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Campground Review

Tres Rios RV Resort – Campground Review

A couple of months ago we signed up for a free weekend at another campground in the Glen Rose area campground called Tres Rios RV Resort. We were initially scheduled to camp in February but due to weather conditions, we postponed it until this weekend.  

Tres Rios RV Resort is a private campground. Meaning that it is not open to the public. Why is this important you may ask? Think of this for a minute. Since 2019, first time RV owners have skyrocketed. There were nearly four million more RV owners between 2019 and 2020 alone! As the number of RV owners grows, the availability for RV spots decreases. In that same time frame there was only a 1.7% increase in RV parks. That means there are a bunch of new families looking to camp and only a very slight increase in place for them to camp.

To break that down even more, of the 15,462 campgrounds in the US as of 2022, approximately half of those are available to the public. Making the available spots for the 86 million households that own a camper to camp in even smaller. 

On top of all of that, spot rent for campgrounds have about doubled in the past five years. Spots that averaged about $30-35 a night, now are about $60-70 a night. There are some campgrounds that are booked out for over a year! 

The Park

Tres Rios is located just outside of Glen Rose, TX, the “dinosaur capital of the world”! It sits on 47 acres where the Brazos, Paluxy Rivers and Squaw Creek come together. It is actually where it got its name from. Tres Rios means Three Rivers. 

RV Spots and Rentals

The park has 238 RV spots, 19 cabins, and 5 cottages. All RV spots have full hook ups and 90% of which have 30 and 50 amp service. The RV spot that we stayed in was approximately 25×70, which appears to be about what most of the spots are. Some are smaller, some are a little bigger. The spots are also perpendicular to the roads, making it a little hard to park compared to ones that are slanted, but not by much. A large majority of them are pull through sites as well.

Playground

Along with the large number of RV spots and cabins, there are a ton of things to do to keep you and/or your kids busy while you are camping there. They have a fairly decent playground that has two playground areas with a slide, climbing wall and several swings. There are also several climbing tires that are buried in the ground and a large tractor tire that has been painted and made into a large sand pit.

 I spoke with our point of contact this weekend and she said that there is a new playground that is scheduled to be installed this year, around summer time, that is going to be a lot better. It will be a large playground system with several slides, swings and other playground items, and the best part is that it will all be covered. 

I wonder what else is planned this year…

Pool

There is a pool located at the back of that park. It isn’t the biggest pool I’ve seen at campgrounds but it is there to swim in. It was built in 1919 by the YWCA. At the time it was the first and the largest inground pool built in Texas. At the time of this post, it is closed so I was not able to go into the fenced area of the pool but from the looks of it, it is about 30’x60’. It ranges in depth from 3’ at one end to 8’ deep where the drain is and the back to 6’ at the far end. At the shallow end of the pool, there is a covered area where parents can sit and watch their kids in the pool. It also serves as an area for a screen for pool time movies! The pool is open from April until October(?)

Yard Games

At the back end of the park, there is a large circle driveway where all the activity area is. In the middle of the circle drive is a volleyball net, tether ball, and several horseshoe pits. It is also the area where they have cornhole tournaments and other yard game events.

Activities at the Park

One of the things that I love about Tres Rios over some of the other parks that we have stayed at, Granted it is only a couple that we have stayed at so far, is that they have planned activities everyday! There is an organized kids activity Wednesday through Sunday at 9am, cards/games everyday at 2pm, Bingo every Friday, cornhole tournaments on Thursdays and the list just goes on and on! You can check out their activities calendar on their website.

On Site Restaurant

During the middle of the year, there is an on site restaurant that serves breakfast on the weekends. We have not had the chance to try this out because it wasn’t open yet at the time of this post, but we will give it a shot when it does open. The building, however, is a very nice building. There is seating for about 75 people or so. The decor inside is an industrial rustic vibe. Stone walls with an open rounded roof which is bare to the inside and hardwood floors. The air conditioning ducts are exposed giving the industrial feel to it.  

The Cost

Tres Rios is one of nine properties owned by Ocean Canyon Properties. All of which are included in your membership. You can goto the Tres Rios website and fill out the form on the page or call the number listed and get a free 3 day, 2 night stay. The only “catch” to it is that you have to attend a sales appointment which lasts anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes. In this meeting they will show you the park, show you all the other parks that are in the network, and the benefits of having a membership. 

