Kelly’s Pond Campground

Kelly’s Pond Campground

This campground is thusly named for the pond located by the adjacent parking area. You can launch your kayak or canoe, though it’s small enough that you won’t go very far.

There are ATV trails throughout here, and you should expect noise during the day. It’s also a popular campground, particularly with families and kids. Even though the campground itself is restricted to tents only, there are many who use the adjacent parking lot to camp as well, and RVs are permitted there.

In our experience, this is the “nicest” of the free camping areas in Sam Houston National Forest, but it’s also the most widely-used. You can, of course, mitigate that by coming here during the week instead of the weekend.