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Kerrville/Ingram, TX

21 03 2018

Along I-10, Texas Hill Country

Ah…the Texas Hill Country!

Like no where else in the state, with wooded hillsides, beautiful limestone formations, deep caverns, and valleys of wandering creeks, this is one of our favorite spots in the US. Starting at the Llano River valley at Junction, the hill country extends south to Uvalde, and east all the way to northern sections San Antonio and western areas of Austin. Centered nearly in the middle of the region is Kerrville, a city of about 25,000 established along the Guadalupe River. We’re parked in Ingram, TX just west of Kerrville at Johnson Creek RV Park. We last visited this park in 2010, PARK REVIEW and this year have joined friends from Montrose, CO as they spend time in Kerrville before heading back to Colorado.

Johnson Creek RV Resort, Ingram, TX

Surrounded by an active pecan orchard, Johnson Creek has expanded from 50 to about 70 sites and with another 10 or so planned, this is still a relatively small park. On the banks of Johnson Creek, a small tributary of the Guadalupe, this RV park offers a quiet retreat for winter Texans, full-time residents and a few overnighters. Initially arriving without a site available, we’re assigned the “overflow” site at the far south side of the campground. Equipped with water and electric service, this site is quiet and very private. Later in the week we move to site #34 that provides additional services of sewer and cable TV. Currently site #33 serves at the “exit” for the last row until it’s extended to the main road. Initially this seemed like it might be annoying – but in fact the extra space afforded by this “drive-by” site improves the view and privacy of #34.

“Overflow” Site, Johnson Creek RV Resort

With virtually no OTA TV and only 12 channels of cable, the satellite comes in handy and despite having an orchard all around, is fairly easy to set-up. There are a handful of WiFi access point around the campground. Our WiFi booster helps select the best and overall the service isn’t too bad. Nothing close to video streaming quality, but workable. During our stay we joined friends for several outings. On Friday night we all enjoy huge portions of fried catfish at a bar/restaurant next to By The River RV Park PARK REVIEW where we stayed in 2010. Over the weekend we explored Bourne with a stop at the creekside Dodging Duck Brewhaus for hand crafted brews and snacks of fried green tomatoes. Later in the week we enjoyed Mamacita’s Mexican restaurant in Kerrville – perhaps the closest we’ve found to Uncle Julio’s – one of our all-time favorites in the Dallas area.

Johnson Creek RV Resort, Ingram, TX

After a very quick 5 nights in Kerrville, we’re back on the road headed for the Lower Rio Grande Valley. More from two overnights enroute to the valley…

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Tags: bourne, hill country, johnson creek, kerrville, texas
Categories : Spring Road Trip 2018

Review of Johnson Creek RV Resort

30 03 2010

We’re at Johnson Creek RV Resort, a medium size park with about 50 spaces. It’s unique because all of the spaces are set among an active Pecan Orchard. Unfortunately the Pecan trees in this area haven’t spouted their summer leaves, so the forest of trees is a bit sparse right now. But, the RV sites and amenities are very nice. All sites are pull-through, attracting the really big rigs – lots of 5th wheels and coaches. We’re definitely the smallest rig in the park tonight! All driveways and parking spaces are cement, and all include water, sewer, electric, cable TV and an outdoor picnic table. Probably the most impressive feature of this park is the Club House which is a large, newer building set on the cliff above the meandering Johnson Creek below. Complete with a bar/social area, a card room, a billiard room, an outdoor pool surrounded by patios, and a very clean bathroom/shower room. There’s also an office building with a Country Store stocking many of the necessities and selling Pecans (of course). Wi-Fi is readily available with 2 pro-grade access points providing well over 2Mb download speeds.

This is the first park that we’ve found along the way with full time “Winter Texans” – northerners that spend 3 or more months in Texas during the winter time. Some that I met are full-timers – those who have sold their homes, packed away the possessions and taken to the road. Many of the Johnson Creek residents have been here all winter. Others are just stopping by for a couple of days or weeks on their way back north. Most of those “in-transit” have been in the lower Rio Grande valley.

Everyone I talked to love this location and the park. It’s much more like a mobile home park than a “camping” experience. We’d prefer to have more of a camping experience, maybe not quite as rustic as Balmorhea, but a location with a bit more space and privacy between sites would be great. However, for those wanting a “neighborhood” feel, great amenities, very friendly staff – Johnson Creek RV Resort is perfect.