dianagraham

Pelton Park is a nice, little park that offers swimming and boating or just a nice spot to hang out. BE SURE you arrive from Highway 26, to the north; as the other reviewer said, do not follow Google map's instructions that may bring you in from the south. And, be sure you plug in Pelton Park Campground, not the marina or store, as your destination. The campground is at the bottom of a steep, narrow canyon, with Lake Simtustus on one side and NW Pelton Dam Rd on the other. If you are coming from the south, the turn into the CG is not even labeled and is likely not navigable by any thing other than a passenger vehicle. We brought our 40' 5W from Highway 26; just take it slow and watch for oncoming traffic, which is negligible. We did need to cross the center line on a few occasions. We had no trouble getting parked, but it is tight. Mature trees provide wonderful shade. The sites are on the small side but every site has a picnic table, fire ring, and some separation from neighboring sites. The main draw is the marina and the lake. The swimming area has a good sized dock.

Fraser Deep Canyon Grill offers a basic menu of burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, and ice cream. They have several beers on tap. The town of Madras, about 10 miles away, has several grocery stores. We had NO Verizon cell service; our neighbor, with T-Mobile had some. But if you drive toward Highway 26 and up out of the canyon, there are several pull outs where you can get a signal.

This little campground was exactly what the doctor ordered. After almost 6 weeks of nonstop cities and people (visiting family), we desperately needed some beautiful nature and some quiet. Shired Beach CG delivered on both counts. We arrived on a Saturday in January hopeful that we would be able to get one of the FCFS sites. It's a small CG but we had no trouble getting our 40 feet (combined length of our truck camper and utility trailer) into Site 1, by the bathroom, not the ideal site but it worked. The day we arrived it was very windy (winds 16+ mph) but there were still quite a few day visitors. Although there was less wind on Sunday, the place cleared out with just a few campers staying overnight. The CG is roughly configured in a circle with two sites sharing an electric pedestal next to a picnic pavilion. It's a little odd so walk around first and identify the sites. The Dixie County web site says there are 21 sites but it appears that only 12 are electric, 30 amp. There is NO potable water on site but there is a dump. Bathrooms have a shower, sink, and two stalls - all very dated but clean. There's a nice pier and a tiny slice of white sand beach. When the tide is out, it's quite mucky.

I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida and love the "old Florida" feel of this area, maybe one of the last areas to escape development. All of the surrounding area is protected Wildlife Refuge. This is not the part of the state to visit if you're after a white sand beach - this is more tidal creeks and extensive marsh.

I live in this area and have stopped in at this campground on numerous occasions. While I have never camped here, my husband and I have been full-time RV for almost 10 years. Whatever you do, do not take Puerto, La Cruz truck trail off of Chihuahua Valley Road to get to this campground! it is a rough unmaintained truck trail. Instead, turn off of Highway 79 onto lost Valley Road. That will take you in on a single lane asphalt Road that dead ends at the campground. This is a national Forest campground and it appears that the national forest put in this asphalt Road just for access to the campground. My husband and I ride two up on his on an off-road motorcycle and while Puerto la Cruz truck trail is a gorgeous drive it is rough even on and on and off-road motorcycle and I cannot imagine trying to pull a travel trailer on that truck trail.

If you’re looking for a quiet getaway, this campground is lovely. It is lightly used because it is a little difficult to get to you and there’s nothing else around it. Beautiful California Oaks on every site with picnic tables and vault toilets.

This RV park is the closest to Niagara Falls and very convenient to gas/Walmart/ banking, etc. The park is well run and neat and tidy. The office also includes a small store with RV essentials. It’s a pretty traditional RV park with two long rows of pull-throughs and some large back in sites along the back and sides. The park was busy but not crowded in early October and I appreciated that the front office spaced all RVs out with at least one empty site in-between rigs. In addition, there are “cottages.” The laundry facilities are new, two washing machines and two dryers. I didn’t check out the bathrooms. The pool was closed for the season. There’s a nice playground. Fast Verizon.

We spent three nights here with two other campers in sites 6, 7 and eight. The campground is configured in an oval with 10 pull through sites that are immediately next to each other. In that regard its more like an RV park. You pull into your site. On the passenger side is your pad with a picnic table fire pit and grill and immediately next to that is the pull through for the next site. There’s no plant separation or any other kind of barrier between the sites.

