Lake Mackenzie Park Primitive Camping

Location is very private. The rate is much less for the other sites. Eagle Point, the premier site, is on a bluff that overlooks the lake. Some sites had no hookups. The regular camp sites have water and 30/50 amp electric. Water quality is very good. No need for a filter here. The lake water level was down but still fun to dunk and swim in.

There is a day pass for each person over 13 yrs old. Adult $5/day Senior $3/day

No TV coverage here. No cell service in general. We placed a MOFI 4500 with paddle antennas on the picnic table and almost got up to a streaming level. Will try external Yagi antennae and report next time.

There is a large ATV Park to the rear.

30 minute drive to Caprock Canyon State Park.

There is a $5 fee per person per day. Campsite fees range from $5 to $35. You pay at the tackle shop. The park is owned by the local water district. The RV sites have 30/50 amp with water. There are 2 dump sites on the property. The dump setup is not great. The website has the fee schedule.

There was fire wood at the location, a grille, and a covered metal picnic table included.

Great Camping Trip - MacKenzie Lake, TX. Quiet, starry nights with shooting stars and a polar orbit satellite, dinosaurs, fantastic scenery..........

No TV and no Verizon service.

We didn't camp here but we came out here for the day, they have some awesome camping sites with beautiful views but you have to pay not only a fee to camp there overnight but also a fee to be there during the day as well.. it would've cost around $100 for us to be there Friday for 2 days and it's just not money we cared to spend when we could stay free just 12 miles away. Anywho, we payed $10 for a day pass and headed in! The water was a little low but that worked out in our favor because we were able to drive down on a boat dock that is now closed and we pulled up right on the water. The kids were able to play and collect sea shells, the water was clear and nice compared to lake water I've seen. We didn't go to the "beach" area cause from the road it didn't look worth it and the road down was questionable but we had a great time where we were and many memories were made. We'll definitely come back for the day again.
Oh and no cell signal.

We're staying at the city park in Silverton, and since this is only a dozen miles outside of town or so, we thought we'd go check it out and write up a review for Campendium for it, since no one else had written a review yet.

It's hard to say how I feel about this park, to be honest. First off, there's a fee to get into it that you have to pay down at the tackle shop, which for a county park was kind of squiffy to me...? But that might just be me. My other problem with it was that when we went to the tackle shop to ask the employee for information, he was rattling off prices like there was no tomorrow ($X for day use; $Y to launch a boat; $Z to dry camp; $A to camp with full hook-ups; $B per person; $M for a yearly fee for a person; $Q for a yearly fee for a family...the list just. wouldn't. stop).

I finally asked, "Do you have a price list that we can take with us?" and he gave us a blank look. "Uhhhhh..."

Nope. Such a thing did not exist, despite having a very byzantine fee structure. ???

We told the gentleman that we were just looking around, so he didn't make us pay an entrance fee into the park, which I appreciated. However, it meant that we didn't dare slow down much as we drove around, because we kept worrying that we were going to get into trouble for not having a day pass in our truck window, lol, so the whole thing was more than a little stressful to me.

Let's see...

The roads are *crap*. Like, *total crap, yo.* I don't know if they're always that rutted and beat to heck and back, but they were so deeply rutted in places, I was a little worried we were going to have to put our truck into 4WD to drive around (without a trailer!) on dry-as-a-bone roads. INSIDE OF AN RV PARK. Not impressed.

The first place you get to when you go into the park is the first boat launch (apparently there are two, according to the map on the wall, but we only saw the one). We wandered around there, and even though it was pretty, it is meant 100% for fishermen in boats or people on watercraft (like skis, skidoos, etc). There are signs saying not to fish off the dock and there's not a lot of easy access to shoreline that isn't the dock. There are also signs saying not to swim. There are no picnic tables here; no bathrooms of any kind; it's just parking for trucks pulling trailers, and a place to put a boat in.

Past that, the paving of the road disappears and things start getting hairy. Drive for a bit and you'll find a bait tackle shop on your right; on your left, there's a bathroom and a dump station-ishy. I personally would not want to dump here – it's on the side of a hill and the water is across from the dump spot...whoever designed it obviously doesn't RV themselves. It does appear to be free, or at least there were no signs about how much it cost to dump.

Drive down the rutted road between the tackle shop and the bathrooms, and that's where you'll find picnic tables scattered everywhere. Keep going, and you'll find a big Rotary park with playground equipment. Past that (you're about halfway around the lake now), and you'll finally get to the RV campground area. There is no shade; a lot of the RVs parked there look like they've been there for a long time. ?? I kinda think that they just permanently park their RVs there. One even had a deck (not kidding!) Lots of the RVs had shade cloth up; lights strung around them; yard art out and about. I've seen a lot of RV parks by this point, and this just wasn't your standard RV park with daily and weekly renters in it, period.

The RV campground is far away from the lake; combine that with the complete lack of greenery of any kind – not a good shade tree to be found – and the fact that there is absolutely no service of any cell service on any provider means that if you're trying to find a place to work while on the road, this isn't for you.

Overall, I'm sure that locals probably enjoy this area but there's no reason to drive out of your way to go there unless you have a big bass boat and want to take it out on the water.