Amistad National Recreational Area

Amistad National Recreational Area is an interesting place. It’s a man made reservoir near Del Rio Texas that is half in the United States and half in Mexico. It’s a huge area with its 58,500 acres. It mainly attracts campers, boaters and fisherman. There were hundreds of boats and trailers at the several boat ramps. At the Visitors Center we saw several species of Bass that were caught in the lake. One was a replica of a large mouth bass mounted in a display case weighing 37 pounds! Fishing Tournaments run year round.

You can get maps and information at the visitors center.

We were interested in its inexpensive campgrounds of which there are five. We explored all of them and I thought this blog post might help anyone thinking about visiting Amistad.

All five campgrounds along the reservoir and are dry camping, no electric or water hookups and are first come first serve. You want to pack your solar panel, or generator when camping at any of these campgrounds. All campsites have picnic tables, grilles, trash receptacles, and clean pit toilets. Governors Landing is the only campground with water spigots.  Governors Landing costs $8.00 per night with half off if you have a National America The Beautiful pass. The other four campgrounds were $4.00 per night and half off with the pass. There is a free RV dumping station just off of Highway 90 west of the Visitors Center at Diablo East.

Governors Landing: This is where we stayed. It was nice but could have used a little sprucing up. Trash in the scrub brush around the sites was to me unsightly, although it didn’t seem to bother Sue too much. The reservoir level was low, but we could still walk down to the water. Sue spent a lot of time rock picking here. I met a retired National Park Ranger here and he was kind enough to give me the low down on some National Parks we plan to visit, including Big Bend. Governors Landing is right next to Highway 90 and train tracks, so it can get noisy.

We met a friendly feller from Minnesota who is a regular here at Governors Landing.  I happened to mention to him that it was too bad they didn’t trim the scrub brush height at the camp site so the view of the lake would be better. The next day after Sue and I came back from exploring the area the bushes had been trimmed and we now had a great view!

Spur 406: Is north across the bridge on Highway 90 and is more remote. There are 5 or 6 camp sites and a boat ramp that was closed when we visited due to the water level. This would make for great camping if you like quiet. One of the rangers told me about some free dispersed camping here. Just past the last pit toilet take a left onto the dirt road. Plenty of room out back there and you can set up along the river. No picnic tables or water or garbage cans or anything else except a lone porta potty. Very secluded and very quiet!

San Pedro Campground: Just east of the visitors center on Highway 90. One of the rangers told me that it had just opened back up after a plane had crashed there. There are over 30 sites here and I’d consider setting up camp here next time. I didn’t see any access to the water.

277 North: 10 to 15 sites that looked nice. Access to the water when we were there. I’d set up camp here as well.

Rough Canyon Campground: A longer drive to get to this one as it’s on the north end of the reservoir. There are 4 campsites that overlook the water. There is a boat ramp which was very busy and a fish cleaning area. Also has a visitors center, and a small store with restaurant which were all closed when we were there. There is a beautiful picnic area which Sue and I took advantage of.