Checking into Lake Bastrop’s new Airstream trailer compound
Charm and nostalgia are your travel companions when you take up residence at idyllic park
When the thrill of rambling down a highway with a 25-foot travel trailer swinging on your tail grows old, you’ve got options in Central Texas.
At North Shore Lake Bastrop Park, a 182-acre retreat managed by the Lower Colorado River Authority, visitors can spend a night in a sparkly new Flying Cloud Airstream trailer that’s already set up and ready for move in.
That’s right — no buying the trailer, no backing it in and no pumping out the waste tanks when you’re finished. You don’t even have to bother with bed sheets, bath towels or cooking utensils.
That makes a lot of sense to many travelers today, who want to experience the outdoors without the hassle of pitching tents, lugging backpacks or towing recreational vehicles. In short, it’s “glamping” — a glamorized version of camping that trades the uncomfortable parts of the experience for the plusher ones.
From the new Airstreams at North Shore Lake Bastrop, towering pines and oaks frame a view of a reservoir suitable for swimming in the summer months and fishing the rest of the year. The trailers — there are five of them — come outfitted with a stereo system, two TVs and a DVD player (but who really wants to stare at a screen where there are trails to hike?), a pintsize shower and bathroom equipped with the world’s tiniest hairdryer, a queen bed and two singles, and a kitchen with a stovetop, microwave, oven and sink. Plus, you can grill the steaks or burgers you bring outdoors, on a gas grill surrounded by granite countertops.
My husband and I dropped by on a chilly November night, unloaded groceries into the refrigerator of the Blue Lacy unit — others are named for Texas musician Willie Nelson and first lady Lady Bird Johnson — and lit a fire outside. I strolled down to the lake and talked back to some squawky birds, watched the sun sink in the sky, then headed to the trailer where we fired up the grill. We ate our rib-eye indoors, at a cozy built-in table, then stirred up hot chocolate in bright red mugs and retreated to the campfire, where we toasted marshmallows for s’mores as the stars popped out. Brightly painted Adirondack chairs and a picnic table are arranged on a gravel courtyard lit by strands of bright lightbulbs. The ambiance feels purely Texan.
“Definitely high-end, drive-up camping,” said my husband Chris, who loves to load an ultralight tent into an ultra-light backpack and head into the woods for days at a time. “I wouldn’t even call it camping.” But he liked it. So did I. An hour later, we found ourselves snuggling under the covers and fell asleep to the hum of the heater. No doubt the built-in air-conditioning would make summers bearable, too, as would the lake just a marshmallow’s throw away.
The next morning, I could see a glint in my husband’s eye as he sipped coffee at the table, peering out the wrap-around windows as the sun rose over the lake and he cleared sausage patties and scrambled eggs from his plate. He’s been contemplating purchasing a travel trailer, and spending a few months crisscrossing the country, exploring parks along the way.
“It’s an easy and convenient way to test drive an Airstream before buying one,” he said.
The trailers have been open about two months, and so far they’ve proved popular.
“People just think they’re so cute,” said park host Sandy Speckman. “Number one, just having an Airstream — and the way they’ve set everything up, with the wooden chairs, the firepits and the tubs of flowers.”
LCRA operates more than 40 parks along the Colorado River, between San Saba and Matagorda Bay along the Texas coast. In recent years, it’s added a slew of recreational attractions to those parks, from a zip-line and rockclimbing wall at McKinney Roughs Nature Park to mountain biking trails at Muleshoe Bend Recreation Area.
Here at Lake Bastrop, guests can rent canoes, stand-up paddleboards or kayaks when the weather’s nice. Nearly 10 miles of trails beckon, too, including the short and snappy Buzzard Point loop adjacent to the campground or the longer lakeside trail that leads all the way to the south side of the lake.