Having said that if you get lucky and have quiet neighbors it’s a really lovely little campground. It’s right on the lake with several nice little fishing piers that go down to the lake level. There’s also a big group site. The bathhouse was adequate - plenty of hot water and water pressure for showers. The camp host is very helpful. We had good solar in site 6 but 7 & 8 were shaded. Look at the photos in Google maps. There’s a couple of good ones that really show the campground part of the park. We saw lots of osprey and there is a Hawk nest right in the campground where the parents are feeding hatchlings. We went on a little paddle in our kayak and saw several alligator, great blue heron, green heron and a Marsh hen.

Be aware that the boat ramp sees lots of activity and there is a picnic shelter on that end of the park. The bathhouse is shared by campers, fishermen, and the public using the shelter.

The Mississippi coast has been a really pleasant surprise. The Davis Bayou campground and the entire Mississippi section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore is nestled among beautiful bayous and marsh lands. The campground is clean and well maintained. We arrived the day the CG reopened after Hurricane Nate blew through and the camp hosts told us they lost several large trees and were still cleaning up. The fishing pier and basically all the boardwalks are destroyed but don't let that stop you from visiting. When we checked in, the park ranger told us we had the best site in the CG, #12. After being here one week, we agree. If we are ever back this way, we'll try to get this exact spot. It's big rig friendly (we are 40' long), has a great satellite, full shade, and more privacy than any other site with constant bird song. If you enjoy walking and riding bicycles, this place has it all. We have ridden bicycles all through GINS and along Biloxi Bay in Ocean Springs; the Live Oak Bicycle Trail is immediately next door. All sites have E/W and are 50 amps. Dump station on site. For a town this size, Ocean Springs has a surprising number of really excellent restaurants. Don't miss BBs Po Boys, open for lunch, for the BEST shrimp Po Boy you will ever have!

The RV park/marina is owned/operated by town of Charleston and is very well run. We were here for one week with a big group in September 2019, and I think the price reflects the group rate. The RV park is a big asphalt parking lot but it's right in the middle of things. We had a nice, big pull-through: getting in and out was a breeze. The docks and fishing vessels are a short walk away as are numerous restaurants and shops. The drive down Cape Arago Highway is absolutely beautiful-classic Oregon coast. Good hiking at Sunset Bay SP, with views of Cape Arago Lighthouse. Excellent hike at South Slough Estuarine Reserve. Verizon: 22.1 mps download, 5.08 upload

We really enjoyed Crab Flats CG and the surrounding area, so much so that we stayed 3 nights longer than planned. This is primarily an OHV CG with immediate access to all kinds of off road trails, which is why we were here. We did NOT tow our big rig here but tent camped. I drove our Ford F350 with the gear and my husband rode his adventure bike. The last four miles to the CG are on NF 3N16. According to the camp host, it had just been graded and was so rough before that the garbage truck wouldn't make the drive. I didn't have any trouble getting here but had to go super slow. That said, there were plenty of 2WD vehicles here and folks towing big trailers with ohv toys.

The CG is very quiet during the week but a bit of a circus over the weekend. We arrived with a reservation for site 28. But in talking with the camp host, we learned that site 4 is FCFS and was available. Site 4 is up a little rise, separate from the other sites, and has nice shade all day. So we moved to 4 and had a wonderful experience. Site 14 is also fcfs but was not as desirable.

Vault toilets were clean. Arrive with water. There is a spigot by the restroom but no water pressure. To refill our water containers, we had to go to Green Valley CG. For ice, there are small markets in Green Valley and Running Springs. Excellent Verizon signal (forgot to do a speed test, but fast).

On Recreation.gov it appeared that we would have no problem getting our big rig into one of Bluebill's extra-long sites. Unfortunately the narrow campground road isn't wide enough to allow for the necessary jack knife of rig-truck AND our walk-up site (16) was lined with those blasted concrete bollards. A key bollard had been taken out by a previous camper or we could not have gotten in. As it was, the lug nuts on the truck's front drivers side tire literally scraped the concrete of the bollard while the entire right side of our fifth wheel scraped the high hedge just to the side of the driveway. And the drive was on the "wrong" side of the site for a back-in; our door and windows faced a tall hedge and we had to walk around the rig to access the concrete pad and picnic table.

