Inks Lake State Park Campground

I had the most amazing time! The Lake is beautiful and the camp grounds are right on the water. Restrooms and showers are clean and close too! Spread out enough to where you aren’t on top of your neighbors, I will definitely be back!

Stayed in mid March, site 62. Nice site with lots of tree cover. Only downside was the multiple squirrels that drove our dogs nuts. Hiking trails are very well maintained, and there’s plenty variety in difficulty level / length. We’ve never seen so many wildflowers, especially bluebonnets. The display was stunning. Facilities at the park were very clean, and it really has everything that you need.

Inks Lake SP: The campground is okay. Get a site that has a water view. The hiking was great.
(Scale 1- bad, 5-Very good

(71 yr olds in 17’ trailer.) Overall Rating: Campground only a 3.5 for the campground layout. If you like hiking, then bump up to a 4.5. Amazing Security: Locked gate in the evening Usage during visit: Very full over the nice weekend. Less during the week. Site Privacy: None.
Site Spacing: Close. Pad surface: Blacktop Reservations: Yes Campground Noise: Pretty quiet even when full. Road Noise: None Through Traffic in campground: No Electric Hookup: Yes Sewer Hookup: No Dump Station: Very nice one.
Potable Water Available: At the site. Bathroom: Clean flush toilets Showers: Clean and private. Pull Throughs: Some Cell Service (AT&T): 2 bars. Setting: Under open wooded area along Inks Lake Recent Weather: We had a tornado warning and fierce thunderstorm while there. Rig Size: Some sites handle large rigs Sites: See pics for some sites I thought were better than many. I did not evaluate the entire cg. 218 is not a water view, but private

I stayed here one night on my way back to Dallas after viewing the eclipse in south Texas.

We arrived in the heat of the day. Briefly parked next to the pop up to unload the heavy coolers since we were overheated. Within minutes we were “greeted” by a park ranger issuing a warning for a citation if we didn’t immediately move the truck back on the pavement. Also this park sits next to the highway so there was a constant influx of sirens and traffic taking away from the peaceful setting we were hoping for. Other than that it has beautiful scenery

We took our 3 year old on his first camping trip and Inks lake didn’t disappoint. Plenty of activities and not too far from town if you need some ice cream after a long day on the lake.

Absolutely fun! We stayed for one night but wished we stayed a couple more! Went kayaking and fishing. Definitely recommending to friends!

Stayed here over SuperBowl weekend, and it was great. No one else was there. Our campsite was right on the water and a perfect spot to launch a kayak or a paddleboard. The bathrooms were incredibly clean, and so were the sites. Everything was very well maintained, and everyone was incredibly nice and helpful. They also have boat rentals, and you are able to borrow a fishing pole from the market. 

As it starts to heat up a bit more, camping here may not be as quiet and chill. The campsites are a tad close together, but they are very big!

Camped here this weekend and it was enjoyable! Plenty of amenities, including restrooms with showers, a general store, and firewood vending machines (which were all empty, but still cool!)

Tent camping lot was near the restrooms but booked too late to be on the water. Staff was friendly and helpful! Definitely planning to return.

Inks Lake SP

Visited with many friends here. BIG campground! I like how you have easy access to the lake from many of the camp sites. There’s also a boat ramp near the camp store with rentals available. The showerhouses were VERY nice! Modern, well maintained and HEATED! Yeah! There were a few showers that needed some adjustments, cold water only. Nice group picnic area near the cabins and the playground with food truck (wasn’t open when we visited). The Rangers had an interesting Cowboy Coffee demonstration there. The sites were separated into several loops, most convenient to the several different showerhouses. Some of the sites were more secluded then others but all were good size with picnic table and room for tents and possibly hammocks. Near the front gate/Ranger office there is an amphitheater for demonstrations/presentations and near the camp store there was a nice, covered picnic pavilion by reservation. Burnet, TX and Longhorn Cavern State Park are nearby.

This place is truly camping lifestyle to its fullest. It’s TX beauty coupled with all the amenities.

On a motorcycle road trip with my dad and we decided to spend a night here. It was a weeknight so there were available sites upon arrival. I’d recommend reserving in advance just in case. I hadn’t ever really considered staying at the lake until we saw that it was near us on our trip. The park is huge. They have a playground, fishing piers, snow cone stands, and so much more that I probably didn’t even notice. We stayed on site 346 which is on the far tip of the park on a peninsula. Had the whole peninsula to ourselves. Best site! At the other end of the park is a great swimming area with cliffs of all heights to jump from.

We visited in Dec 2021.  The campground holds a Christmas light contest in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  Very popular park.

Camped with hubby in our new RV. Cave and winery near by.

