Agency-listedUSACEFree
Steele Creek Park
Drive-up · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX · 32.00585, -97.44913
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, picnicking, and boat launching facilities are free." 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. 21 camp/picnic sites with ground cookers, water faucets through the park, two restrooms (toilets only) and two boat ramps. West side of the lake off FM 56 near Lakeside Village. 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 Steele Creek Park
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 546 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Steele Creek 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 Steele Creek 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
- FFuel2 mi
- DDump5 mi
- GGrocery6 mi
- HHardware7 mi
- @Mail7 mi
- RxPharmacy8 mi
- LLaundry8 mi
- MMechanic10 mi
- AAir-up16 mi
- +Urgent care19 mi
- EVEV fast charger21 mi
- WWater24 mi
- OOutfitter24 mi
- ShShower27 mi
- PPropane50 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 24-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 2 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 — Steele Creek Park
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Elevation
546 ft
Ground slope
2.7% · flat
Nearest rail line
~5.6 mi · main line
State
TX
Coordinates
32.00585, -97.44913
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Steele Creek Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureLake Whitney · ~0.2 mi · USGS: perennial lake or pond
- Also mapped (OSM)Steele Creek (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- Nearest townLakeside Village · ~2.8 mi
- Nearest rail line~5.6 mi · main line
- Nearest highwayno interstate or US route within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelBonanza Mart · ~5.2 mi
- Propane / LPGAllsup's · ~9.0 mi
- Dump station~4.8 mi
- GroceriesDavid's Express · ~5.9 mi
- PharmacyEubank Drug · ~7.6 mi
- Hospital / clinicGoodall-Witcher Hospital · ~17.9 mi
- HardwareTuckers · ~7.1 mi
EV charging — from Steele Creek Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger21.0 mi straight-line E — Hillsboro, TX - Tesla Supercharger (at a gas station) · Tesla · CCS, NACS (Tesla) · 24 fast ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-04-21 · hours: 24 hours daily. Open to all vehicles. · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reach5 within 25 mi · 44 within 50 · 262 within 100 · 437 within 150
- Nearest listing CHAdeMO39.4 mi — Cracker Barrel, Burleson
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)15.4 mi — CT4000 MERIDIAN PUBLIC · ChargePoint 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 447388 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Steele Creek Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
Coming out here — Steele Creek Park · U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · TX
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Lake Whitney as a perennial lake or pond, ~0.2 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 2.7% — 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.
- Rail line mapped ~5.6 mi from the pin — the national rail atlas classes it as a main line. The atlas also records Amtrak service on it. That is the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026), which records that a line is there and what class of track it is. Whether anything runs on it, how often, and at what hour, it does not say, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin in the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). That file holds the divided, limited-access highways only — a state expressway or a two-lane US route near this camp would not be in 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 Steele Creek Park elsewhere
Other camps near Steele Creek Park
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Cedar Creek Park~4.6 mi
- Walling Bend Park~8.0 mi
- Soldiers Bluff Park~10.8 mi
Who holds the land at Steele Creek 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 — Steele Creek 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 1274951162 (leisure=park); sits between SWF ArcGIS ramps 32.00249 and 32.00955. 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 Steele Creek 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