Cranes Mill Park (USACE) — Hotel in Bulverde

WARNING, CAMPERS!! Don't try to go before 3 p.m.!!!!!

Did not have a problem previoysly,, but in June 2020, we were denied entry due to time of arrival. We arrived at 12:30 p.m. and were told that we had to wait to enter until 3 p.m. check-in time. The woman at the gate refused to check if our reserved site was already vacated, stating that she couldn't let us in regardless. (COE parks do have a 2 p.m. checkout time, and a 3 p.m. check-in time, but we have never been refused early entry at any Texas based COE park when we had a reservation and the site was empty/already vacated upon our arrival. In this case she outright refused to check or let us know, and told us we couldn't enter regardless.). This was strange, because on a previous visit to this park, we were allowed in, again with a reservation, and we were able to proceed to our site....that was in March 2020...the problem was in June 2020. Only difference we could tell was the gate attendant who was on duty.

Denial of entry was a difficult problem for us. We carry a 12 volt Alpicool fridge/freezer in our tow vehicle and had it set as a freezer. It was full of food that would have defrosted if we had stopped the truck for any decent amount of time, so we had to drive around aimlessly for over two hours before returning to the park for entry.

We enjoy this park, but at this point, we will probably not ever return. We have never, in months at a time on the road, been denied entry to any park, either public or private, ( we never arrive before 1 or 2 p.m. at the earliest ) , where we had a reservation.

BTW, we left the park at about 11: 30 a.m. on the day of departure. At least half the sites were empty, and they still were not letting anyone in early, and stated that they did not plan to do so. They said that was due to the Park Manager's policy. (We were told that he manages all the Parks on Canyon Lake.)

We camped with our 350 truck and our 31 foot...

This place is gorgeous! Great if you have a boat/RV. We did tent camping and stayed in site 62 the first night and 56 the second night (we moved when some noisy people moved in next to us). We did take a dip in the water but not exactly swimmer friendly and no beach front that we saw of.

The showers & bathroom were really nice. Decently clean for a camp site- only complaint is that the women’s restroom ran out of tp in all but two of the stalls.

They had both a grill (badass five star indeed) and a fire pit. The picnic table has a cover attached and we even saw one guy hang his hammock underneath the covering (life hack if you’re looking to travel minimalist style).

I would say that from our experience there were more “glampers” (i.e. people that drive to the restroom, pack everything from the house, play obnoxiously loud music that drowns out the sound of nature) than people who camp rugged style.

Other than the lake, there isn’t much else to do (i.e. hiking, volleyball) other than bbq and enjoy being out in nature.

The ranger who drives the white king ranch truck was super nice as well. (However, Pat who checked us in was pretty rude to my companion from...

Great park, but the gate keeper needs a new job. We have been camping for 30+ years and have not been treated so rudely. We showed up before “check in time” which we have done many times before at many parks. There have been times where we have to wait for our spot to be vacated, but we have never been turned away at the gate and not allowed in the park. (We had paid reservations) Usually we are given our tags and told that we can find a place to park and wait for the current occupant to leave. NOT HERE 🤨 he told us we had to come back in three hours because our spot was still occupied. We wanted to see where our spot was so we found a parking spot at the fishing dock and walked over to check it out. Spot was empty. We went back and told the gentleman our findings. He said that they hadn’t checked out and that he had to verify that it was empty before he would allow us in. Crazy policy if it is really what they...