Inks lake has some unique and picturesque hiking, about 10 ish miles in total. The lake itself is beautiful but when we were there in March 2022 it had much more algae than I've seen there before. It's a nice swimming hole if the algae subsides. The campsites were spacious although in some spots it was almost like 2 sites were paired together and you definitely would want to know your neighbor. The park gets high visitation on the weekends so be prepared for a packed house!

Wow this park is beautiful! Huge lake with beautiful scenery. It was very quiet and peaceful. A nice escape from our daily lives. The only reason im not rating it 5 right now because the trails were closed due to them having a hunt which we were unaware of before we made the reservation. Despite this inconvenience, we have been walking the grounds where the campsites are and its very nice. We have two young kids and they enjoyed going fishing and walking around. Will have to come back in the summer to go swim and jump off the cliffs.

This state park has it all. Tent, cabin, rv camping, kayaking, fishing, and swimming. The cabins are great. This state park has some if the nicest restroom/showers and everything is always clean.

Flat spots, well spaced, trees for shade, well maintained and clean bathrooms

September 2021

We took our first trip to Inks this week, camping there Sunday through Wednesday. We got lucky that the temperatures those days dipped into the high 80s for us, as they had been in the mid to high 90s for months. When we arrived we were told that the spot we reserved wasn’t available, because the folks that had been staying there had abandoned their trailer and could not be located or contacted.

So we nervously trekked to an alternate site they awarded us to see what we were in for. The site was a waterfront site like the one we had originally requested, but wasn’t as isolated. The sites with power and water in this park are closer together than the ones at Pedernales, and Guadalupe State Parks where we stayed at earlier this summer. We had to get used to a little less privacy here. Some folks like mingling with the neighbors. That’s not us too much.

At first I was a little disappointed. The Powered sites didn’t seem to have the shade, scenery, and privacy of other parks. There were non-powered sites that offered this. There were some ugly-looking cabins within site of us as well, and playgrounds for children down the street, none of which is our thing. However, if you have kids, it’s great. The playgrounds were nicely kept. In fact, the whole park appeared very well managed, and clean, including the bathrooms, and shower, though we wish these had a lock for more privacy like some of the other parks offer.

We had a nice big Oak tree on our site, and that of course is where we set up. We have a mobile set up of a couple of chairs, fans, and lightweight table that enable us to move around under a shady tree that big all day following the shade. Once the trailer was situated, and we were finally cooled off and sedentary drinking a cold beer, it started to dawn on me why this park is so cool – it is called Inks ‘Lake’ after all - is the huge beautiful lake we were sitting in front of.

The lake is gorgeous, and you can take advantage of it in many ways here. Jet skiing, boating, swimming, canoeing, and fishing were all going on. You can rent fishing gear, and canoes there, and I don’t believe you need a license for fishing. They have nice fishing peers you can fish off of, or you can cast from a boat, or your camping site if you’re on the water. We’re not in to any of that. We just like sitting by the water with a book, cold beer, painting rocks, and watching the squirrels, and ducks parading through water, air, and right through our camp. (see pics)

We were even visited by a couple of skunks while we were there, which was a first for me. All the animals are really tame because of their ongoing proximity to people, and I guess that’s why the skunks didn’t spray when I shewed them off. They, and the squirrels will be in your trash the minute you’re gone from the site, so be sure to hang up your trash bags if you leave the site even for an errand. These little creatures are just waiting for you leave. When I caught them in the trash 2 different times, they just looked up at me like, ‘What’?, before slowly walking off. They aren’t scared.

Day 2 started with smoking some incense, making coffee, and starting Terence McKenna’s ‘Food of the Gods’. Erika started feeling her camping groove while doing early morning jigs to music we were playing while she prepped yummy breakfast tacos for us; nothing like the smell of bacon and refried beans in the skillet. We painted rocks, read, and enjoyed some family drama by phone that afternoon, while I slow-cooked a giant Dino rib all day for dinner. We brought the Weber grill with us this time for this.

Speaking of phones. There was no cell service for us for wi-fi, but we were able to send non-pic text messages, and make and receive phone calls. We have Sprint, but were told by some folks we met there that their Verizon phones had no issues.

That night we enjoyed our rib, and Queso, an mushrooms we made on the grill while jamming out to our tunes while debating the differences and merits of Stevie Ray Vaughn vs. Jimi Hendrix. One set of our neighbors enjoyed our music, and requested the Rolling Stones to which we obliged. The other set of stuffy neighbors abandoned their trailer to go visit another while leaving a big outdoor tv they had on to Fox news to blare all night. Bring your own entertainment to block this out.

Day 3 found me making Erika jump through playful hoops to coax me out of bed to go bike riding. In summer Texas heat, you’re smart to make sure you have heavy physical exertion activities over by 11 am if you don’t want to invite extreme sweat, and heat stroke. We headed out on our e-bikes and explored the whole park. It was a beautiful morning for riding.

