LBJ National Grasslands offers public hunting and camping in Montague County

Scattered tracts of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Grasslands reach up out of Wise County and into Montague, a patchwork of federal land the U.S. Forest Service keeps open to the public. You can hunt it, camp on it, fish its ponds, walk it, or ride a horse across it, as long as you carry a valid Texas hunting or fishing license when the activity calls for one.

The Valley View Group Use area, sitting in the Montague–Wise stretch of the grasslands, is one of the developed spots, with campsites that go first-come, first-served for a fee. The folks who manage all of this work out of the district office in Decatur, over in Wise County.

One thing to check before you load the truck: campfire and access rules tighten fast when the brush dries out, and a green prairie in March can be under a burn restriction by late summer. A quick look at the Forest Service alerts saves you from hauling a cold camp stove you weren't allowed to light anyway.