! It makes me sad that I have to drive 3 hours away from home to really see those trillions of stars, etc., that God hung in our skies. Just another result of how poorly we have stewarded what He gave us.

Anyway...Copper Breaks rates a "2" on the Bortles Scale which (I'm simplifying) is used to measure darkness, to rate how dark a location is. A "9" represents the highest level of light pollution "1" is the darkest place on earth (somewhere in Africa). So a "2" rating for darkness is, to me, AMAZING! And the fact that it's just a couple of hours away from my home? Even better!

This park seems very well maintained, and rangers and other park personal are knowledgeable and professional...and nice. If you like to deck out your RV with lights, etc., this isn't the park for that. Most people seem to be here for star gazing, and everyone follows "no lights" protocol when the sun goes down. (We got in the habit of having our big campfire in the mornings, and maybe a very small one around sundown.) This is now one of my favorites, and we're making plans for another trip here...