Steven and Melanie Atha

We visited Dinosaur National Monument in October while staying in a campground in Vernal, Utah. One of our day trips to DNM involved a drive through of Green River Campground. There were very few people camped there during the week when we drove through the nicely maintained and beautiful campground. The Cottonwoods were showing off their fall colors too.

While we didn't camp there, this campground is a great first come, first served spot during this time of year.

Pettigrew State Park in Creswell, North Carolina has a small, primitive (no water, electric, dump and the RV sites are dirt) campground located on Lake Phelps.

While the sites sit among old growth forest, it was a warm and humid summer day when we camped here requiring us to run our generator for a bit until the sun got down after dinner. Because there's no electricity offered, I'd recommend camping in the park in cooler months, but there's hiking and swimming in beautiful Lake Phelps. The campground does offer restrooms with showers which are older, but relatively clean.

The park is in a remote farming area in eastern North Carolina. We used it as a way point on our way to the Salina on Cape Hatteras in the Outer Banks.

After lunch yesterday, we decided to check out Tanglewood Park just outside Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It seemed like a good idea on a rainy day with no let up in the precip in the forecast.

To say the 1000+ acre park is beautiful is understatement. We paid an entrance fee of $2.00 and drove around for about 45 minutes just getting a feel for what was available to us. Great waking/biking trails are available. Golf, if that's your thing, including a driving range. Tennis. Swimming. Picnic shelters. Lakes. Music venue. Horseback riding. And an RV park. And Tanglewood offers one of the most beautiful old growth deciduous forests we've come across.

We were scheduled to boondock in Wilkesboro, but after seeing the great venue Tanglewood provides, we decided to check out the RV park there too. I asked my wife if she'd consider staying there if there happened to be a vacancy. I'd tried to book us a week back with no luck, but figured since it was rainy, maybe someone had cancelled.

I was right and so we decided, given the inclement weather, we'd like to be hooked up for the evening to try and keep the humidity at bay.

There's nothing too special about the RV park. The park is, however, among a great stand of beautiful old growth oaks. It's clean and well kept. The hosts are friendly. The shower house clean given the wet conditions. The pads are asphalt. And it's quiet.

But be aware that many of the sites are not level. And not just slightly. Some of the sites will take real work if you want to be level.

While I did not check out all the sites, I can say the row we were on (40's) were all pretty reasonably level and had the benefit of being at the back of the park. Stay away from the lower 30's sites.

My only regret is we weren't able to take advantage of the great park amenities because of the weather.

We're traveling east having just left Theodore Roosevelt National Park area. Hazelton is an Army Corp of Engineers campground along the Missouri River. The campground is very well kept with electric hook ups, pit toilets and one central place to fill your water tank. There is no dump station. The pads are hard-packed crushed composite material and mostly flat

A boat ramp is close by and Frisbee golf course next to the campground.

We're here over the Labor Day weekend. It turned rainy and cooler and most people left last night, the last people left this morning (Monday). We have the place to ourselves.

The campground is located about 30 miles south of Interstate 94 and Bismarck, ND. Not a problem for us, but many may think it out of their way.

Our Verizon service is very good.

Bandits Roost campground is (yet another) stellar Army Corp of Engineers campground.

We stayed here for two nights on our way to Winston-Salem. Arriving early, we were graciously checked in only to find our reserved campsite occupied. No worries, says the nice volunteer, the current occupants will be out by 3 and you can move in. Fine.

We decided to check out Wilkesboro, just 6 miles away. After enjoying a latte at a local establishment, Melanie had work and, having seen a laundromat on the way into town, I suggested we park in the laundromat parking lot, let Melanie work while I did laundry.

Finishing our laundry at around 4:30, we made our way back to the campground only to find it still occupied. A new volunteer was on duty and, after explaining we could, if we wanted, continue to wait for our site, gave us options as alternatives to our booked site. We choose on of the three sites he suggested, 22A, which, turns out, was a much, much better campsite this time of year.

