Somerville State Park Birch Creek — Hotel in Caldwell

I've been coming here since I was a kid with my parents. A lot has changed but it's still one of my favorite "local" spots to car camp. Now that my daughter is 7, we've been going on camping trips as much as possible during the cooler times of the year. We have a park pass so all we have to pay is the nightly fees. It's close enough to Houston to pull a weekend trip Friday-Sunday. We have our favorite spot and we reserve as early as possible because they all full up quick on the "big" weekends (spring break, Thanksgiving, etc.) This current trip was right after Thanksgiving and the weather was fantastic. The camping spots have long driveways, enough to fit a fairly large RV if that's your thing. We still use a tent and the tent pads are large enough to accomodate our largest tent that sleeps 12 people or will fit 4 queen size mattresses. Most of them even have a separate (smaller) spot for a second tent too. We've never had a stay where neighbors were a nuisance. Everyone is friendly and courteous. The park rangers drive around throughout the day and they are all very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. There are numerous trails around the park and they're all fun to walk. Some of them are a few miles but there aren't any "difficult" trails as the terrain is pretty flat and manicured. We also enjoy going to the lakeside at night. It's not the darkest but you can still make out quite a few stars, especially compared to the night sky in the city. Restrooms/showers are cleaned daily and never get too messy. In the cooler months there are heaters and there's always warm water. Most of the main sites have electricity and water, although there are some with just water and a few "primitive" sites you can hike like a mile to get to. There's a boat launch and we've brought our 14' canoe before. The water is mostly calm and is fun to paddle along the shoreline. There's a variety of wildlife throughout the year. Bald eagles, turtles, alligators, armadillos, raccoons, snakes, other birds and numerous bugs and spiders can be found. My daughter loves finding butterflies and beetles and seeing the other wildlife. From May to September it can get pretty hot, so if you don't have AC be prepared to sweat. We plan our trips from around October...

The only reason I gave it a 4 star rating because I feel too many of the electric/water sights were obstructed with tree limbs too close to the power/ water pedistal.most trailers are higher than 10 ft and have a fair amount of trailer behind the rear axle 6 ft in my case . Lots of ants, but the staff came out very quickly to address the problem. Staff was very friendly, courteous and accommodating. We saw far more tent campers than rv trailers . Nothing wrong with that,I did so myself many a time. Everyone was respectful of each other's space ,Everyone just having family fun time ,no rowdy behavior ,loud music etc .This park actually exceeded my expectations except for the clearance issue by the...

We visited on a Saturday in June and every area we visited, whether the boat ramp, the different areas to reach the lake, the bathrooms, and pavilions were clean and easily accessible. In fact, at least twice that I saw while fishing on the banks, there were Parks and Wildlife personnel actively walking the grounds (especially nearer the water) and picking up trash and detritus. This is a place on Lake Somerville that the staff take very seriously so that people like myself and my children can have...