Gary & Lora Joslyn

This was a free overnight stay at a local casino. We tried this since we were waiting to get into Traverse City State Park. There was RV parking which was more than sufficient for the night. There was a lot of lighting in the area which was great for security. Blackout blinds do help. Area was quiet and as a bonus, the casino security regularly drove around the parking lot.

The day we were there there was a semi truck as well as two other campers. The Casino itself was ok, but we don't frequent casinos to have a good comparison. The nicer restaurant was closed the day we visited and the cafe had adequate food.

we stayed here since it was between Bryce Canyon National Park and Kodachrome Basin State Park. We have a truck camper so staying in a private park allowed us the ability to remove our camper from our truck and head into Bryce - so much easier without the camper.

The good:
- $36 for water and electric hookups, reasonable price
- Folks at the reception area were really nice, recommended local restaurants
- The laundry facility was clean and open 24 hours
- They do have wifi (but we didn't use it)
- Good price on propane
- Dump station worked as expected and water at the campsite was decent
- Rock was recently put down on the site which looked nice and the overall campground seemed nicely landscaped

The not so good:
- Our campsite was right on the main road so it was pretty noisy during the day/evening. Not too bad at night.
- Sites were pretty small but guess you would expect that.

I forgot to check on cell service, but it was minimal on Verizon and AT&T without our router antenna. All in all, it met what we needed at the time. We'd stay again

In this weekly episode we do show some of the campground along with our excursions: https://www.joslynjourney.com/e130/.

Aug '22 - We purchased a yearly base Thousand Trails Membership, since it was cheaper to do that than stay here without for 2 weeks. We enjoyed our stay here - they have a nice pool, small but adequate laundry facility, the sites were decent-sized and we felt we had space (we were closer to several seasonals that were not there during our stay).

Make sure to walk around this park - there's some good views of the bay and a trail where you can get into Potawatomi state park. Cell service was not great, but they have FANTASTIC wifi for a reasonable weekly rate (I *think* it was $15?).

We put together a video during our stay that has some views of the sites. https://youtu.be/YvcZ6JzVJ5U

We had originally planned on staying at a rest area for the night, but I found this campground and thought we'd give it a try. And I'm glad we did! We actually stayed on one of the dispersed camping sites just shy of the campground. There were a few cars driving on the road and it went to nothing towards dusk.

Gary met a hunter who was in the area who had just spotted a huge elk, but we didn't see it. The hunter also said to be wary for grizzlies since they frequent the area. We didn't spot much wildlife except the angry squirrel but it was so much better than an overnight parking area.

Aug '22 - We stayed at this campground for a week primarily to go fishing in the Chain O Lakes. We happened upon a Muskie tournament so the place was PACKED with boats. This campground offers transient slips which was fantastic. Some sites were close enough to electric pedestals to charge trolling motors but you have to ask. Many sites are for seasonals but it looked well-kept.

They have recently converted some sites to transient sites, which is what we ended up with (Site 98). It had electric and water but no sewer. There's a dump station near the office which was sufficient. This was a bit challenging to get our truck camper and boat into. The neighbors said a 5th wheel tried to get in here before us and couldn't. So definitely check based upon your rig size.

This place had a nice pool but we didn't go in it. You're not too far from other places to eat and you can actually find places on the water to dock, which is cool!

This place was not cheap, though. $43/night + taxes. If I didn't have our boat, I'm not sure this would be a good value. It was generally quiet where we were staying except for a seasonal person with two small barky dogs. But guess you get that everywhere.

Blog with other info: https://www.joslynjourney.com/e87/
Video: https://youtu.be/urinD4xT-24

We stayed here in mid-February for a week. When we got here, there was snow still around in the campground but a lot of it turned into red mud. Bring an outdoor rug to attempt to reduce the amount you bring inside your camper!

Sites were $30/day without any extra taxes or daily use fees, etc. Note we did use our annual Americas pass to get into the park (which you'd need).

Our site had groups of mule deer practically every night. They are not afraid of campers and will walk up to you if you let them (don't). There's a short walk to the beach behind where we stayed which was beautiful and an easy walk to the visitor center.