When choosing a site in this campground, default to the "A" loop. Sites 23-28 are out on a point and have great views, but with those great views comes great exposure. This time of year especially. Spring and Fall might be a good time. You have full hook-up, but the sun will bake you during hotter times of the year. Sites 18-22 are water front and have great shade trees.

We have been camped in Assateague Island National Seashore campgrounds for going on three days now.

"Assateague Island, famed for its wild horses, lies off the Delmarva Peninsula on the Atlantic Coast. This barrier island is a constantly shifting ribbon of sand, altered daily by powerful wind and waves. The Assateague Island National Seashore, Assateague State Park, and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge each manage and protect this unique, diverse strip of land." (U.S. National Park Service)

The first night we spent in the "A" Loop of the Bayside Campground, the past two nights have been in #2 Loop of the Oceanside Campground. It's relatively quiet here in late August. I suspect the next few days, however, will be busy with the Labor Day holiday approaching.

Campgrounds here are dry camping. No electric, no water at the campsites and each loop has two outside cold water showers and two pit toilets. It's not exactly primitive, but closer to it than some places we've camped. Beachside Campground loops are steps from the Atlantic Ocean.

There's a place to get potable water and there's a dump station available too.

We've lucked out on weather while we've been here. Skies have been mostly to partly cloudy, high temps in the mid 70's, low's in the low 70's upper 60's.

​We'll definitely be back. $15.00 price reflects my senior status.

Isolated campground on the beautiful Alabama River. Check
Greeting party of six deer. Check
Easy access dump station. Check
Level concrete pad, nice picnic table, grill, fire pit. Check
Clean campsite with garbage can for each site. Check
Nice evening walk around the campground along the river and through the woods. Check
Nice place to ride a bicycle. Check
Local boys making a bit of noise repairing an RV. Check
Quiet, really quiet. Check
Corp of Engineers really has it going on. Check
Some Verizon service. Check
A few over the air TV channels. Check

Price reflects application of my senior pass. Four stars for access is only because some would find the isolated location a problem.

We were located outside of Newport, Vermont, but since my wife has a part-time job, we needed better connectivity. I was riding a local bike trail that runs adjacent to Prouty Beach during the Labor Day Holiday weekend and thought I'd check to see if they might have availability for Sunday and Monday nights.

We lucked out and got one of their spots right on the lake. There were four other spots adjacent to ours, but Site 63 is separated from those by the bike/walking trail that runs through the campground. The four other slots were empty on Monday evening.

The campground is owned by the city of Newport and is well kept and quiet at night. There are a number of seasonal campers located in the upper portion of the campground overlooking the lake.

While we generally don't spend as much for a camp spot, being on the beach, near the bike trail and within walking distance of town was a plus. It's also located close to the Canadian border if a trip into Canada is on your agenda.

Verizon service was good at times and not so good at others, but since service is good in downtown Newport, my wife was able to work and we could stream some at night.

We travel full time and, generally speaking, we need to be connected to the internet so my wife can work a part time job.

I scheduled Goodell purposefully on the two days of the week she is officially off work because of the review just below this one which states:

"The Verizon service was marginal and barely enough for a video call. It worked, but was not ideal for heavy internet use even with an extender."

The report was written in August of 2020 and is no longer true. We have 4 bars of Verizon service in Site #5 and enough bandwidth for browsing the internet or streaming. I am composing this review in the campground.

This time of year and because the snowpack is plentiful this year, the sound of Goodell Creek as it moves by Site #5 is thunderous. Great for opening the windows at night for sleeping in the 50 degree F. temps.

We have a 25' van with a carrier on the back making our total length about 28' and fit nicely into Site #5.

Getting a site is by reservation, but, and this is a great exception. If you arrive without a reservation and there's a placard on the site post that says "Free," indicating the site is not reserved, you can move into it and it's free to you for the night. You may have to move if the site is reserved the next day.

The $10.00 site fee reflects a senior discount.

What Sue and Dave said. We're here as a practical solution while my wife closes out a law practice. It's conveniently located to downtown Birmingham, making our commute manageable.