Retro51

Does anyone know of any North Texas - reachable lakes that have islands, especially ones you can camp on? I once took a kayak on Grand Lake in Colorado to an island that was large enough to hike on and maybe camp on. No one seemed to own it. Now that I'm back into kayaking, I find that an interesting proposition. My son and I did an overnight trip on the Colorado River from Columbus and camped on an island in the river. I would like to take tent, food, sleeping bags by kayak and stay somewhere. If not OK to camp, at least big enough to beach the boat and hike and explore?

I saw a map of Possum Kingdom and it looked like there was one or more islands, maybe big enough. Other possibilities might be Cleburne State Park, Joe Pool or Tawakani more in the metro-plex area, etc. I'm not familar with any of these enough to know about islands.

Troop198

We have been to all of those you mention and do not know of any state park usable islands. Some suggestions, for North Texas include the river out of Possum Kingdom (see Hippy's post in this section). If you don't want distance in theory you could put in on one side of Ray Roberts SP and go across the lake to the other unit and spend the night there, if you go from south to north the Johnson Branch unit has water sites next to the lake. You would have to work out logistics on registering ect. In addition primative sites at Hawthorn in the Isle du Bois unit are on the water also.

No islands but the walk In sites at Cooper Lake South are next to the Lake and you could put in at the day use area and go all the way to the Oak Grove primative sites. (check out the park map for an idea of distance or maybe the park can tell you)

Motorman355

Where you need to go is Goat Island. It's north of Caddo Lake State Park. Best place to put in is the Pine Needles Lodge Pine Needle Lodge - Canoeing (canoeing.htm). I've never been but it is apparently good enough that the Dallas Downriver Club has a family campout on the island every Halloween.

toejam

There are some nice places to camp in the islands just west of Highport Marina on Lake Texoma. I've kayaked out there to camp a couple of times putting in at the U.S. 377 bridge.

Retro51

Thanks for all the replies. I'll check out the info given.

I found a good book on Texas Campgrounds, Parks and Lakes at Half-Price Books. The only possibilities I see are Possom Kingdom and Lake Texoma. Google Satellite shows two big Islands on PK and it looks like a landing strip and a boat dock on one. Well, one might be attached, not a true island, or maybe the island is just off that peninsula - it's hard to tell from the splice in the pic. The book showed two on Texoma - one called Treasure Island and one called North Island. The satellite image actually showed more of a string of seven islands, some were pretty small. I believe the book even listed both locations as campgrounds - but on the OK side.

Since PK is closer I will probably try that one first. Maybe later I'll try the Texoma site, since it looks interesting. It looks like you might could make a day of exploring the seven islands in the string - beaching and looking around.

Troop198

I do know the boy scous have a camp on PK Lake (Camp Constantin) and they do overnight canoe to some island and to some great vantage points I think one is called Devils Hollow. I will ask or maybe someone else knows

toejam

Let us know how those PK islands are. I think I remember a house on one.

I've camped on the two islands on the soutwest end of the string on Texoma. There's not much exploring to do except strolling around the beach if the water is low, but it's a great place to camp.

I just remembered the islands on Lake Worth. There's Goat Island in the middle of the lake and Greer Island up in the Nature Center (which is connected to the shore). I've enjoyed spending time on those islands. I know you can't camp in the FW Nature Center, and I'm not sure if you can camp on Goat Island since they want boats off the lake a sundown.

Retro51

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think of Lake Worth since I've been looking at State Parks. Since it's so close I'll check it out, even if I can't camp there.
ToeJam, I see you also live in Granbury. Have you found anything there worth exploring, other than looking at the houses and docks?

Update: I found Lake E V Spence (near San Angelo) that looks like it has islands, and also Lake Somerville between College Station and Round Rock.
I also see one that is real promising, but I can't find it on a map. It's West of Brownwood (but not up where Coloman and their reservoir is). It says its on the Ray Stoker Jr. Hwy(1929), and the town of Leaday is on the NE edge and Concho is on the river before it becomes a lake. It looks to be big and I see some big islands. Does anyone know what this body of water is called?

Troop198

I found a reference in a book to a Hoards Creek lake, near Coleman. Not sure if this is it or not

Access to Hords Creek Reservoir also check near Ft. Concho it is on a river, or try fishing sites in Concho county, (one Fishing site (if there are fish you can paddle right)
Texas Fishing Lakes | Fishing Works

The book lists a phone number if you want it PM me

Troop198

Retro, the scouts do stay on some unknown islands at times. My son who was there reminded me it is "Hells Gate" and here is a short link to a picture on Wikipedia
Google Image Result for http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/4/4f/180px-HellsGate.jpg

Retro51

Troop, Hords Creek is up by Coleman - this one is way south of there. If you do a Google map search for Leaday TX, you will be on the NE edge of the lake. It's huge. But I can't find a name for it. Oops - I just switched from Google Satellite to Google Maps, and it's called Oh Ivie Reservoir. Funny, I never heard of it.

Troop198

Oops , For those who want to know O.H.Ivey Lake is a big bass lake, pro tournaments and all.
Its east of San Angelo and south of Abilene (reading correct map this time) or some Texans call this middle of almost nowhere

toejam

I kayak on the north end of the lake where there are a lot of stumps and the power boats stick to the channel. It's near where I live. The best place to explore around here is the Brazos River. Gravel and sand bars are public land so there are a ton of places to camp. If I can't arrange a shuttle I'll put in and paddle upstream. The brazos is usually really low and not flowing much, but you can get in the middle of nowhere and find a quiet place to camp.

I've also found some quiet spots paddling up-river from the north end of Lake Whitney.

I've eyed maps of Hubbard Creek Reservior near Breckenridge because of all the islands. Has anybody been there?

Retro51

I found a library book on PWC adventures. One that sounds interesting - for kayaking - is Lake Bridgeport. He says the north end goes up a river, around an island. It seems to me if I was able to paddle upriver (he wrote it for Jet-Ski, so going upriver would be no big deal, but I was able to paddle upriver on the Colorado), then I could go up 2 or three miles and then the dowstream trip would be a gas. It's also not that far (from Granbury), probably closer than Possum Kingdom which was my choice for first trip this summer - leading up to Caddo Lake.

Retro51

The other trip he mentions which sounds interesting, and may be closer, is Lake Whitney. Now I know it is very big and you can't cover in a Kayak what you could on a Jet-ski, so I wonder if anyone has found a good day trip (or possible overnighter) on Whitney. I think he says you can go up the Brazos. I would want to be able to paddle upstream and then turn around and come back to the lake, I guess. That means the river would have to be easy enough to go upstream - in other words, I don't want a take-out. Has anyone done this? I like the idea of combining a river trip with a lake trip. But for me, that means I would have to be able to go both ways on the river. Lake Bridgeport seems to be a possiblity, even Caddo Lake has a river portion.

He also has two trips where you go downriver into the Gulf using the IC Waterway - some of them involving Wildlife Sanctiaries which sound ideal for Kayaking.