Riverside Park Campground

There are two loops here, one near the river which is much like most state parks, full hookups. We stayed in the Wilderness loop- water and electric only. There is a dump station near the ranger station. Lots of large trees all around. Site was moderately level, We were the only ones in the Wilderness loop on Thursday, Feb 29th. No cell service. Friendly staff and clean showers and restrooms at ranger station, no bathroom facilities in Wilderness loop.

Cell Service: DON'T count on it. With Verizon we bounced between no service and 1 bar, quite literally it mattered where you stood outside, you could be talking and move 5 feet and lose signal. The Park Ranger echoed this and said it is that way with all service providers, not just Verizon. We used a WeBoost Destination RV (their strongest booster) and was able to maintain a connection in the trailer, barely 1 bar, it was only good enough for phone calls, texting and casual web browsing. Couldn't get any video's to stream, YouTube type website had a hard time loading, let along play any videos. Bonus for me as the family actually had to pay attention to each other :)

Wilderness Area Loop, "primitive" loop with power and water, $30 per night:
This loop is the "primitive" loop, there are water and electric hookups, the parking pads are gravel / dirt / grass mix. This loop is allowed to be more natural than the Colorado Loop. Thick underbrush and trees. All sites are shaded, many/most all day. Not a good loop if you want to use solar or satellite TV/internet. More dear and wildlife in this loop than in the Colorado Loop. Being the primitive loop with dirt/gravel road and camp sites, it does get somewhat muddy after heavy rains, but drains fairly well.

We stayed in site 45 is and found it to be steep front to back. The tongue of our 33ft trailer was as low as it could go and was still about 1 inch high, which was fine for us. Noticed that most the sites on the Eastern edge of this loop (closest to the river) or all somewhat on a hill side, so be ready to drop the trailer tongue down low to be level. The other sites seemed to be pretty level. Also being on a hill, if it rains water runs through some of the Eastern sites in this loop, unfortunately I think site 45 is the worst, I would suggest almost any other site is better if there is rain in the forecast.

Colorado Cove Loop, "park setting" loop with power, water, and sewer hookups $40 per night.
This loop has nice paved blacktop roads and the sites are all kept mowed and trees trimmed up high. Looks a lot like a well maintained municipal park (which it is). You won't get the feeling of being in the wilderness like you will on the other loop. Some of the spots nearest the river will require you to drop the tongue of the trailer pretty much to the ground to get level. If you have satellite TV/Internet, you can find spots in this loop with a clear view of the sky.

General Comments:
All sites appear to have 30 Amp Power, only a select few have 50 Amp, so if you need 50 Amp pay attention when booking your site. If you are a remote/traveling working that relies on mobile cell phone networks for your job, this campground is not for you. If you have satellite internet, careful choosing of a site in the Colorado Cove loop might give you enough view of the sky for it to work.

All the buildings, picnic tables, etc. are in near new condition. The campground was wiped out during Hurricane Harvey and has since been rebuilt pretty much from scratch.

As of May 2023 they are installing an internet fiber connection to the campground. Park Ranger said in the near future they should have Wi-Fi available, which might help remote traveling workers. I suspect in keeping with the theme of the two loops, Colorado Cove will be the first to get WiFi, and I'm not sure it will be offered in the Wilderness Loop since they are trying to keep the primitive feel to it.

This campground is kind of unique in that it offers two experiences, one of a wilderness in the thicket type camping, and another of manicured municipal park and campground, choose based on your preferences. There is a train off in the distance you can hear multiple times per day, but I never noticed it when inside my trailer. While we were there over the weekend, the Wilderness Loop was empty, only one other camper besides us. The Colorado Cove loop was nearly full, only a few available campsites.

Although not shown on the campground map, there is a dump station next to the Ranger Station.

We were so happy with this campground. The park just reopened in June of 2020 after hurricane Harvey wiped it out. All new facilities have been put in. Great pedestals at each site with 20/30/50,water and sewer. Nice laundry facilities at the ranger station. The ranger and his assistant are the best. So friendly and helpful. The drive in is absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed Bay City too we were able to find anything we needed there.