Camping in the city's shadow without Lake Houston's house party: Lake Livingston I presume?

By Peter Barnes

June 12th, 2010 at 12:17 PM

Northeast of Houston, the level east Texas landscape slowly yields to the Piney Woods. Gentle hills creep up on unsuspecting flatlanders who find themselves passing through pine and hardwood grown thick beside the road. Eventually, ramshackle vegetable stands and unpolished small towns push the big city farther out of mind, and Lake Livingston opens up the horizon with 83,000 acres of tempting jade-green water.

Just one and a half hours outside Houston, the lake and its surroundings offer a range of pursuits that could keep an outdoorsy family busy for weeks. Exploring the area on Thursday, I passed more RV spots and cabin rentals than I could keep track of. Unlike Lake Houston, which is ringed almost completely by houses, public access is easy to find in the form of parks, boat ramps and marinas.

Even better, the lake is among the best in the state for fishing, with abundant native and stocked bass, crappie, catfish and bream.

Beyond fishing, visitors will find hunting leases, wakeboard-boats for rent and even an 18-hole golf course developed by the same folks who thought up The Woodlands.

Wannabe cowboys can sign up for breakfast or steak-dinner trail rides in Lake Livingston State Park, which has to be among the nicest public campgrounds I’ve ever visited. Campers there cool off in an old swimming pool ($3 for adults, closed Tuesday and Wednesday) that overlooks the lake. A four-story viewing tower rises behind the full-service marina and fishing dock, and there’s even a tandem bicycle for rent behind the marina store.

Across the lake, Sam Houston National Forest boasts the 129-mile Lone Star Hiking Trail. Other public places to play include Wolf Creek Park and Southland Park below the dam, both maintained by the Trinity River Authority. (In case you’re curios, the lake formed when the agency dammed the river in 1969, and today Lake Livingston provides 71 percent of Houston’s drinking water.)

Where Lake Conroe offers resorts with spas and fitness centers, you’ll find only two small motels on Lake Livingston, both combined with camping facilities and one at the end of a dirt road marked by a sign featuring a glowing 8-foot-tall bass. Somehow, despite its scenery, the area is not over developed. I find the country atmosphere charming in ways some may not.

But for families whose idea of a fantastic vacation involves worms and a camper, Lake Livingston offers the trifecta of affordable lodging, abundant shoreline and a short drive from town.