A couple days before we went on our free weekend, we looked at the reviews of the park on several different websites. These reviews ranged anywhere from six months to 10 years old. A bunch of the reviews stated that their sales person was very pressuring and that when they turned down the membership they were rude to them the rest of the weekend. We honestly had second thoughts about going just by reading the reviews. 

I am very glad that we did though! 

Our sales meeting lasted about two hours, mainly because my wife and I took a little time to talk after the sales pitch was over. Our sales person was not pushy at all. She was very friendly and was very upfront with us from the very beginning of the meeting that the highest pressure that was going to be put forth is that the offer for the premium membership that included all the parks in the network would expire once the sales meeting was completed. After that, the only option we would be able to get would be for just Tres Rios alone.

When we first heard the total price that the membership cost, we were shocked. However, that shock didn’t last long. They do in house financing for seven years. This makes your monthly payment down to a price that is affordable. I’m not going to put what our price was because your price may be different than mine because of discounts and how much we put down, etc. I will say that the price per month that we are paying is less than a weekly price at many of the other campgrounds that we have looked at! At the average price of daily campsites, it would only take 5 days to more than cover the monthly payment.

Our Plans

One of the limitations that we had prior to getting this membership was having to budget and save for a month to pay for the campsite when we wanted to go camping. This limited us to only about one weekend a month that we could go because it would cost us about $150-180 for a three day weekend camping trip in just the site alone.

With this membership, we can stay at Tres Rios for up to three weeks at a time. Another bonus to this is that it is only about five minutes from my work. Will we jump right in staying three weeks at a time right now, no, but the option is there. This option will be especially good during the summer when the pool is open. For now, we will shoot for a week or two a month and work up there. 

Once we decide to go full time RVing, Tres Rios will be perfect for us since it is so close to my work and with my schedule, I would only have a long commute about two days a month. We are so ready to take this step and hopefully, one day soon, our dream will come true.

Final Thoughts

We were very skeptical before we went after reading all the reviews we did, but I am so glad that we decided to go. I told my wife, worst case scenario, we get a free weekend and have to waste two hours listening to someone talk and we get a blog post to write. I am glad that I was wrong, and that all the reviews we read were either outdated or incorrect.

Would we recommend going to Tres Rios and getting a membership? Absolutely! The gains of the membership is worth so much more than the price tag that is required. 

Until new time…

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post was posted earlier this year(2023) when we first started our blog. I am posting old post first to get caught up to the present and then I will start putting up new posts.

Campground Review

Bravos River Hideout – Second Camping Trip

For our second camping trip we stumbled across a campground called Brazos River Hideout. We were searching Google for campgrounds close by and were scrolling across the map and saw it on the map.  It is snuggled along the Brazos River just outside of Glen Rose, TX. Again we wanted to stay close to home just in case we forgot something again. 

This time around we planned on staying for an entire weekend instead of just a night or two in the middle of the week. We checked in on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. This campground presented us with a little more of a challenge than Dinosaur Valley RV Park did. More on that a little later in this post. 

All and all, we ended up having a great time and it turned out to be a fairly relaxing weekend. Our kids made some new friends, got to ride their bikes, and collect more shells along the river. Jess and I got to sit and relax by the fire both evenings and most of the day.

About the Campground

First off the basics. The campground is out in the middle of nowhere, so it is great if you want to just sit and relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. The campground has 25 RV spots all with a fire pit, picnic table, water, and 30/50 amp electricity. There aren’t any sewer hookups at the sites, but there is a dump station near the entrance/exit to the park. Their website states that they have WiFi, however, it is only available in the cabin and lodge area at the time we stayed there. The park hosts stated that they have been trying to get it down to the RV spot areas for a while but haven’t been able to get it yet. 

Even though there wasnt any Wifi in the camping area, we still had fairly good cell phone service. We are on AT&T and we had two bars while we were outside and had LTE or 5G. When we went inside, it was between one and two bars on LTE. However the cell service was good enough that we were able to stream a movie on our TV hooked to the hotspot on one of our phones.

Even though there isn’t a sewer hookup at the spots, the hosts did have a dump trailer and would come down and empty your tanks for you when you needed it. They actually came down three times while we were there. Not having a sewer hookup with three kids is not fun. You don’t realize how much water you use until you have a limited amount of storage.