We met some nice folks on the way, and chatted with them awhile before scoping out all of the different kinds of campsites that are there. Make sure you take a good look at the Park Map for what kind of site you want. There is something for everybody here, but the powered sites are a little on top of each other except for a few. The non-powered sites have a lot more privacy, and shade in many instances.

We rode our bikes all the way down to the pretty vista offered at Devils Waterhole. You can climb rocks there to get to high-up vistas, and a cliff you can jump from to go swimming if that’s your thing. We then rode to a couple of fishing piers with gorgeous views of the lake where we had a romantic pair of ducks make a dramatic exit from the water to get airborne and proceed to fly right over our heads on the pier to the point we had to duck to get under them - no pun intended.

There are no formal bike trails in the park. We just rode on the roads, and rode the walking path down to Devil’s Waterhole.

We came back to camp where Erika made a delicious cheese and cracker plate. We then napped, got up and chased shade around the big oak tree the rest of the afternoon. We made a nice fire that night, and grilled carrots, chicken thighs, and corn on the cob. There was a glowing full moon that gently lit the lake, and we talked until we were too tired to and called it a night.

This is one of my favorite State parks. The water sites are so beautiful and the sunsets are amazing. We love kayaking over to Devils waterin’ Hole. There are also a lot of beautiful hiking trails that go up and around the granite out droppings. My favorite time to visit is the spring when the bluebonnets are blooming.

I’ve stayed here lots of times in tent sites, RV sites, and the cabins. I like them all and especially love the hikes and swimming.

Sites were isolated, though we could still somewhat see our neighbors. Ground was even. Favorite part of the site was definitely the hike out.

We loved Inks and will definitely return. The park was clean, the bathrooms were well maintained and the staff was really helpful.  No issues..everyone minded their business.  We always like to leave the place better than we found it and there was not alot of trash.  Lots of good hiking trails and photo opportunities

No sewer hookups, dump station only. It rained while we were there in late June and flies and mosquitoes were numerous. Nice lake that you can wade out for 50 feet. We are T mobile and there is no service for us. Had to drive 15 miles into Burnet to make a phone call. Verizon campers next door were constantly on the phone. Restrooms clean for the most part. Our site had so many trees that it was difficult to get in and we could not extend the slide all the way.

We didn't actually get to stay here because we didn't make reservations in time. (Would have been here in February 2021) On a drive through, there are tons of sites, some wooded and some not and lots of trails, bird watching opportunities etc. If we ever come back to Texas we will try to reserve way ahead of time!! We would definitely want to camp here

First primitive camping trip and was lucky to get the last camping spot available for a holiday weekend. The area of the state park where the primitive camping is is very quiet, about 2 miles walk away from the RV and cabin camping. So not much traffic near our spot. The site was cleared well and had several areas to choose from to put up our 2 person tent. We were near a compost restroom, which I always prefer if available. It was amazingly clean and well maintained (except for the trash can, which didn’t have a lid— critters enjoyed some midnight snacks. We ended up storing it inside the restroom itself on night two to save us the noise).

This review is for Inks Lake State Park, it is my absolute favorite state park in Texas. It has beautiful shoreline sites, but you also have nice trees for shade. If you get a site on the water you can usually launch your kayak right from your site. My husband and I love kayaking back to the Devils Water hole. The granite outcroppings are so pretty, and you always see lots of turtles. There are lots of really pretty hiking trails, and we like to ride our bikes around all the different loops in the park. You can’t beat the beautiful sunsets in the evening.

This park had a ton of trails and water activities to do. We went on a Monday and left on a Wednesday and the park was pretty full. Lots of people and lots of pets! We had a good time though. Most campsites have lots of shade and room to spread out.

Last time been there Mar 5-7 for 2 nights. Water level in the lake is full, from the Devil's backbone trail seen a bunch of huge (2-3 feet) fish, probably carp or bass. Regretted I didn't take my kayak and a fishing gear! There is huge amount of waterfowl, including large geese and ducks, a lot of annoying squirrels as well ;)

That time park was open 75% as per the rangers, but I hope it is now 100% after the Mar-10. The only downside they don't have a full hookup sites so if you are staying longer than a couple of nights in your RV, be prepared to travel to a dump station every other day or so. On an opposite side the newly built (and renovated) restrooms with showers are top notch! Way better that a 4-star hotel, seriously! Very clean and well maintained! Overall the park is very well maintained! There is a number of cabins along the lake just across the marina and the gift shop. There is also option to rent a kayak or a canoe, but it was closed due to CCP virus.

We love this campground year around but it's especially fun in the summer because of the lake activities. Bring a kayak or tube and just float! There's also a winery nearby. It's tough to get a reservation here, you need to book way in advanced. The showers are brand new family style, they have a general store by the boat ramp, it's a good place to be one with nature, quiet if you get good neighbors, and the sites are pretty well spaced out.