Looking for ideas for locations with different activities. We've done a bunch of fishing, hiking, biking, caving, kayaking/canoeing, rock climbing (Enchanted Rock), etc..... Looking for some different ideas or unique locations for weekend campouts. Coming from Houston area.

Camp Arrowmoon off six between Bryan and Hearne.

Would help to know where all y'all have been

I didn't make it all the way to boy scouts, but is camp Billy Gibbons still a thing?

O.G. said:

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I didn't make it all the way to boy scouts, but is camp Billy Gibbons still a thing?

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Yes. I'm OG Comanche Trail Council, and it was my home camp. It is still active, as far as I know. Last time I was there was 2019 for an alumni camp. It hasn't changed too much.









But to answer the OP's question, one unique camp out I remember was at the local airport. We camped at a property adjacent to the runway and spent Saturday taking turns flying. It helped significantly that one of our scout's dads had a few planes, but I'm sure you could find someone willing to help out with this.

I've only been with the troop for a year or so. Not sure everywhere they have been. Places I know.....

Fishing - Goose Island, Strake
Kayaking/Canoeing - Bastrop, San Marcos
Rock Climbing - Enchanted Rock, Lock-in at climbing gym
Caving - Colorado Bend & Inks Lake (maybe?)
Hiking/Backpacking - Sam Houston National Forrest, Lake Georgetown
Biking - Sam Houston National Forrest


As much as I am looking for locations I am looking more for activities. Something new we can add into the rotation. Example..... I found Camp Trevor Rees-Jones in Athens, TX that does the Horsemanship MB during weekend campouts Jan-Mar. While that is just a MB, it is one you don't see often and most of the kids in my troop don't spend much time around horses.

Apropos of your horsemanship idea, that might be one way to approach it - identify a merit badge that your Scouts are interested in and look for places that can facilitate it. For example, look for orienteering or pioneering courses in the area. If your guys have interest in astronomy, see if you can get to an observatory.

Claude! said:

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Apropos of your horsemanship idea, that might be one way to approach it - identify a merit badge that your Scouts are interested in and look for places that can facilitate it. For example, look for orienteering or pioneering courses in the area. If your guys have interest in astronomy, see if you can get to an observatory.

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I've thought about that some in relation to TAMU as well.....

Vet School - Vet Sciences MB
Meteorology - much cooler version of the Weather MB
Fire Fighter School - Fire Safety, Firem'n Chit and maybe Search & Rescue.

Our troop in Dallas hit the inner space caverns on I 35 near Round Rock. The local docents teach the Geology merit badge and then the scouts can do some pretty cool underground exploration tours.

https://innerspacecavern.com/groups/scout/

You can camp close by at Jim Hogg or Cedar Breaks Park.

The Wild Cave tour is not for the claustrophobic.

Something to consider

TRJ is great for the horsemanship, we also went there a couple of times and took a side trip to the Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens to work on the fishing merit badge that weekend.

Longhorn Caverns is also great for caving, the troop did that a couple of times as well.

I have always wanted to do a camping trip over on Matagorda island. Not sure what merit badge you would earn, but I bet it would be cool. A boat ride to a relatively undeveloped and uninhabited island for a weekend still sounds cool.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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I have always wanted to do a camping trip over on Matagorda island. Not sure what merit badge you would earn, but I bet it would be cool. A boat ride to a relatively undeveloped and uninhabited island for a weekend still sounds cool.

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Padre Island National Seashore would be good for that too, with the advantage of having a vehicle available for emergencies if needed.

My boys did Martin Dies in Jasper, Tx for canoeing.
Dinosaur valley state park, general camping and hiking.
Both those were always good trips from Houston.

txags92 said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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I have always wanted to do a camping trip over on Matagorda island. Not sure what merit badge you would earn, but I bet it would be cool. A boat ride to a relatively undeveloped and uninhabited island for a weekend still sounds cool.

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Padre Island National Seashore would be good for that too, with the advantage of having a vehicle available for emergencies if needed.

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Looking at it a little bit, if you could talk to the park rangers at the Malaquite Beach location about their turtle nesting program, teach them how to recognize rip tides in the surf, and do some seining in the surf or back in the Laguna Madre, you could probably get pretty close to fulfilling the Oceanography MB.

Tellepsen outside of Navasota is close by if you are near or in Houston.

With proper planning, you could knock out a lot of requirements for rifle and shotgun on a weekend. They have a nice shooting range there but you have to arrange for range safety officers and whatever else they require. Those can be hard to schedule.

Have you looked at the George Observatory in Brazos Bend State Park? Might be cool to do the astronomy merit badge and bring some of of your own telescopes out.

maroon barchetta said:

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Tellepsen outside of Navasota is close by if you are near or in Houston.

