garykrell

We arrived at Redwood Meadows RVP on July 14, 2021. Our site was a level dirt pad, with 90 degree back-in off a narrow approach road. Site opposite was already occupied so getting 27' TT in was dicey. (Not just me; next night I listened to guest who spent 1/2 hr. getting his 20' Airstream parked across the way.) A busy park, with many screaming kids on bikes and scooters. Poor Verizon connectivity, and the park wifi was WORSE than having none at all. An unencrypted wifi connection was supposed to bring up a logon screen. But from our site, that always failed, so we were left without internet access but having our devices exposed to everyone on the LAN. "Oh yeah, you have to come up to the office" to get access to the logon. That worked for me, but leaving the park dropped the connection, so... start over. Ugh! But, we came here to see REDWOODS, and see them we did! Walking among these silent giants, through an undergrowth of ferns, is an experience like no other I have ever had.

I have not much to add to the other 2023 reviews. We were on the #1 (innermost) loop in site 15 and so had a very short walk to the beach, and we were close to the bathhouse and store. The downside was that all park traffic is one-way and so everyone making a circuit around any of the loops would drive past our site. So the road was always busy. Wifi was mostly good in daytime, but slow in the evening. There is a nature center in the CG that features displays and educational programs plus a number of bird feeders that are always well attended. (By birds, not necessarily humans.) Two nature trails through the park, away from the beach, do a good job of explaining the flora and ecology of the area.

We stayed in this area along the Red River in search of some bald eagle sightings, without success, but we did get to see a variety of waterfowl at nearby Hagerman NWR. We stayed in the Bois D'Arc (bow'-dark) Ridge Campground, 50+ pull-through sites with full hookups. Very quiet place in mid-winter. (Since this is the only campground with FHUs, the camp hosts for all 5 camping areas stay here. Early in the week, hosts outnumbered the guests.) The sites are asphalt with pea gravel surface. Our site #93 was inclined and side-sloped toward the lake side, but both were manageable. (Others near us were more severe.) Bigger problem was that the sewer opening was on the uphill side and it was difficult to position our rig to get the drain hose even close to running downhill. Our metal picnic table and fire pit, with grill, were down a rather steep slope toward the lake. Fine for us, but might be difficult for some folks to navigate. No firewood available in the park, but park office can direct you to a nearby private seller. The park has a 4 mi. walking trail that can easily be broken into smaller segments, or done all at once. It's not a loop so it's an 8 mi. round trip. I walked most of it after 2 days of rain, so parts were a little soupy. Good thing was that rainwater was still draining off the uplands and so there were a number of burbling streams to provide a soundtrack.

We stayed at Miller Riverview Park 07/26 & 07/27/2022. There were many places on our long journey up the Great River Road for spectacular views of the Mississippi and its traffic. But this park provided one of the best! Parked only feet from the waters edge, barges and pleasure boats passed in front of our site. Upstream we could just view the East end of Lock & Dam #11 and downstream the green arch of the US-61 bridge. And across the water, the wooded shore and golden bluffs of Wisconsin. (Don't miss the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, only minutes away in downtown Dubuque.) Oh, yeah, the park: Our site a long gravel back-in, very level. A & B sites share electric pedestal and ours is on the wrong side, but still reachable with standard 30a cable. (Could have solved that by pulling in rather than backing in, if not unhooking.) It is possible for non-campers to drive through the camp site area, but most of these appeared to be fishermen going to the North tip of the island. We saw regular park maintenance activity and ranger patrol during our stay.

We camped at Village Creek 10/1 through 10/4/2020.
As a Texan, I'm embarrassed that three years after flooding from hurricane Harvey damaged large areas of this park my state has done so little to restore it to full use. Aside from barricades blocking off day use, camping and hiking areas, there is no evidence of any restoration work. Worse, the TPWD website says nothing about the damage and closings. Visitors should be advised that all areas NE of Sandy Slough are closed. The Village Slough, Water Oak, and Bike Fitness trails ARE open.
Bitching aside, this is a very nice small park in an excellent location, close to the gulf, Big Thicket, and urban Beaumont. Village Creek was flowing nicely when we were there, and would seem to be good for exploring via canoe or kayak. Good RV sites with very good restroom/shower facility close by.
Adjacent to the park road, between Village Slough and Sandy Slough, is an area of 5 acres or so that has been cleared of pine trees and brush, leaving only occasional hardwood trees. Staff informed me that this area is to be used to reintroduce native Longleaf Pine trees to the park at some future date.

