Pink granite ledges slope straight into the water along Inks Lake, and by the second afternoon the kids have each claimed a favorite and stopped asking what's next. Farther up the Colorado, Lake Buchanan opens out wide behind its dam, with a beach and a swim dock where the day ends as the sun drops over the far shore. This is lake country northwest of Austin, out on TX-29 and FM-690, and a family can settle into it for the whole week without packing up once.
That's what makes this a motorhome trip. Texas summer afternoons are hot, and a rig plugged in at the campground keeps the air conditioning running while everyone dries off, then sleeps the whole crew without anyone pitching a thing. The lakes form a chain, so the week splits neatly in two, starting at the granite and finishing on the big water.
Inks Lake first, then Lake Buchanan
Inks Lake is the granite end of the chain, and the first few nights belong to it: a swim off the rock in the morning, a walk along the shore at dusk, the rig cooled down and waiting at the site. Texas Parks and Wildlife runs 114 campsites with water and electricity here, with room for up to eight people on a site, which covers a family and a cousin or two. If the drive starts late, a Burnet-area resort on the way north catches the first night.
Those Inks Lake sites are the reservation that decides the trip, so lock one in before you book the motorhome, and let the site you get set the size of the rig. There's no sewer at the site, so a few nights here leave the tanks ready to empty by the time you move up the lake.
Lake Buchanan is the open water upstream, the place for a boat day and long evenings by the shore. Canyon of the Eagles, run by the Lower Colorado River Authority, has 23 full-hookup RV sites with views across the lake. Lake Buchanan RV and Cabin Resort, about an hour north of Austin, puts full-hookup sites on the lake with its own boat ramp and a pool, and stays open year-round as of September 2026. Either one gives the second half of the week a sewer connection after the nights at Inks.
Winter turns both lakes quiet, and Inks Lake offers weekly and monthly rates December through February for anyone who'd rather stay a month than a week. It's a good season for the granite walks, with the swimming left for spring.
Austin's closer state parks make a different kind of trip. McKinney Falls on Onion Creek, Pedernales Falls, the granite dome at Enchanted Rock and Lake Travis at Pace Bend suit two people moving every night in something smaller, and that trip has its own Austin page. The Hill Country week to the south, with its rivers and theme-park days, lives on the San Antonio RV page, and the rest of the state's lake and coast weeks are on the Texas RV page.
Circuit of the Americas on race and concert weekends
On a Grand Prix weekend at Circuit of the Americas, out in Del Valle on the east side of Austin, the rigs sit in rows by the back straight with the grandstand standing up on the horizon. The engines at warm-up get everyone out of bed before the coffee's ready, and the whole weekend runs on that sound until the last lap. The circuit's concert weekends bring the same crowds to the same fields with a stage in place of the cars.
COTA RV Park is a full-service park trackside and open year-round as of September 2026. It also asks that RVs older than 10 years get management approval before they stay, so check the model year on the listing before you commit to it.
October is when every pad around Austin fills, because the race weekend and the fall lake trips compete for the same motorhomes and the same sites. Reserve the race-weekend site first and the rig right after, and treat a lake week that lands on those dates as one more booking in the same squeeze. Austin East KOA and Austin Motor Village, both east of the city, are the parks to try for a first night on that side of town before heading north to the lakes.