Agency-listedUSACEFree
Soldiers Bluff Park
Drive-up · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX · 31.86346, -97.37479
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 →U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lists this site. Someone from the agency inventoried it, so it is a real camp — not a spot we guessed at. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Free camping at a US Army Corps of Engineers park on Whitney Lake, Texas. The Corps states in writing that camping here is free: "Camping, group, and picnic facilities are free and available on a first come-first serve basis." There is no camping fee, no day-use fee, no permit and no pass required -- you just show up, and sites are first-come, first-served. 14 camp/picnic sites, one restroom (toilets only) and a day-use group pavilion. No boat ramp here. On the west end of Whitney Dam off TX-22. Gates open 6:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m., with a night exit if you need to leave late. Stay limit is 14 days in any 30-day period. This is primitive camping: plan on hauling out your own trash, and check current conditions with the lake office before a long drive, since the Corps closes parks for flooding and lake levels swing a lot in Texas.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Soldiers Bluff Park
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 541 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Soldiers Bluff ParkNIFC · 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 Soldiers Bluff Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel6 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- HHardware7 mi
- RxPharmacy7 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- LLaundry7 mi
- MMechanic13 mi
- DDump16 mi
- EVEV fast charger17 mi
- +Urgent care18 mi
- AAir-up18 mi
- OOutfitter19 mi
- WWater21 mi
- ShShower22 mi
- PPropane51 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 21-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 6 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 — Soldiers Bluff Park
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Elevation
541 ft
Ground slope
12.1% · noticeable
State
TX
Coordinates
31.86346, -97.37479
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Soldiers Bluff Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake Whitney · ~0.1 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Brazos River (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townLaguna Park · ~0.4 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelBonanza Mart · ~6.1 mi
- Propane / LPGAllsup's · ~6.0 mi
- Dump station~15.5 mi
- GroceriesBrookshire's · ~7.6 mi
- PharmacyPrescription Pharmacy · ~6.9 mi
- Hospital / clinicGoodall-Witcher Hospital · ~14.0 mi
- HardwareKeith Ace Hardware · ~6.8 mi
EV charging — from Soldiers Bluff Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger16.8 mi straight-line E — Abbott, TX - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · NACS (Tesla) · 8 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-06-18 · hours: 24 hours daily. NACS partner enabled. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach7 within 25 mi · 31 within 50 · 279 within 100 · 441 within 150
- Nearest listing CCS17.1 mi — Eagle View Travel Center - Tesla Supercharger (Eagle Travel Center), West
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO48.6 mi — Cracker Barrel, Burleson
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)13.4 mi — Velkommen Inn (Formerly Best Western), Clifton, TX (at a hotel) · UNIVERSAL · J1772 · 4 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2024-02-12 · 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 201925 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Soldiers Bluff Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaUnknown · ~16.5 mi E
- Highway rest areaUnknown · ~16.7 mi E
- RestroomVisitor Center · ~21.2 mi SE · NPS
Coming out here — Soldiers Bluff Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake Whitney 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 12.1% — 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.
- 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 Soldiers Bluff Park elsewhere
Other camps near Soldiers Bluff Park
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Walling Bend Park~2.7 mi
- Cedar Creek Park~8.8 mi
- Steele Creek Park~10.8 mi
Who holds the land at Soldiers Bluff Park
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Whitney Point Recreation Area, manager on record: Army Corps of Engineers (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Soldiers Bluff Park
Stay limit
14 nights (Stay limit is 14 days in any 30-day period)
Fee note
no fee AND no permit/pass required
Source
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
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
Source: USACE Fort Worth District official park page https://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/whitney/Recreation/Parks/Corpsparks.shtml (retrieved 2026-07-20); free-camping wording quoted verbatim in field_note. Coordinates: OSM way 1274426426 (tourism=camp_site 'Soldiers Bluff Park', operator=CoE). Verified free = no fee AND no permit/pass required, per Dave's Texas free-only rule. Ingested pending 2026-07-20 04:53:36.
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
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Soldiers Bluff Park
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.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- 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