Thompson Grove Picnic Area

I camped here for one night while geocaching in the Texas & Oklahoma panhandles. I arrived at twilight to find a few tents & RVs at the site -- all were very quiet. I set up my tent by moonlight and settled in. One last vehicle arrived at 10 or 10:30 PM, likewise respectfully. During the night, the only sounds were a light breeze through the trees and some coyotes a ways off. After catching the beautiful daybreak across the plain, I was packed & rolling.

My reason for giving a 4/5 on Site Quality was the lack of a fire ring or a picnic table, although I had need of neither.

We stayed here on our way to Taos from OKC. You do have to drive about 15 miles off the highway to get to the campground but for a free, super low key place, it’s worth it. It’s nothing special with hardly any amenities but if you have a fetish for moths, there are plenty of those. I would recommend this to anyone set up to boondock or tent camp.

Yes, the picnic area is free to camp in up to fourteen days. Other than it being free, why you would want to camp here remains an unknown. We noticed there are a few rest areas and picnic areas off the main road Highway 87 and really no need to detour more than twelve miles northeast to camp here. The grassland here is impressive, but really not much happening but a picnic and few cows mooing. Actually we were expecting more from something called a “National Grassland”. Still, we will be traveling southeast again later today toward our Florida base camp and plan on staying overnight at another free National Grassland in Crawford, Oklahoma.

AT&T cell service was an acceptable two bars that was far faster and more reliable than the sluggish and erratic four bars we suffered through in Leadville, Colorado. The vault toilets were clean. Plenty of trash receptacles, grills, and picnic tables. No other amenities. Hard rains and a blistering wind drove a group of tent campers out, but there were three other lone vehicles parked in the lot when the sun came up. No designated sites for RV’s, just a large gravel parking lot. We chose a parking spot that flooded with the rains and left a slippery clay mud bath to plod through in the morning. But it was free.

Cute little picnic and camp area. Clean bathrooms (with TP) and empty trash cans. Free up to 14 days. We stayed one night with very little daylight camping but overnight was wonderful, quiet (only the sounds of wild animals and nature), and perhaps without clouds would be a nice stargazing location. Unfortunately we a cloudy night. Also had great little picnic setups with fire pits. AT&T cell service is a go!

We stayed at this dry camping facility 1 night in early March 2019, arriving shortly before sunset and departing before sunrise the next morning. We didn’t get out to see much, because there isn’t much to see except picnic tables and flat open prairie.

It is a picnic area operated by the US Forest Service in the middle of a National Grassland that just so happens to double as a dispersed campsite.

Maps and GPS units will say Thompson Grove is in Dalhart, TX, but we drive through Dalhart about 20 miles before getting here, so it isn’t really “in” anything ... other than the Rita Blanca National Grassland.

But it is quiet, isolated and clean, which was enough to earn it full stars from us. The pit latrine facilities were very clean and well stocked, but they are not lighted at night, so be sure to have a flashlight available for night trips to the potty. There are wildlife-proof waste receptacles on site that were obviously tended to regularly since they were all empty when we arrived.

For how remote the location is, I was surprised that we had blisteringly fast AT&T LTE service here ... a full 85.6 Mbps download speed. The fastest service by any carrier at any camping location that I have recorded. Verizon was unusable at this location as it bounced between 1x and 3G with the majority of time being spent in the much less useful of the two service categories.

We would definitely stay here again if passing through the area, but probably no longer than 1 night at a time.

We stayed for one night on our way through the area. There's enough room to get our trailer turned around (27'), but much longer and you should back in from the road. There are pit toilets, picnic tables, fire pits and grills. We were the only people there, which was not surprising in December. The only viable lights at night were miles away and only noises were coyotes. There's an old 2 track road that makes for a nice walk. Beautiful landscape!

We were looking for a place to stay in or near the Rita Blanca National Grasslands. We're self contained and don't use the facilities. We stayed on a weeknight in late October in our 25 foot MH.

This is a pleasant, free place to stay, near the center of RBNG. It's 0.5 mi off the main paved road through the park. It's a picnic area by day and RVs may camp overnight in the flat, gravel parking lot. There'd be room for about 4-6 RVs comfortably if all cooperated on parking. There was one other RV on our stay. There are no utilities. There's a pit toilet and picnic tables. There was good ATT and Verizon cell coverage. We had a quiet night. There are dirt roads nearby for walking.

On my way through Texas I found this spot in the panhandle. It's pretty far off the main road which can be good, but when I arrived I saw warning signs of plague in rats and prairie dogs and to wear bug spray because the mosquitos were so bad. I'm thankful for the warning signs and decided to move on.

It's a very small space where as an RV, you park in a parking spot in the dirt lot and then can pitch a tent if you'd like. There's no parking in the grass or area where you could set up your chairs, table, etc. If the lot was full you'd be right next to your neighbor.

For me it wasn't worth it and considering how long it took to get there from the main road and I'm just passing through.