That said, once we got settled, we loved this little campground. We were here for seven days in mid-September. The 1.25 mile Bluebill Lake trail is immediately accessible from the campground with lovely views of the lake, dunes, and forest. Horsfall Beach is about 1.5 miles farther down the road with a nice big parking lot. (There is dry camping right at the beach to the left and rear of the parking lot, but it is mainly used by OHVers.) We watched the sunset at the beach one evening and then walked up to the parking lot and the large wooden observation deck to watch the moon rise from the east. The town of Coos Bay is just a few miles away with all the services you could need. Verizon signal is decent with 12.8 mps download, 0.47 mps upload.

I imagine mosquitos could be bad in the summer because of the high water/swamp that surrounds the campground but it was not an issue in September. There is a threaded water spigot around the bend from the camp host; no dump. We could definitely hear OHVs from Bluebill and OHVs are allowed on the beach from Hosefall Beach and going north.

First, many of the details in the header for Broken Arrow CG are incorrect. The corrected information is as follows:
Number of sites: 134 (not 118)
Maximum size rig: 50’ (according to the camp host; definitely bigger than the 32’ listed)
Roads and camping pads are asphalt (not gravel)
This lovely campground in the Diamond Lake Recreation Area is one of three NF campgrounds around Diamond Lake. The other two, Thielsen View and Diamond Lake, are right on the lake. Broken Arrow CG is just off the lake but the South Shore Picnic Area, with a swimming beach and boat ramp, is right around the corner. It’s only five miles to the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park, making it the perfect spot to explore the park and the area.

Approximately 60 sites are FCFS with the remainder being reservable. According to the host the CG fills up 3 out of every 5 summer weekends. We arrived early on a Friday afternoon at the end of July and had no trouble finding a site large enough to accommodate our 40’ 5W. The sites are huge and well spaced from adjoining sites. Some sites are ‘singles’ and some are ‘doubles;’ in general the doubles are either twice as wide or twice as long as singles. The singles are $15/night ($7.50 for Senior Pass holders) and the doubles are $20 ($10 for senior pass). Most sites are back-ins but there are also come pull-throughs (like B7 where we were). Bathrooms have electricity and flush toilets, the dump/fill station is easily accessed, there are hot showers, and water spigots are strategically spaced throughout.

A beautiful 11 mile asphalt bike trail encircles Diamond Lake and can be accessed from the
CG. I had a workable Verizon signal on weekdays, not so much on Friday-Sunday. Surprisingly the whole Diamond Lake, Highway 138 area has decent Verizon coverage; there's a tower above the Ranger Station on Highway 138 near Lake Toketee. We ended up spending a full week here instead of the four nights we planned on. The CG was busiest on the first Friday night we were there, but during the week it was very quiet.

Right now there are huge piles of dead wood scattered around the CG and the Diamond Lake area in general with more dead wood yet to be piled up so it’s not looking its best. According to the camp host the wood will be burned during the winter. The NF has been taking down dead trees and thinning the forest. This is one of the few forested CGs we’ve been in that we had no concerns about low hanging tree branches striking our 13’ tall 5W.

Area amenities: Groceries-basically none. There’s a small camp store in the Diamond Lake Marina with very, very basic stuff, mainly microwavable meals; no fresh produce. Post Office, UPS, FedEx-there’s a tiny post office in the Diamond Lake Lodge, where they also receive UPS and FedEx packages. If you’re expecting mail via General Delivery, go in and let the post mistress know. Gas/Diesel-there’s a gas station just north of Diamond Lake Lodge with regular, super, and diesel. South Shore Pizza does a good job and has a decent collection of beer on tap. There’s a restaurant in the Lodge but we didn’t check it out. Visitor Information-there’s a Umpqua Forest Information Center across the street from Diamond Lake CG where we were able to pick up a Motor Vehicle Use Map and brochures with waterfall and hiking information. The Diamond Lake Ranger Office is a beautiful building with maps for sale and detailed trail information, about a 20 mile drive from the CG, on Highway 138. Verizon-On a Thursday I had 5.53 download, 0.07 upload, workable but slow. Early in the morning I was able to stream video. On Friday I couldn’t get my hot spot to connect. Waterfalls-there are over 25 waterfalls within a 30 -45 minute drive.

Crater Lake National Park notes: Through more accident than design, we landed in the area at the right time, late July. The summer season is very short. The rim road was open, we were able to purchase boat tour tickets, and there were no forest fires.