With proper planning, you could knock out a lot of requirements for rifle and shotgun on a weekend. They have a nice shooting range there but you have to arrange for range safety officers and whatever else they require. Those can be hard to schedule.

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You are the first person other than Google Maps that I have seen call it Tellepsen. I've always seen it called Bovay.

We were actually doing that this weekend at Strake but all of the district safety officers flaked on us last minute. Think we rescheduled at Lost Pines in May.

chjoak said:

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Claude! said:

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Apropos of your horsemanship idea, that might be one way to approach it - identify a merit badge that your Scouts are interested in and look for places that can facilitate it. For example, look for orienteering or pioneering courses in the area. If your guys have interest in astronomy, see if you can get to an observatory.

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I've thought about that some in relation to TAMU as well.....

Vet School - Vet Sciences MB
Meteorology - much cooler version of the Weather MB
Fire Fighter School - Fire Safety, Firem'n Chit and maybe Search & Rescue.

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Awesome. The only thing I'll stress, and I expecte you're probably already doing this, is to put as much of the responsibility for deciding and planning activities on the boys as possible. That's always when I had the most fun as a Scout.

Here are a few, we're in Houston as well:
Bastrop State Park
Lake Somerville
Double Lake Recreation Area
Kayaking the San Marcos River, there's an unofficial Scout only camp there on the river
Reimer Ranch Park near Austin, they have an unofficial area for scouts to camp, but it's primitive
Huntsville State Park
Camp Mauritz

Got shot in the dark question..... We are going to summer camp in TN. Unfortunately didn't get enough kids to justify the cost of a charter bus so we will be driving Sprinter vans and will have to do an overnight headed there and back. We are leaning heavily on doing our overnights in Tuscaloosa (to camp) and Baton Rouge (headed home) both would be Sat night stays. Any ideas for overnight locations (lock-in style as we aren't planning to take tents)? Any must visit, kid friendly eating establishments?

chjoak said:

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Got shot in the dark question..... We are going to summer camp in TN. Unfortunately didn't get enough kids to justify the cost of a charter bus so we will be driving Sprinter vans and will have to do an overnight headed there and back. We are leaning heavily on doing our overnights in Tuscaloosa (to camp) and Baton Rouge (headed home) both would be Sat night stays. Any ideas for overnight locations (lock-in style as we aren't planning to take tents)? Any must visit, kid friendly eating establishments?

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Where in TN? I'm in East Tennessee.

I used to be an environmental educator (worked at zoos, aquariums, nature centers, etc) and would be happy to give you guys an interpretive hike somewhere in the Smoky's if you make it up this way.

I worked at Cumberland Gap National Park for 2 summers in graduate school in my 30's, and live 30 minutes from Great Smoky Mountain National Park (and go there several times a year).

chjoak said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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Tellepsen outside of Navasota is close by if you are near or in Houston.

With proper planning, you could knock out a lot of requirements for rifle and shotgun on a weekend. They have a nice shooting range there but you have to arrange for range safety officers and whatever else they require. Those can be hard to schedule.

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You are the first person other than Google Maps that I have seen call it Tellepsen. I've always seen it called Bovay.

We were actually doing that this weekend at Strake but all of the district safety officers flaked on us last minute. Think we rescheduled at Lost Pines in May.

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Bovay and Tellepsen are on the same property but are different camping areas.

Tellepsen didn't donate all that money to be called Bovay.

chjoak said:

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Got shot in the dark question..... We are going to summer camp in TN. Unfortunately didn't get enough kids to justify the cost of a charter bus so we will be driving Sprinter vans and will have to do an overnight headed there and back. We are leaning heavily on doing our overnights in Tuscaloosa (to camp) and Baton Rouge (headed home) both would be Sat night stays. Any ideas for overnight locations (lock-in style as we aren't planning to take tents)? Any must visit, kid friendly eating establishments?

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Are you sponsored by a church, and can you get in touch with a troop or church in a town there to let you stay overnight at their church?

Claude! said:

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chjoak said:

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Claude! said:

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Apropos of your horsemanship idea, that might be one way to approach it - identify a merit badge that your Scouts are interested in and look for places that can facilitate it. For example, look for orienteering or pioneering courses in the area. If your guys have interest in astronomy, see if you can get to an observatory.

---

I've thought about that some in relation to TAMU as well.....

Vet School - Vet Sciences MB
Meteorology - much cooler version of the Weather MB
Fire Fighter School - Fire Safety, Firem'n Chit and maybe Search & Rescue.

---

Awesome. The only thing I'll stress, and I expecte you're probably already doing this, is to put as much of the responsibility for deciding and planning activities on the boys as possible. That's always when I had the most fun as a Scout.

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Yep

Camp Buck Toms. Just north of Chattanooga.

Sounds like y'all have a great troop and do a bunch of fun stuff and lots of good ideas on here!