The campground is located at the very end of a county road and at the very end of a long one-lane driveway. This makes the campground very secluded and for the most part, if you are down there it is because you are staying there. If you don’t belong there, everyone is going to see you and know that you are there. The draw back to this though is that you are a long way from medical help if you had an emergency. 

When you first enter the park, you are about 30-40 feet above the RV spots. After you check-in, you continue down the one-lane driveway that leads you to a steep downgrade S-Curve that leads to the actual RV spots. The RV spots area are on a 100-year floodplain. While this doesnt really sound that bad, This campground is located downriver from Lake Granbury. During times of heavy rain and the lake is full, the dam at the lake will release water downriver. I drive over this river twice a day when I commute to work and there are several times in the past few years that I have seen the river really high. I have to wonder how high it gets at this campground.

The first thing that we noticed when we got out of the truck to setup our camper was the stickers! We talked to the host on the first day we were there and he said that the owner just reopened the park about a year ago. When he purchased the property the grass was about four feet tall and they have been fighting the stickers ever since. He said that they are working on getting them knocked out but it will probably take a couple years to fully get rid of them. I will say that the grounds are kept very nice. Granted we went there over the New Years weekend so all the grass was dead and the trees didnt have any leaves on them. 

While we were setting up our camper, one of the host stopped by and offered us some 4×6 blocks to use as leveling blocks and offered to bring us some fire wood if we needed any. The spots are pretty level so it made leveling our camper very easy as well. The spot that we ended up in was pretty close to the river entrance. They had a walk way made from railroad ties leading most of the way down to the riverside and it was only about 100 feet or so from our campsite. The view was very nice even though we were surrounded by ground that was taller than than where we were at. At night, it was pitch black, making star gazing at night phenomenal!

Amenities

Let’s talk about amenities. Well, there really wasnt any to speak of. There wasnt a pool or playground, there was an outdoor shower but it was one pull string spray head in the middle of the park. There was a fire ring at each of the camp sites, and they offered firewood at no charge. 

Up on top of the hill near the entrance, there is a club house that you can use. I will say that it looked very nice. The inside of it was beautiful and you could actual sleep probably 20 people in it in the upstairs bedrooms. It had a kitchen, living and dining area and then a male and female bathroom that had multiple showers in it. We learned when we left and stopped in that there was a side door that lead just to the showers so I guess we couldve used those while we were there. 

On the outside of the building there were several seating areas, an outdoor kitchen with grill, sink and a big screen tv. There was a fire pit off to the side with four chairs to sit around it and then a little ways away there was a pavilion with several picnic tables and a large smoker. 

The draw back to this club house is that it is rentable and was rented while we were there by a very large family. So it just didnt feel right to me for me to be hanging out up there and not be part of their group. I think the host need to be a little more communicative when it comes to what is where and all the things that are available to you while camping there. We were basically told that they offered firewood and ice but they didnt tell us where we could get it at. We werent told about the showers or anything that was inside or around the club house.

There is also a one bedroom cabin that is available to rent if you dont have an RV. It is a cute little cabin with a queen bed, bathroom , living and dining area and kitchen.

Online Presence

First off, let’s talk about their online presence. After all, how else are people going to find your campground, see what you have and know if they want to go there or not. You can have the best campground in the world and relying on word of mouth alone will only get you so far. We actually stumbled across the campground when we were looking for campgrounds near me on google. They were not listed on the search results, it was just a spot on the map that we saw while looking at another campground.

First off their website. You can find it at BrazosRiverHideout.com. It is basically a one page website with general information and some rules about the campground. You can book online through their website. There is a Book Now link at the top of the page that takes you to CampSpot.com. When we booked out spot this way, it showed that every spot was available and we could pick which site we want and lock it in for an extra $10. 

However, when we got there, we learned that there is actually three full timers that live there and the spot that we picked one of them were in already. So they dont keep up with their online booking sites as to which one is rented and which one isnt.

They also have a facebook page that you can find at Facebook.com/BrazosRiverHideout. On their facebook page, they have a whole four posts. They are when they added their Logo, a map of the campground, a picture of the river and a picture of the camping area. All of the posts are from July 6, 2022. 

