Emma Long Metropolitan Park

With such mixed reviews, we were overall pleasantly surprised by this park. The waterfront utility sites are simply stunning. Definitely not for larger RVs however, so glad we visited in our van conversion as a side trip.

There are some downsides to this park -

• Check-in time is officially 3pm, but the office closes at 4pm. Kinda a tight window to make. We came in a touch later than 4pm - no problem. In the morning a host checked our license plate, and informed us to come to the front office to get our paperwork. Since we're in a van and didn't want to disconnect - we had to walk. It's over a mile walk back. Seems silly - couldn't they have just brought the form to us, or had it available for late check-in?

• I also do worry about what would happen if a non-reserved late arrival just came and took a reserved spot? There was absolutely no indication at the gate house or the spots which sites were open.

• There are large houses across the river. They're pretty to look at. But the big annoyance is that mid-week many of them have lawn care services. Our entire stay was listening to mowers and leaf blowers caring for the huge lawns. Some houses were also having renovations, so there was construction noise too. Basically, don't come here expecting being out deep in nature - despite the long twisty road to get here.

• The bathhouses are miserable. Metal toilets and outdoor shower stalls & changing 'rooms' with no curtains for privacy. They felt more like a prison or gym, than a campground. Oh, and over a 1/2 mile walk from pretty much any site (tent or RV).

Overall, if you come prepared to be self sufficient, and catch a day without yard maintenance across the way - this place has the potential to be magical. At least the RV spots. The tent spots looked downright horrible (packed in, on a slope and not even close to the water).

I'm not sure why this site is getting such bad reviews on here. I really wasn't expecting a great experience but we needed to be close to Austin and this fit the bill. It was great! I will admit, we weren't in the tent section and it looks like they just stack them up down there and on the third night (a Friday night) there were some loud neighbours who were setting off something very loud. The drive up is twisty but not unreasonably so. It is also breathtaking. There were lots of pretty big rigs there while we were there. The RV section is right on the (other) Colorado River. It is a fast moving, huge river! Across the river are fancy houses. Boats start using the river recreationally pretty early. Our site was paved, with water and electricity. The sites are wide enough to fit a vehicle and an RV, mostly. There are lots of port-a-potties around and actual bathrooms (that we didn't use). The parks and rec. guy came by multiple times each day. We were pretty much 30 minutes away from any destination in Austin. It also seemed safe as I didn't realize our bikes or grill were not locked up the whole time we were there, only when we were packing up did we realize. Nothing was stolen. The check out time is 10am, which is a bit inconvenient.

This two night (Thu / Fri) stay was far above our expectations, based on other reviews, perhaps because it was the first week of March. While the other paved campsites were full, there were no day users, so the park was very quiet. Lots of grass around the very wide sites and down to the lake. Our 24' Class B+ just fit into Site 10. There was one Class A on another site, but this is not a place for "big rigs", both because of the site size and the hilly, twisting access road. The dump station is marked, but the opening is just a metal plate on the asphalt, not the typical foot-operated cap. And, there was no wash down hose. We are boaters, so watching the occasional pontoon or ski boat drive by was a plus. The gate was not locked during our stay.

The County Line On The Lake BBQ restaurant, with a large covered dog-friendly porch right on water, is within a few miles. We did not have time to hike the popular Turkey Creek trail, but will do so if we return. When we left on Saturday morning, the parking lot for the trail was full, but almost empty on the two previous days.

The park was pretty run down, but we'll chock that up to it being the middle of a very cold December. Our site was adequate for the rate, with water and power. Close to a good part of Austin and only 20 min from downtown. Couple trails in the area.

We did have one night where we had to put the smack down on a large group pulled in across from us at Midnight to party. Otherwise a solid location.

I've reviewed this place before but it's been a few years, and we camped this time in the tent zone, so Im'ma drop another fat beat here get all the new kids on the block in sync.

The tent area...yeah, it's for tenting, so I didn't expect much, and don't need much. There was shade cast down on the corner of our site from a beautiful elm tree, a nice little trail leading up into the cliffside, a firepit, and a ridiculous number of biting ants. Like, ten million. We all got bitten all day long all the time. They didn't get into our Bus, but if at any point we wanted to be outside it was like playing Austin Roulette.

It was Mother's Day weekend, where local tradition holds that as many people as possible are required to come to this park and completely destroy the toilets. The many port o johns scattered across the park ended up being the better choice come Sunday.

Other annoyances...well, when we finally got over to the RV park part, where they have hookups and you're on the water and it's rather beautiful actually, spacious sites, just a lovely spot (largely ant free!), a family was in our site.

So we asked them to leave but they didn't want to. They asked us where the signs were, told us how silly a reservation system is, and started getting lippy. I explained to them that though we do look like we are the owners of site #7 in Emma Long Park, we actually aren't personally responsible for the rules and simply want to get setup as we've got friends coming over.

They said they'd leave, but next thing I knew Uncle Bill and his son were casting their lines back in. So I repeated the statement that we had the reservation, yada yada. They refused to leave.

A ranger type employee came by and asked them to leave, finally, but not before they threw an impressively massive fish, blood and all, they'd just caught on our table.

Yum, I love my burgers with a little fish guts flavoring!

They also stole our charcoal.

