Lake Arrowhead State Park — Attraction in Wichita Falls

We stay at a lot of Texas State Parks and this is a good one with lots to offer. We stayed in site 41 which was a great spot. Right next to the restrooms and right next to many prairie dog mounds. There is "prairie dog town", a little day use area you can sit and watch the critters, but the best prairie dog watching is in the campsite. Basically the top half of the campsites have them everywhere and a lot of fun to watch. We also saw hawks, deer, geese and rabbits around the park.

The campsites are arranged in circles with the sites like spokes going out from the road. Made it super easy to turn around and back in our pop up camper. RV pads are quite long, should accommodate any size rig. The arrangement can make getting to your site a bit confusing, but they do have signage up with the sure numbers listed. The pads themselves are older and some could stand to be repaved, but we found it to be fairly level, I've been to much worse. Hookups were good. The park is mostly mesquite trees, which aren't much for shade, but each site had a covered picnic table.

The park is far enough away from major roads and highways, so no traffic noise here. But still close enough to Wichita Falls in case you want to go into town quickly. We made the quick trip up into Oklahoma for a couple little casinos there, about 30 minute drive.

They have a great fishing pier and poles to borrow for the kids as well as loaner disc golf discs for the course there. There is a swimming area that looked nice, but it wasn't the right time of year to swim.

Plenty of easy trails here, though we didn't go on them as it rained a good bit and was too muddy.

The folks at the headquarters were super nice. We got there just a few minutes after the official close and unlike other parks we have gone to and show up at the same time, they cheerfully checked us in. There isn't a park store here, but the headquarters does carry souvenir magnets, patches, pins and hiking sick medallions, which was important to us since we collect the medallions and magnets for every park we visit. They have a super cool design.

The restrooms are a bit older, but they do a good job of cleaning them every day. They actually had hand soap and paper towels which is uncommon for a State Park. Most don't offer that or if they do, aren't great about stocking it. There are only a couple restrooms, so where you camp might have one close, might not. Didn't use the shower, but they looked ok.

The one real negative I had is the oil jack out there. They have been pumping oil since 1955 and the jack runs pretty much all the time. I could hear it at night when trying to sleep and it kept me up a little, but it certainly wasn't the loudest oil jack I've heard. I wish it didn't run at night, but the park likely has no control over the timing. It has a little sign with info, but didn't give any real history, just info about oil and its uses.

Overall a great park with lots to...

We are not expert campers but we decided to take our children on their first camping trip and thought this would be a good starter park to camp at. Being from Dallas it was under a two hour drive to get here and it was warm and beautiful in the day and cold and beautiful at night. Camping rates at any Texas State Park is a real deal for sites that may have water only or water and electric. We opted for a water only site for ten dollars a day and it was right next to the lake. There are bathrooms and showers nearby and each campsite affords its own privacy and small drive way area for a maximum of two cars. Extra cars pay extra rates. The ranger staff are very nice and check up (drive up to make sure you belong there) on all the campsites at night and it made us feel safe. Lots of things to do from hiking, fishing, boating. If you have a horse you can bring your horse here. The headquarters building when you drive in to pay has fishing poles, binoculars and bird watching books that they lend out for free (first come first served).

At this particular park there is a large grouping of Prairie dogs everywhere. Where we were at there was a prairie dog town. There are two old fishing piers across from the boat ramp. They seem a little rickety but we got used to them. The fish near the pier are so used to being fished they will steal your bait. We pretty much used the opportunity to teach the kids how to cast or in some instances how to use their bamboo poles. For other fishing get on a boat or get in the mud at other areas around the lake. Lots of wildlife to see, a ton of birds like hawks, cranes, and geese. We saw the prairie dogs, possums, raccoons and deer. Wichita Falls is a short drive away if you need anything urgent.

The state park has a vending machine for firewood. I think for two nights we used three large bags - we probably could have made due with two if the kids didn’t keep putting wood onto the fire. They are about $10 to $11 for each large bag and $6 for small bags. At the site we were at they had a fire pit and a grill that made it easy to cook and warm ourselves. Each site also had a covered picnic table. The sites were pretty flat and had grass. Not much clearing needed to be done. While we were there they had a presentation about animal skulls and taxidermy foxes so the kids went to that and were able to ask questions. Overall it was a great camping trio and we will...

Stopped here for 3 days on the way west. $19 per night with my TX Military Park Pass and regular TX State Park Pass. Remember that they charge separate day-use per-person on top of the camping fee. The park is in a rural/farming/ranching area and is surrounded by extremists. I was very happy to see armed state park police on patrol. Sites mostly have good separation between them. A few sites have paths to the bathroom mowed into the grass. We had a flat/level concrete pad with picnic table and a ramada. Bathrooms smell clean, but they are poorly cleaned. There are hard water deposits showing a lack of proper cleaning. Windowsills have dirt and spider webs on them. Showers have only a door, no curtain. The ADA shower has only a curtain, no door. There is old mastic on the wall where the cove based used to be attached. The cover base is gone and they just painted over the mastic. Tiles are broken and missing. The shower head trim ring is missing, water getting into wall so there is probably mold growing inside. The showers did get hot and had good pressure. The electric sites are laid out in little circles. There is just the one bathroom for all of them. Most of the water-only sites are down closer to the lake and they have just one bathroom. The horse camp has just 4 electric/water sites. They are fairly short. And the horse camp shares a bathroom with the group picnic shelter. There is a large day use area and a boat ramp, lots of covered picnic tables. And two playgrounds, original 1960's equipment! The majority of the staff hang out down at their admin building by the fishing pier and boat dock. The park is lacking in signs. There are zero signs telling you where the exit is in the event of an emergency. People drive around at night trying to find the showers. I found just one sign directing you to the restrooms and that was in just one loop, not out on the park roads. Nothing to do here. Going forward it would only be an...