★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Palo Pinto County
Drive-up · public land · Palo Pinto County, TX · 32.88267, -98.48455
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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.
A wonderful free campsite in a designated camping area on the shore of the Brazos River in Possum Kingdom. Hilltop wooded setting with great view of water down below. Close to boat ramp and boating opportunities. Picnic table with brick shelter, fire ring, trash cans, vault toilet. Enough room for one or two vehicles. Great cell service. Recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 6 April 2019. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Palo Pinto County
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 1,052 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Palo Pinto 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 Palo Pinto County · public land · TX
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- OOutfitter1 mi
- +Urgent care2 mi
- HHardware2 mi
- GGrocery2 mi
- FFuel3 mi
- @Mail3 mi
- MMechanic14 mi
- LLaundry23 mi
- RxPharmacy24 mi
- WWater24 mi
- EVEV fast charger25 mi
- ShShower26 mi
- AAir-up38 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 24-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 2 mi out.
Not within 60 mi: Dump, Propane. Plan those before you head up.
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 — Palo Pinto County
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
1,052 ft
Ground slope
11.9% · noticeable
County
Palo Pinto County, TX
Coordinates
32.88267, -98.48455
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Palo Pinto County · public land · TX (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurePossum Kingdom Lake · under 0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Brazos River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townBrad · ~9.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelValero · ~20.9 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesThe Trading Post · ~2.0 mi
- PharmacyWalgreens · ~23.8 mi
- Hospital / clinicGraham Regional Medical Center · ~15.4 mi
- HardwareAce Hardware · ~23.2 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
Yes
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Recommended
EV charging — from Palo Pinto County · public land · TX — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger24.7 mi straight-line E — Auto World Chevrolet of Mineral Wells · EV Connect · CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: Mon: 7:30am-5:00pm; Tue: 7:30am-5:00pm; Wed: 7:30am-5:00pm; Thu: 7:30am-5:00pm; Fri: 7:30am-5:00pm; Sat: 8:00am-1:00pm · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach1 within 25 mi · 14 within 50 · 184 within 100 · 297 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)28.7 mi — Rusty's - Santo, Santo
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO37.7 mi — Walmart 561 (Eastland, TX), Eastland
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)41.9 mi — Hampton Inn & Suites Dallas/Duncanville, Weatherford, TX · Blink Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · 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 328966 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Palo Pinto County · public land · TX — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaUnknown · ~27.4 mi S
Coming out here — Palo Pinto County · public land · TX
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Possum Kingdom Lake as a perennial lake or pond, under 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 11.9% — noticeable. 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 Palo Pinto County elsewhere
Who holds the land at Palo Pinto County
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as D&D South, manager on record: Brazos River Authority (local government). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Palo Pinto 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 (Palo Pinto 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. He camped here on 6 April 2019. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Palo Pinto 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 — Palo Pinto County
Finding water out here →Dumping grey & black →Hot-weather camping →Power off-grid →All field notes →