Pricing

My wife was the one that made our reservation for this site so I didn’t learn about how much it cost until we were already there. Honestly, for what this campground has to offer is very expensive. For just up to four people, two adults and two kids, the RV spots are $50 a night! For every additional person or kid it is an extra $10. For us, two adults and three kids, it was $60 a night. 

On top of the $60 a night it cost us, there was an additional $20 Occupancy Fee and a $2 booking fee. For two weeknights, it cost $122!! We actually paid $132`, because we stayed over New Year’s so the spot prices were a little higher. With the amenities that they offer, and the lack of a sewer hookup and wifi, this price is extremely steep in my opinion. $25-30 a night would be more appropriate I think.

They do offer monthly rentals for $650 a month with all utilities included. Again, I think this is a little high for what they have to offer. If they had sewer and maybe a playground or something then it might be worth it.

Conclusion

Overall, it was not worth the price that it cost to camp here. We probably wont be going back. While it has the potential to be a good campground it is not there yet and the price of it is to steep. 

Please remember that this post is our personal opinion and is meant only as information to help make your decision to stay here or not. If you are fine with no sewer and just relaxing under the stars, then this place would be great. The host said that they owner is working on doing stuff to make the park better and remember it has only been reopened for about a year now. 

I hope if the owner sees this post, he will take our observations and make his park better. 

Until it is time to hitch up the camper again,

Happy Camping

NOTE: This post was originally posted earlier this year(2023) when we originally started our blog. I am posting all of our old posts to get caught up to the present and then I will start posting new posts.

Campground Review

Dinosaur Valley RV Park – Starting Slow

It didn’t take long after we picked up our new camper to make our first reservation at a nearby campground. We picked up our new 2023 Kodiak Ultra-light 332BHSL bumper pull camper on Monday and by Wednesday we had our reservations made for the following week. We decided to start slow on our first camping trip and camp at a park that was close to home for several reasons. 

First of all, when you have never camped in your own RV, you may think that you know what you are going to need, but if you are anything like us, there will be stuff that you don’t have or that you forget to load. Camping nearby allows us to be able to run home if we forgot something that we absolutely had to have but far enough away that it felt like we were away from home. 

We are really bad at this! It never fails when we go on vacation we always forget something. This time is no different as it turns out. You can plan and make lists, and check and double-check things but it always seems that we forget one or two things. This time was no different. We forgot to load our folding table and camping chairs for our kids. 

Secondly, if you are not used to pulling a big trailer, taking a short trip for your first excursion will help you get the feel for it without having to drive a long distance. This trip was the second time in my life that I have pulled anything bigger and heavier than a 16-foot flatbed trailer. Let me tell you, there is a big difference between pulling a 16-foot flatbed and a 34-foot RV. 

The first time that I pulled it, I had some very weird stuff happen to my truck that you can read about in the post, Warning Lights Galore. This time though none of them came on so maybe it fixed itself.

Heading to the Campground

We had taken a sneak peek of the Dinosaur Valley RV Park a couple of weeks prior to this trip and our first impression of it was that it was pretty nice. It has a very nice atmosphere to it and even though it is still under construction, it is a pretty nice park. 

This trip we went with our camper ready to camp. I got off of work and went home to finish loading the camper and do some last minute things. We hooked up and off we went! Pulling it was fun and there are definitely some things that I am going to have to do to my truck to make pulling our camper a little easier. 

We got an equalizer hitch to help level the truck out some but I think we need a little bit more so we are going to get some airbags put on my truck before we go camping in the spring. More about those in a later post. 

We arrived at the park about 4 pm and checked in. The camp ground was pretty empty being that it was the week before Christmas. We picked a spot that was pretty close to the playground so Jess and I could sit outside our camper and our kids could play on the playground and we could still see them. 

Setting up the camper for the first time

We had partially setup our camper in our yard a few days prior to camping and slept in it for one night. We only had power hooked up so we didn’t have water or sewer hooked up to having running water. This time was a little more extensive. 

We found our spot and got parked. We failed to check and see if the trailer was level from left to right so we we a little off level but it wasn’t to bad. We got unhooked from the truck and got it leveled front to back then dropped the stabilizer jacks down. It took both of us to get the sewer hoses connected because they we brand new. Then hooked the water up with the water filter and were ready to move the slides out. 