There were 2 dump stations and no issues there.

The biggest advantage (beyond having electricity in freezing temps) was that you did not have to go through the entrance to get to hikes in the morning. That meant less waiting between getting in your car and getting out at the trailhead.

There are $20/night no electric options but you need to be 19 feet or less. Too tiny for our truck camper!

Really enjoyed staying at this park. We used this as the home base for a week while exploring Columbus as well as hiking at Providence Canyon.
Road to get to the park was not an issue. There are 10 sites, some are good for RVs (not all). Be prepared to dry camp - each site does have a picnic table and a fire ring. When we went there, it looked like many of the sites had been updated with new rock and timber.
From our stay here, several folks come during the day to fish along the bank behind some of the camp sites. There is also a boat launch that seems reasonably well used (we were there in Feb).
Would not recommend the pit toilets.
You'll need to get water/dump your tanks elsewhere.
Unfortunately folks do think the park is their garbage can, even though those are provided. We did our best to pick up the 2 sites we stayed in throughout the week.
Birds were crazy amusing here - almost like clockwork large swarms came in around 4 and left around 5 (with a posse of some predator bird flock picking them off).
There was also some minor day noise (fire range likely with Ft. Benning). We did have several C-130 planes go over the park just after dusk and 2 days there were parachuting drills. We also had a helicopter buzz us (assuming also with Ft. Benning). All of that was usually just after dusk so was not all night long - it was actually quite interesting to watch!
If you're interested, check out our blog that has more of our stay with our video: https://www.joslynjourney.com/s2e5-georgia-rocks/

We drove into the park in the evening, so we planned the next day to go kayaking (along with a picnic lunch). There are two places to drop in, but I definitely recommend to drop your kayak (or canoe) at Mill Pond. You can also rent canoes there (sorry, didn't check on fees) and there were plenty when we went there (then again it's January).

The park itself seemed nice and well-maintained. The one bathhouse we went into was stocked and clean. We stayed on a small "culdesac" of the campsites. Unfortunately, they were pretty close to the road and we heard quite a bit of road noise (engine braking, etc.) throughout both nights. We definitely cranked up our white noise during our stay.

On our way out, we used their dump station. The area to dump was angled heavily which caused us not to be able to fully empty our tanks.

If you're interested in more (including videos) of this trip and our other exursions, check out: https://www.joslynjourney/e108

We stayed at this park for 4 nights and in general it was pretty good. The biggest plus of this park is the location. There's a bridge that you can use to get to the Beach right on the bay. There's a trail to walk or bike into downtown. There's even a shuttle that goes into downtown (check at the main entrance to see the schedule).

The park itself seemed well-maintained. The bathrooms were kept up. There wasn't any laundry facilities but you can get that in town.

On the not great side: During the day there is a lot of air traffic - commercial airlines, sight seeing planes, and US Coast Guard low-flying helicopters. And... if you chose your site poorly, you may be up against the main road into town which is quite busy. Check your site's relation to that road! With all that noise, it does get much quieter at night. Honestly, it didn't bother us - we have a white noise generator that tends to make all that go away. But that may not be your case (for reference, we have stayed near semi trucks overnight and most places didn't bother us).

The other not so great thing is this park has an older layout which means you may have to do battle with low-lying trees and unlevel sites (even beyond what is said online). Do what you can to check out the site before booking. Would also recommend to pick sites away from the main road there (heavy traffic).

Related blog: https://www.joslynjourney.com/e96
Related video: https://youtu.be/Ej4_wnAj82M

5 sites there. We stayed in early Feb. Struggled to get level on 3 of the 5 sites then gave up after 5 blocks high wasnt enough. Parked overnight by the boat ramp.

Since it was in the winter, the trees were not blocking as much of the periodic road noise.

Each campsite had a fire ring and a table which was nice. We originally came in hopes to out our kayaks in but the water was high and fast so no go.

Dry camping, so come prepared. There are dumpsters in the area but seems like people dont see them or ignore them. We picked up a lot of trash while we were there.