Fort Richardson State Park Campground

I stayed here in winter and the park was almost empty. It is almost inside the town of Jacksboro which makes it convenient for provisions, but a little noisy. What I really loved about my stay was that the park includes historic Fort Richardson. It is a former Army Fort, established during reconstruction then used primarily during the Indian Wars. A sad chapter of our history for sure but a story that needs to be told and heard. I hiked from my rv site to the historic fort then spent the day wandering the parade grounds, officers quarters, morgue, bakery, magazine and most importantly the hospital. It is well preserved and staffed with knowledgeable people. The camp sites were wooded and varied. Mine had a spring right behind me which could be viewed on a hiking trail. I stayed at site 15, and it was close to the walkway leading to the bath house. Sites 18, 19, 20 seemed ideal in proximity to the bath house without being right next to it.

Entrance is in town, no gate, roads are easy to navigate.

Utilities worked well, water pressure was perfect at 50-55 PSI. Many sites are not level so bring your leveling blocks. Nice shaded picnic tables at sites.

There is only one restroom/shower building which has to be shared by all of the campgrounds! Hate to see what this is like on a busy summer day!

Lots of interesting historic buildings to explore. Several nice trails. Equestrian camping and lake swimming a few miles away in separate section of park.

Groceries and restaurants a couple miles away in town.

Quite a bit of traffic noise from the nearby highway and some machinery noise from nearby oil fields. In spite of the negatives, we did enjoy our stay.

We loved the historic fort and fishing pond.
We did not enjoy the closely set sites and noisy neighbors.
We spend a Thanksgiving weekend here and everyone was in a party mood, with lights & music going.
Just west of Ft. Worth, you get a lot of newbies, who don't know how to tone it down.
Variety of sites, clean bath house, great visitors center.
There is a section of this park on the north side of town, that is on the Lost Creek Reservoir, they have ONLY tent camping. We drove up to fish and if you tent camp, go there. drive up sites right on the lake. Great Fishing.
We enjoyed exploring the park, it was just to urban for our taste. (go to the Reservoir!)

First arrival first visit had a beautiful spot under the mesquite trees. Price was $20 plus purchase of SP Pass. Second return visit fully booked except for equestrian site we took at $15. Greatt overload site with water and elec. Next to fort grounds, quiet and fun to be with the horses. Only complaint is that signage to park is poorly marked with no markings to equestrian area. But that's Texas, poor to no signage everywhere, but a great place to visit.

Family thoughts - We had a really great time. It is not the most young kid friendly park ever, but it's not designed to be. Its an historical site. By that I mean there aren't big attractions for young ones (5-12 yo) like playgrounds, water stuff, etc. BUT they have awesome woods, a nice creek, and tons of trails for the kids to explore. My 5yo and 7yo played HARD in those woods, waded in the creek, and had a total blast. We'd definitely go again!

Attractions - Fort Richardson and that's it. BUT it is a really cool old fort with informative museum displays, a park ranger that tells about its history, many walk through areas with recreations of life at the fort during the Indian Wars. There's even a fun area near the parking lot where the kids can dress up and take pics in period piece costumes. Super cute.

Amenities - We RV'd it and LOVED LOVED LOVED our campsite (see pics) which was camp site 5. It had a super wide pad site with so much room that the kids and some neighboring kids that we met that weekend used as a stage to do a talent show. So cool.
Site 5 (see pic of site maps) is really secluded even though it's right across from a nice shower building. The trees almost completely envelop it. It has electrical (50a & 30a) that are close to the pad and water hookup (no sewer....get to that in a minute), and tons of room for all slide outs. It slopes down a bit as you back in making the tongue jack pretty low to the ground and the backside of the rv/trailer sticking up high. We had plenty of those lego looking leveling blocks and boards, so it was not a problem. Just something to think about.
There are only 4 sites that have their own sewer dump hole (see sites 1 - 4 on the site map). But if you look on the map at where site 5 is located, you'll see that its roughly 40-50 yards from this site. That building across from 5 is the shower building. You can either pull your rig up to the dump station and back to its spot, or you can get one of those portable dump can's with wheels which we saw several people doing. Genius idea, and we will be getting one for these types of sites.
The park is kept very clean and well maintained. We saw lots of primitve camping opportunities as well as some neat little cabins that people seems to enjoy. Lots of wildlife and hiking, and LOTS of opportunities for pics of kids with wild flowers.
Staff was very kind and helpful. They even have a small gift shop with a Fort Richardson bumper sticker (for people like us that collect those) and lots of period specific books.

Location - its located in the actual small town of Jacksboro, but its really isolated looking and feeling. We liked this as there were a few things that I needed to pop into town to get.....then back to our little island of a park.

Cell coverage - we have ATT and they said it would be spotty, but it wasn't really. We had consistently 2 bards and sometimes 3 bars. I streamed netflix and youtube for the kids a couple of times with no hiccups.

Giving it 4 stars because I do wish there was a playground or two there.

Clean park and quiet. We tent camped amongst RVs therefore it was very quiet. The facilities were great. Showers were recently remodeled and look very nice and clean. Spoke to a park ranger and gave us information on potential upgrades to the park. The swimming area doesn’t allow pets. We took a small hike near the creek. Had dinner in town 1 night at JRs Steakhouse. Overall great experience.

We stayed overnight several weekes ago. Your admission also gets you admission to Lake Jacksboro. Nice trails for hiking, our site was shaded and nicely spaced for privacy. We enjoyed this state park!

Cute little campground - wasn't super busy during our stay - in fact due to an unusually cold snap in Texas everyone who had reservations cancelled minus one other campsite and us. We loved it here.

Good early spring or late fall location.

We stayed one night at the equestrian camp on our way through the area. We prefer leaving the equestrian spots for horse owners but it was the last one available in the park. Although, of the 5 sites in this loop, none of us had horses!

With only a couple of small pens and not much space, we could see why equestrians might not flock here. Hard to say from one night though.

The sites are long and narrow without much space between them. Road nosie is noticeable during the day but quiet at night.

There are no bathroom facilities in this loop, so be aware of that. There is a small dumpster available. The bathroom/shower facilities and dump station are down the road at the main campground. You do have 20-, 39- and 50-amp electric plus water hookup at your site.

The good part about this loop is that you're camping within site of the historic Fort Richardson and visiting the grounds is a short walk. The buildings are only open from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but you're welcome to wander the grounds and look in the windows. Make sure you grab a self-guided your brochure at check-in.

This was fine for a night or two, but for longer we'd encourage a stay at the main campground instead.

Phone service was good: Verizon 4 bars / T-Mobile 4 bars.