Some that have been big hits for us:
Hard hat tour at Longhorn Caverns (Camped at Inks Lake). Water up to our waist in places, squeezing through very tight places, covered in mud when we were done, very fun!

Survival campouts, for example at Mustang Island SP - They built shelters in the sand, desalinated salt water (just enough to taste, took forever to get just a little bit), etc.. At least one survival campout each year. The youth pick a location, then they usually ask the leaders to create a scenario that they don't know until they arrive, and then they have to come up with a plan in the scenario and "survive" the weekend with very limited resources.

Multi day canoe treks - Smithville to La Grange is awesome for a three day weekend.There's some great islands and sand bars to stop for meals and to camp on. We've done this trek a couple of times in January. Game. Changer.

Bad weather weekends. Cold temps, lots of rain, etc. The stories afterwards are amazing! Overcoming adversity builds resilience.

We camped at Goliad when they had a TPWD event recently and also toured the Haunted Yorktown Memorial Hospital that weekend. Yorktown is literally falling apart, not sure how they keep the place open, but the scouts had a blast with the cheesy stories. Never heard of Yorktown until our SPL brought it up but why not, let's go!

chjoak said:

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Camp Buck Toms. Just north of Chattanooga.

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I know Watts Barr lake pretty well. I've gone fishing there about 1-2 x per year. Our in-laws own some land on the other wide of the lake. You're not far from the smoky's.

That's about an hour from me.

maroon barchetta said:

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chjoak said:

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Got shot in the dark question..... We are going to summer camp in TN. Unfortunately didn't get enough kids to justify the cost of a charter bus so we will be driving Sprinter vans and will have to do an overnight headed there and back. We are leaning heavily on doing our overnights in Tuscaloosa (to camp) and Baton Rouge (headed home) both would be Sat night stays. Any ideas for overnight locations (lock-in style as we aren't planning to take tents)? Any must visit, kid friendly eating establishments?

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Are you sponsored by a church, and can you get in touch with a troop or church in a town there to let you stay overnight at their church?

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Not anymore.

I contacted a council near BR & Tuscaloosa for suggestions. Both offered up council camp grounds that are a bit out of our way.

I contacted people in the LSU & UofA athletic depts. LSU declined (minors scared them) and UA hasn't responded.

Found a zoo in BR that does lock-ins at a reasonable price and has some activities (though some are a bit childish for my boys). Right now that is my front runner.

Looked at couple spots near Hammond so we could possibly do an alligator tour Sat evening or Sun morning before heading home but those tours are a bit pricey. May still see if they can hook us up with a group discount.

A canoe trip on the Colorado is a regular fun one for us. The outfitter there has several options depending on what length you want to do and how proficient you are at paddling.

The USS Lexington in Corpus is a good one but not one that our scouts want to do regularly. They enjoyed it but once they have done it they weren't to interested in going back.

Do caddo state park at some point

txags92 said:

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I don't have any great ideas for you, but reading this thread made me miss Hill Country Scout Ranch and El Rancho Cima all over again.

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Just had this convo with a friend and realized we were both there at the same time for a few years and both staffed too. What an experience!

chjoak said:

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maroon barchetta said:

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chjoak said:

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Got shot in the dark question..... We are going to summer camp in TN. Unfortunately didn't get enough kids to justify the cost of a charter bus so we will be driving Sprinter vans and will have to do an overnight headed there and back. We are leaning heavily on doing our overnights in Tuscaloosa (to camp) and Baton Rouge (headed home) both would be Sat night stays. Any ideas for overnight locations (lock-in style as we aren't planning to take tents)? Any must visit, kid friendly eating establishments?

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Are you sponsored by a church, and can you get in touch with a troop or church in a town there to let you stay overnight at their church?

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Not anymore.

I contacted a council near BR & Tuscaloosa for suggestions. Both offered up council camp grounds that are a bit out of our way.

I contacted people in the LSU & UofA athletic depts. LSU declined (minors scared them) and UA hasn't responded.

Found a zoo in BR that does lock-ins at a reasonable price and has some activities (though some are a bit childish for my boys). Right now that is my front runner.

Looked at couple spots near Hammond so we could possibly do an alligator tour Sat evening or Sun morning before heading home but those tours are a bit pricey. May still see if they can hook us up with a group discount.

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My troop pretty regularly stayed at National Guard or full Army/Airforce bases back in the day. No idea if that is an option with all going on militarily these days but they were usually good places to stay. Usually involved sleeping on cots in a gym somewhere, but hot showers were available, and at the bigger bases, food was usually offered at the mess hall. I assume it was an affordable option because my old scout master was super frugal and made every effort to make our camps affordable for all.

A huge group of them set up shop ar Huntsville state park this weekend. I let a couple of them use one of my rods to get their merit badge.

Was disappointed at there not being loner gear for them to use for that. I wish I could have helped more, but had my 5yo and not nearly enough gear.