jeffsturm

With a last minute change of plans, we were left looking for a place to spend the weekend in the Galveston Island area. Although there are about a dozen campground options, we couldn’t get a site at the state park and we remain skeptical of most private RV parks without firsthand experience or reliable reviews. That led us to San Luis Pass County Park.

Located on the northwestern side of San Luis Pass, the county park is situated on a point just across the toll bridge ($2 toll for our truck and trailer in Feb 2017) from Galveston Island. We drove in from Louisiana via highway 87, utilizing the free Port Bolivar-Galveston Island Ferry, and the Termini-San Luis Pass Road. The San Luis Pass is a well-known fishing area and the park and campground was busy with fishermen throughout our stay.

While the sites were fairly close together, the campground was pretty empty during our stay. We selected one of the “pull through” sites, which are actually two co-joined back-in sites. If we had to do over, we would have probably picked one of the outer back-in sites in order to enjoy the water views. There were a few long-termers parked there for the winter, but nothing crazy and their sites were clean and well kept.

Other reviewers on Google complained about noise, but we didn’t have any problems with that during our stay. While there were fishermen on the beach overnight, the campground is separated from the beach and the rest of the park by a gate, fencing, and a seawall. The gate was closed throughout our stay. The only noise we had to deal with was from a pile driver from the home construction in the area.

The park employees were friendly and very easy going. As it was pretty windy during our stay, I wanted to wash the salt-spray off our trailer before traveling inland to Austin. I decided to ask if I could wash my trailer and their response was, “Sure, no problem…you’re paying for the water!” They even asked the next day if we had any issues.

The park office has a little “nature” exhibit going on that our 6-year old boy liked. The bathhouse was elevated on pilings (which is cool, but could be an issue for older or infirm travelers) and was well maintained and clean.

The park’s main beach area is an easy walk and is open to traffic. Due to strong currents in the area, swimming is not recommended. However, I launched my SUP from the campground into the sound area (around the point from the channel) from the mucky beach area near the bathhouse and had no issues.

We received all the major OTA TV channels and the park’s WiFi was average. We had 50amp electric, with full water and sewer hook-ups. I don’t remember the specifics on our cell reception, but it wasn’t impressive.

The park is at least a 25-minute drive from civilization, so make sure you’re stocked up stuff before arriving. There was a small convenience store located on the main drag, but we never stopped there so I can’t comment on it. If you were planning on using this as a base for visiting Galveston Island, I would rethink those plans due to the distances; there are better options for that on Galveston Island. If you were looking for a quiet place to unwind and hangout, this may be a good choice.

Frankly, I’m torn if we would stay here again. If the timing worked out and I were planning on doing a lot of fishing, San Luis Pass County Park would be great. If just passing through, it would do the trick. Coming to spend some time sightseeing…probably not.

While searching for a convenient spot to camp during an early June, mid-week fly-fishing trip to the Manistee River, we discovered Michigan’s CCC Bridge State Forest Campground. Located six to nine miles down graded gravel and dirt roads (depending upon which way you approach the campground), the campground is divided into two sections, one on each side of the Manistee River and separated by the Sunset Trail Bridge (I’m guessing this isn’t the historical CCC Bridge because it’s a pretty new). The campground on the northern’ish side of the river is smaller and consists of eight small sites adjacent to the river. The remaining sites are on the other side of the river, along with a boat launch and recovery area, as well as a day-use area.

We had our pick of sites as only one other camper was there during our stay. We picked site number 21. Although #21 wasn’t on the river, it was the largest, grassiest, and was the most open site in the campground. Because we were spending a couple of nights, we wanted the most exposure for our solar panels and site 21 fit the bill beautifully. There were two or three other sites that were more wooded and would have worked with frequent relocation of our portable solar panels, but site 21 let us park and relax because our rooftop solar panels easily recharged our batteries after a chilly night with our furnace running.

The campground has several sets of fairly primitive but clean pit toilets. Both campgrounds had a hand operated, fresh water pump that worked fine for filling our gerry can for dishwashing water. There is no dump station at this campground.

The campground itself was well kept and clean, but site 21 was a disaster when we pulled in. There was trash strewn about the campsite and in the fire pit, including various electronic pieces/parts and a bowl of rotting meat. It was freaking disgusting and I spent 20-minutes policing the site and filled a trash bag in the process. Once that was done, the site was fantastic.

While CCC Bridge is pretty isolated, there was a fair amount of traffic at the front of the campground due to fishermen launching or recovering their drift boats from the river, but it isn’t really a big deal. In the summer, the majority of the traffic is in mid-afternoon and late-evening as the sun is going down due to the timing of Michigan’s hatches. So you may see headlights and hear the happy banter of anglers returning from a great (or maybe not so great) late afternoon on the Manistee.

It’s a fair hike into the nearest town from CCC Bridge, so you want to come fully stocked for your stay. A trip into Grayling (the nearest town of any size with *substantial* services) will set you back an hour in roundtrip travel time.

The connectivity was practically non-existent on our AT&T phones and hotspot, but we would periodically get 1-bar of LTE, quickly followed by nothing. Just enough to tease us… We fired up our Verizon Jetpack and got a couple bars of 3G.