We stayed at the Lakeview CG 9-11 July 2018 while attending ZooFest music festival and visiting Lincoln's sites: Sunken Gardens, State Capitol, Great Plains Art Museum, etc.
A beautiful, tree shaded campground with lots of open grassy areas. RV pads are electric only, so we loaded our trailer fresh water tank before leaving our last stop ( a very noisy commercial RVP in Lincoln). There are community spigots available, so it is not a disaster if one were to arrive with a dry FW tank. Our pad (#50) was a left back-in, slightly downhill, with a side pitch that required the use of leveling blocks to correct.
The public showers are interesting. Push a plunger to get water flowing, which stays on for about 10 seconds, and then shuts off. Repeat until done. Plenty of water flow, but no apparent way to adjust temperature. This was okay in July, but might not be much fun in April or May.

Not many campgrounds close to the Pittsburgh metro area and this one, in a beautiful woodland setting, provides decent access: 45 min. to one hour to downtown, depending on traffic.

The individual sites vary considerably in quality, both from one loop to another and even within a given loop. Some are sizable, on good pavement and very level. Others are narrow, on aging asphalt and steeply inclined, as was our B-11. It was covered in mud washed onto it and had a mud-hole along one edge, which just got worse the more it rained. Given the information, or lack of, on the park website and in the reservation system, I don't know how to advise future campers to go about picking a good site. When I made my reservations weeks in advance, I simply made a random pick, and was unlucky.

When I used the showers in the A/B Loop mid-day on Monday the place was filthy and stinking. Grass and mud on the floors, urinals and commodes ALL stopped up, in need of maintenance and/or repair. Tuesday we elected to use the C/D bathhouse instead. It was clean, but also had some plumbing issues.

Even though this park is only about 30 miles from our home, we had never been there. I know it is very popular with fisherman and boaters, but we are neither. Still, we are bored (it's the winter of 2020!) so decided to take the TT out for a few days, someplace not too far away. Surprisingly for December the 50+ RV sites at Martin Creek Lake were booked solid for the next few weekends. Managed to find a spot #31 in the Broken Bowl camping area for Monday-Thurday about a week ahead. Forty-five dollars with our Texas Park Pass. (During our stay the 13 pads in this area stayed mostly empty. My experience has taught me not to trust the info on the online reservation system. If you REALLY need to land here on a given night, call the park directly.) Our site was very level, easy back-in and spacious with table, firepit, tent pad and water-electric hookups. I walked all the trails in the park. The Old Henderson Road and Island trails are fairly well marked, but I had a trail map + a Map My Walk track running, but still had to wander around to find the Harmony Hill trailhead. After that the trail is easy to follow, but basically there are no trail markers. The OHR trail is interesting because a portion follows the sunken track of the mid-eighteenth century Shreveport-Henderson wagon road. The Island trail has a dozen or so informative panels marking native East Texas flora. Now for the downside: Directly across the lake is a three-unit Luminate coal-fired power plant. The sound of this plant, and its supporting coal trains, could be heard in every part of the park. It was tolerable at night in our RV, but "the sound of silence" was nowhere to be found.

Although it dates from the 1930's, Caddo Lake SP has the most updated infrastructure of the many Texas SP's that we have visited. New asphalt park roads and site pads, like-new restroom and shower facilities, good road and camping signage, etc. The main attraction of course is the beautiful Caddo Lake and its spectacular cypress, pine and hardwood forest. Get a good view of the forest on the easy, well marked, but short, hiking trails. (Take the driving tour of nearby Caddo Lake NWR to get a broader look at the lake if you have the time.) RV sites in the Woodpecker Hollow camping area are level, pull-through, FHU, nicely spaced. We spent 4 January nights in #21 and were treated to a rare overnight 2" snowfall. Nights were seasonably chilly, but the days were mild and clear. Didn't see any 'gators, but did manage to photograph the elusive, for me at least, Pileated Woodpecker. The only negative to our visit was that traffic noise was noticeable whenever we were outside. This could be a bigger problem in Armadillo Run which is nearer high speed truck traffic on Hwy 43. Probably less so in summer, when the vegetation is very dense.

Much to our regret, we did not stay at this park. We had reservations for 3/24-3/26 but received a phone call on 3/22 that the Pearl River was in flood and that the park was now closed. My prepaid reservation was refunded in the form of a voucher that was usable at any Mississippi state park. Using that voucher, we were able to book a stay at Roosevelt SP for the required dates. Staff at Roosevelt said that such flooding at Lafleur's Bluff is quite common.