★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Fannin County
Drive-up · public land · Fannin County, TX · 33.72620, -95.98811
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Free dispersed camping in a wildlife management area located in the Caddo Grasslands of northern Texas. This is a primitive, spacious fenced-in area. Accessible from dirt road, not far from pavement. It's mostly grassy with some tree coverage, and with fire rings scattered throughout. Short walk to lake. Room for numerous vehicle-supported campers. Popular location next to lake, so other campers likely. Not much to explore, but nice area for outdoor recreation. Recommended. Good cell service.
A night on record
Dave slept here, but his diary does not date the night: this entry carries only a timestamp it shares with 50 other entries in eight states, all written within the same three seconds — a file being saved, not a night. So it says nothing about season.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Fannin County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 530 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Fannin CountyNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Fannin County · National Forests in Texas · TX
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel10 mi
- GGrocery10 mi
- RxPharmacy14 mi
- EVEV fast charger14 mi
- HHardware15 mi
- LLaundry15 mi
- @Mail15 mi
- MMechanic15 mi
- +Urgent care26 mi
- OOutfitter28 mi
- ShShower32 mi
- DDump32 mi
- WWater33 mi
- AAir-up43 mi
- PPropane56 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 33-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 10 mi out.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Fannin County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
530 ft
Ground slope
1.1% · flat
County
Fannin County, TX
Coordinates
33.72620, -95.98811
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Fannin County · National Forests in Texas · TX (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureCoffee Mill Lake · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Nearest townCarson · ~2.0 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelValero · ~10.0 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesStore · ~10.0 mi
- PharmacyBrookshire's · ~13.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicSam Rayburn Veterans Administration Hospital · ~14.1 mi
- HardwareFix & Feed · ~14.6 mi
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
Had a signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Fannin County · National Forests in Texas · TX — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger14.5 mi straight-line SW — TXB #5 STATION 1, Bonham, TX · ChargePoint Network · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach2 within 25 mi · 19 within 50 · 225 within 100 · 360 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO28.2 mi — Southeastern EC, Durant
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)26.1 mi — Paris Extended Stay Suites (at a hotel) · UNIVERSAL · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-07-15 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 354824 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Fannin County · National Forests in Texas · TX — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletCoffeemill · ~1.1 mi NE · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBois D' Arc · ~1.4 mi N · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletWest Lake Davy Crockett · ~3.5 mi E · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletEast Lake Davy Crockett · ~3.9 mi E · USFS
Coming out here — Fannin County · National Forests in Texas · TX
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Coffee Mill Lake as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.1 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as perennial is not the same as flowing today. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1.1% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (1 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Fannin County elsewhere
Other camps near Fannin County
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- East Coffee Mill Lake Recreation Area~1.1 mi
- Bois D' Arc~1.4 mi · fee
- Fannin County~2.6 mi
- West Lake Crockett Recreation Area~3.5 mi
The unit that manages Fannin County
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Fannin County are set by National Forests in Texas, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Fannin County
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Fannin County, TX). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. His diary does not date the night. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Fannin County
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Fannin County
Finding water out here →Reading a forest MVUM →Dumping grey & black →How to read this page →All field notes →