So, I drove to get more charcoal. But the park didn't want to let me leave because they were now "at capacity", a ridiculous idea as there were just about more people than blades of grass.

I was eventually given permission to leave when they heard my sad tale of no charcoal (it's a long drive to go and get supplies from here). I was able to sneak my friends in via my own vehicle, too, which was nice, and then we all had a great evening.

If you've read this far and still want to check out this park (because outside of the weekend, the bathrooms, and the fire ants, it's a pretty chill place), I'd try and snag site #11 in the RV area. Great tree and water access.

Stars below are for the tent area.

This was the only place I could book because of South by Southwest. At least the only place that looked decent. I definitely felt like a city park. The rest rooms closest to the RV sites were closed. The other restrooms worked, but they were sort of open air. Which worked for me the first day, but on the second morning the weather got wet and cold, so it wasn't an option. There was a lot of noise at this campground as well. I slept with my vents opened and fan running because the 30 amp connection plug looked dicey. The staff were not very warm. If you do book this park, be sure you pick the correct amperage site. Because if you have to book another site, getting a refund is a HUGE ordeal. It took months for me to get my money back, only after I called the city of Austin. That kept Austin weird for me. Aside from that, you are miles from downtown. If I weren't for a wedding, and the weather was better, I'm sure I could have found some interesting things around me. I especially could have hiked the trail in the park.

We stayed at Emma Long in March, 2017. It's fairly difficult to get to in a class A, LOTS of steep hills and tight turns coming into the park. Small spaces for RV's/ trailers. A little too small for my taste. We have a 36' and are maxed out as far as distance goes. No real privacy, just a spot. Also, there's no laundry on-site.

We've paid less for much more, but overall it was ok. If I came back in the area I'd try a different park. Nothing special about the place really.

What can I say? Free pecans out the wazoo. Super staffy friendliness types and a very quiet retreat during the week. Party types come up, and aren't discouraged, on the weekends, but who hates all up on a party? Maybe you hate beside a party, or hate it when you end up under the party, but when you're all up on it?

Quite frankly, I'd choose this over McKinney any day for a public campground near Austin...except that it's not really that near Austin. 45 minutes will get you downtown, but there's really nothing between here and there other than beautiful rolling forested hillsides speckled with the occasional mansion. Getting groceries, a gas station, anything like that is at least 20 minutes, usually more in the intense traffic that is outside of Austin.

And the showers...well they're more or less unusable. They work. You do the whole "push a button, get water for 30 seconds" thing, which means you have to sit there and hit that button like 20 times before the water gets even close to warm. So it's a frigid, outdoor shower situation.

There were also some wicked mute swans who kept approaching our campsite. They're chest high when they stretch out and hiss like dinosaurs. People feed them, so they're friendly, unless you don't feed them, and then they just stand around hissing like you're the jerk. Yeah, buddy, I'm the jerk, but you're the close relative to a dinosaur who's hissing at me and making my dog look like a monkey in a diaper.

Cell reception was exceptional, and also note that you have to pay an entry fee, but only the first day you arrive. It's $5 if you show up on a weekday, $10 if you show up the weekend. I was told there was a 14 day max stay, but that they were also pretty lenient about it. And you just have to leave for 1 day if you were called out. And if you have a TX State Parks pass, they'll give you a discount on that entry fee, I think it went down to $3 on weekdays and not sure about the weekend rate.

How do you fight a swan without hurting it anyway?

Date of stay: March 2015

Emma Long is right on Lake Austin (aka the Colorado River) and offers a great setting close to the action in Austin. Prices range from $10 a night for tent sites away from the water, to $20 for utility (RV) sites on the side of the road away from the water, to $25 for waterfront sites. The utility campground (what they call RV sites) offer water and electric, with a dump station available. NOTE: Most sites offer only 20 amp service, with just a couple of 30amp service. This park is definitely not intended for big rigs as the sites are small (older park) and you have to be very aware of your power consumption with just 20 amps to play with.

This is a small park offering first come, first served availability. Arrive on a nice weekend and you may be out of luck. The day use area can get crazy busy on a nice weekend (dead during the week), but (in theory), you cannot enter the RV section without a permit. But plenty of people do a drive through to see what is up, so you get to see them come and go as the RV section dead ends.

This is an old park, with a fairly narrow access road and small sites. I suppose you could shoehorn a 40+ footer in some of the sites, but not sure I would want to try (especially with 20 amps).

This place seems to attract the more obnoxious campers, being right in the city. But on the weekdays it can be a ghost town. Plan accordingly.

Not the cleanest of parks, but trash is emptied every day. Maybe the oldness contributed the the slightly dirty feel.

But all of this can be forgiven when you consider the location. If you pick one of the riverside spots, you are camping right on the river, which is pretty nice. Oh, did I say river. Meant to say lake. But it is really just a wide river right here. Doesn't really matter. Sweet location!

There are plenty of bass boats zooming up and down the river (starting early in the morning and going into the night). And there are plenty of wakeboarder boats out playing. And jet skis. But I like that. Some might not. (Seems to be more bass boats during the week as the river is pretty busy with other traffic on the weekends).

Overall this is a great alternative to a commercial campground (unless you are lucky enough to get a spot in Pecan Grove) when visiting the Austin area. It is 30 minutes (unless you get stuck in the hellacious Austin traffic) from anywhere in downtown, which isn't bad.