What We Did On Our Camping Trip

While I was getting all the outside stuff done, Jess had made a fire since we were cooking hotdogs for supper. Once the fire was going, she went inside and got the inside of our camper ready then it was time for supper. The kids had a blast roasting hotdogs over an open fire and we finished the night off with some roasted marshmallows then it was off to bed for the kids.

Jess and I sat outside under the stars sitting around our camp fire for another hour or two just enjoying the quiet and the crackle of the fire. With the exception of a couple crackles that crackled a little to loudly and sent a few large embers out and onto Jess’s leg. We finished out the night laying on our new mattress, we had to ditch the one that came with the trailer and get up a better one after the night we spent in the camper at home, her playing on her IPad and me starting this blog post.

Honestly that new mattress was so comfortable, we may end up getting a king size one just like it for our house. We slept so good that night and for the first time in a long time, I actually slept until about 8 am. The kids woke Jess up about an hour before though. After we got up and around it was time to make some breakfast. Time to try out the flat top grill outside to cook the bacon on. I made the bacon outside and Jess made the eggs and toast inside, both turned out great.

After breakfast, the kids went to the playground and played while Jess and I straightened up and organized the under belly storage area. The kids met a new friend while playing and we talked with his mother for a little bit. After they left, we went on a small adventure down to the river that runs along side the campground. There is a nice shoreline and hiking area along side the river where we were able to throw and skip rocks and the kids found a bunch of small shells. 

Next we drove around the camp ground and checked out the bike track, the goat and donkey pastures and we able to pet them, we checked out a teepee and some indian statues and the park store. We bought some souvenirs and some fossil eggs for the kids. The fossil eggs we pretty neat, they were made out of some type of sandy material and shaped into a dinosaur egg. Inside there was a small toy dinosaur. By this time is was past lunch time so we tried to grill up some hamburgers, but the wind was blowing to hard and the flattop wouldn’t get warm enough. We decided to nix our lunch plans and gave the kids something small and easy to snack on and started packing up the camper. 

We had originally planned on staying two nights but between the time we made the reservations and the time that we actually went camping the weather forecast went from the 40’s for lows and 50’s for highs to being 43 for the high and 12 for the low on Thursday. The high is forecasted to be right after sunrise then dropping fast after over the next two to three hours. We really didn’t want to have to pack up everything , drive home and unload everything when it was in the 20’s so we decided to leave a day early.

Dinosaur Valley RV Park

Dinosaur Valley RV Park is a pretty new park. I think it is a little over a year old now. It is owed by one of the people that I used to work with. He built it after he retired as our fire chief. It has come a long way in just a short amount of time. He has a great location! 

The park is directly across the street from DinoWorld, and right next door to Dinosaur Valley 

State Park. If you or your kids are at all interested in dinosaurs, this is the perfect place to go! There is also Fossil Rim Wildlife Park that is only about four miles away. It is a drive thru wild life park. 

There are 80 pull through RV spots that have both 30 and 50 amp service, water and serwer hookups. The RV spots are $49 Sunday – Wednesday and $55 on Thursday – Saturday. If you decide to stay for a week, you will pay for six nights and the 7th one is free. There are also five cabins that sleep up to two adults and three kids. Each cabin is fully furnished and has a queen bed downstairs and two twin beds in the loft. One of the cabins also has a pull out couch. The cabins are $139 Sunday – Wednesday and $159 Thursday – Saturday. There is also a $35 cleaning fee per reservation. 

The park has a family pool and an adult only pool and hottub. There is a bycycle/RC car track, playground, dog park, and event center big enough to hold about 65 people. 

Below is their website and social media pages, go and give them a follow and check out what they got!

Final Thoughts

Overall, everybody had a great time. I’m sure that we will be going there again so we can experience it all and stay longer than just one night, even though we only live about 30 miles away. I highly recommend checking out this camp ground. I would definitely say to plan on staying at least three day though as there is so much to do both at the campground and in the surrounding area. 

Thank you very much for checking out our blog, we will have more posts like this as well as item reviews and tip and tricks. Please follow us here on the blog as well as on our Instagram to get a more behind the scenes and extras look at our adventures. 

Until it is Hitching Time again…

Happy Camping!

NOTE: This post was originally posted earlier this year(2023), when we first started our blog. I am posting all our old posts to get us caught up with the present and then I will starting posting new posts.