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Saturday, December 30, 2017

This is a great free camping spot!

I first read about this spot on the Free Campsites website. It's also listed on the Ultimate Campgrounds app.

The reviews were mixed. Some people didn't think it was very good, but others thought it was fantastic. So we had a backup plan of staying at the nearby Falcon State Park if this didn't work out.

But, for a free campsite, we're not really sure how much more you could ask for. It's great!

We had arrived around 4:00pm on Thursday, so we didn't go out and explore the place until yesterday morning.

You can park anywhere.

There are old stone picnic tables that are falling apart. There are no electrical hookups unless you park near the small pavilions by the washroom building. There, you can string an extension cord to a 15 amp plug. There are a couple of van dwellers parked up there who look like they are pretty much living here. There is no time limit, so it's no problem.

I mentioned there is a bathroom building. Pretty basic, but hey... it's free. Even has hot water in the shower, but I did notice the sign that says you need to run the hot water for four minutes before it arrives hot!

There's also a garbage dumpster, so there's no litter anywhere. It's surprisingly clean.

This whole empty space on the left side of the photo is available for boondocking.

There are water spigots throughout the park. If you park close enough to one, you could hook up to water. I had read that there is a dump station, but it took us a while to find it. Just a couple of pipes stuck up out of the ground at GPS 26.565959, -99.130108, but sure enough you could dump your tanks here.

Some of the reviews mentioned illegal drug gang activity and gunfire.

It turns out that back in 2010, an American was on Falcon Lake on a jet ski and he had (either accidentally, or on purpose) gone on to the Mexican side of the lake and was shot by "pirates". That made everyone think that this whole area was therefore dangerous because of that one incident. 

The gunfire that you regularly hear from the park is from a U.S. border patrol shooting range located nearby!

The whole area is popular with birders, and there are regular sightings of deer, bobcat, and javelina wild pigs. We've seen some deer, but none of the others yet.

A loggerhead shrike.

There's Sherman, parked all by himself.

After lunch, we got on the bikes and rode over to Falcon State Park where Barb and Mark are staying with their motorhome. This is the couple we met in Lexington, who are also going to Mexico with us and the caravan group. It was just under 3 miles (5 kms) one way from us to them.

Still not nice enough to sit outside, so we sat in their rig and chatted. Of course the conversation revolved around Mexico and our upcoming trip. Which is fine, because we're all so excited about it! Barb says she's feeling a little nervous about it, but that's understandable for first timers. We were the same way the first time we went.

The view out the front window of their motorhome. 
On the other side of Falcon Lake is Mexico!

The road we take between the two parks has a high fence on one side. This is one of the many private Texas game hunting parks. On the way back, we spotted a huge animal!

A huge male elk.

Back at the park, a few more campers had pulled in. There are probably ten units here in total. Can't believe there aren't more. We think it's a great free spot and we'll be staying a couple more nights.

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20 comments:

  1. Shhhhhhh I have been going there for 30 years. It has started getting crowded now. Last time there was at least 15 campers there.

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    Replies
    1. I don't think you have to worry about it getting too crowded for most people there isn't enough here to make them come in droves.

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  2. Now you've done it and let the cat out of the bag! Pretty soon that free CG will start looking like Quartzsite in January! :cD

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    Replies
    1. Somehow I just don't see that happening! We are too close to the Mexican border for most people. ;-)

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  3. Which GEO Tracker app are you using. There are so many at the Google Play Store?

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  4. So we are going to be traveling in a year or so when husband retires. I checked out this site called freecampsites.net just wondered if anyone ever stayed at any of these.

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  5. Boy, do I ever remember that story. It scared away so much tourism and the story went on forever and morphed into even bigger stories.

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    1. It's crazy how things get carried away. One person dies and people stop coming here but more than a hundred people die in Las Vegas and it hasn't stopped the thousands that travel there daily, go figure!

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  6. Falcon Lake is infamous. The killing was big news all over, and we lived far away in New England at the time.

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    Replies
    1. Crazy that it got so much attention when someone could be killed in any city and anytime and it seems to be no big deal!

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  7. Looks like a great place to park. Love the pic of the elk!! I think there is a great deal of talk about Mexico, drugs, guns and so on that is very exaggerated and if the true facts were known that most of these events are not something the average person would stumble into by accident. I doubt it's any more dangerous than the average big city where gangs, drugs, and guns are more the norm these days. One can find trouble anywhere if they look for it or associate with those types of things. That of course is just my humble opinion, I've never been to Mexico but I had a friend that owned property there. He found it to be very safe.

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    1. There were two elk there and they were both big and gorgeous, so lovely to see.

      Your thoughts on that shooting and on this area as well as Mexico are the same as our opinion. I can't believe how people get to so pulled in by the media. We love Mexico and feel just as safe traveling around there as we do around the Unites States. Can't wait to get back down there and to some nicer weather. :-)

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  8. Just for completeness, the 2010 killing wasn't the only one blamed on Mexican drug cartels. A year ago a fisherman was also murdered on Falcon Lake. That said, the huge reservoir safely serves thousands of recreationalists every year. Those two were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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    Replies
    1. Two murders in the last 7 years and everyone, everywhere hears about it, yet if there are two killings in one city overnight, you would be lucky to hear coverage about it on the news. We agree, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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  9. There are posts all over about an American tourist being shot in Ixtapa. It happened at 4 AM. What the heck was he doing wandering around at 4AM? I would not wander around Vancouver at 4 AM. 3 drug shootings near us since Xmas. Mexico is looking safer.

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    Replies
    1. Yep, you definitely have to question that! Unfortunately the media never tells the full story. :-(

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  10. Replies
    1. There were two elks there and they were both gorgeous!

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