If you plan to fly fish or just paddle the Manistee River, this is a great campground. There are several great public access spots just upstream of the campground (follow King Road), as well as accesses for launching or recovering your raft or kayak. I had a wonderful 3-1/2 hour float (fishing) from the Burnt Cabin access (approx 2-miles up King Road from the campground). Alternatively, you could launch from the campground and get out at the Three Mile Bend Access spot downstream (this is also a 3-4 hour fishing float—shorter if you’re paddling for fun). The Three Mile Access is located 2.2-miles downstream on King Road.

The gravel roads can be a bit sketchy. We came in from the west via 66 and Mecum Road, turning right onto Sunset Trail. This route was all graded gravel and was very easy with our Airstream (only washboard for a mile or so on Sunset Trail). We drove back/forth to Grayling utilizing two other routes: going into Grayling we used Sunset Trail to Riverview until we reached M72—this route was barely a step up from a two-track and was very narrow with a lot of soft sand—I had to use 4WD at one point due to the deep sand. Returning to the campground from Grayling we stayed on M72 until we reached Sunset Trail, taking that the entire way and it was much better than Riverview—wide with a lot of clearance, but fair amount of soft sand and some pretty significant pot holes. Coming and going with a trailer, the 66 and Mecum Rd route would be our recommendation.

Looking for somewhere to ride out the remainder of the MLK weekend in Florida, we harnessed the power of the Googler and discovered Cedar Key, Florida.

Located on Florida’s Gulf coast, a few hours north of Tampa, Cedar Key is a funky and eclectic island town that various travel bloggers liken to Key West before the tourists. There are several good restaurants and bars in town, along with a coffee shop that I can’t comment on since the day I tried to visit it was closed (it appeared that a lot of things in town close on Tuesdays). Other diversions include several kayak and paddleboard tour and rental places, boat tours, fishing, and beer drinking.

There are four nearby campground options if staying in Cedar Key. For our visit, three of them were non-starters due to availability or being “Adult Only.” With very little information on the web about it, the fourth campground in the Cedar Key area, Shell Mound Campground, was a mystery. I tried four different phone numbers before I was finally able to speak with an actual person. The phone number that worked was the one listed on the generic Google page: (352) 221-4466.

Other than a curt and gravelly “Campground…” as his telephonic greeting, our Shell Mound Oracle was a little short on in-depth information. I asked if they had any sites available for the weekend. The Oracle stated that while they didn’t take reservations, he had plenty of spots at the moment. Really? Plenty of spots on a Holiday Weekend in Florida in January…please tell me more…I asked about cost and the Oracle’s response piqued my interest, “$15 for electric and water, $10 for electric, and $5 for no hook-ups.” Hmmm…Really?

We rolled into Shell Mound Campground on Sunday afternoon and were immediately surprised. Sitting on the waters of Suwannee Sound on the edge of a Wildlife Refuge, we watched the cedar trees sway in the breeze and the local birds and fishermen buzzing to and froe into and out of the Gulf of Mexico. It was all quite lovely. While a little on the rustic side and dated, the campground was obviously well cared for and it was very clean. Most surprising though, the Oracle was right, we had our pick of sites.

Stunned by the emptiness of the campground, I asked the Oracle if this was typical. In between draws on his well-chewed stogie, his response was something along the lines that they were busier than usual because of the weekend. In a fairly no-nonsense manner, he told me to pick out a site and come back to the doublewide-cum-office and we could settle up.

We slowly perused the sites, which wasn’t difficult due to the diminutive size of the park (there are only about 20’ish sites, 15 or so that would be suitable to a typical-sized RV). Site number 5 looked like the best compromise between close enough to level and far enough away from the buzzing boat launch.

With our site picked out, I returned to the Oracle’s lair and settled up our bill. While returning to the office I noticed a big sign above the gate with some useful information; in particular a note stating that Active and Retired Military were entitled to a 50% discount off the already low camping price. With this useful piece of intelligence, I proffered my Retiree ID Card. After including state and local taxes, our daily total was slightly over $9. It should be noted that cash is required as they don’t take credit cards. Even without the discount, the advertised $15 per night for electric and water is a bargain and when combined with the beautiful location makes Shell Mound a diamond in the rough.

The details:
Cleanliness. As mentioned, facilities are old but clean and cared for. The bathhouse with toilets and showers was always impeccably clean. Overall, the entire operation was cleaner than a lot of the State Parks we’ve stayed at.

Level. Very few (like maybe two or three) of the sites were level, the rest seem to be haphazardly situated throughout the park. That being said, with a little ingenuity it can be managed. We were able to make things work out with our drive-on Anderson levelers (giving us about 3-1/2 to 4 inches of lift on the downhill side). Other sites maybe more difficult, but since this place appears to never be full, you should be able to find one that works.

Electric and Water Pedestals. The water and electric pedestals are doubled up, meaning that two sites share the same pedestal (separate connections but just one pedestal for two sites). This means that one site has the hook-up pedestal on the correct (road or port) side of their rig, while the adjacent site has it on the other (curb or starboard) side—no big deal if your electrical cable and/or water hose is long enough or if you need to park in your site a little creatively due to the level issue (like we did).

Airboats. We had heard that because of the in-campground boat launch, there would be a lot of noise in the early-morning and late-afternoon as fishermen came and went with their trucks and airboats. That is an accurate statement. While we rarely heard the trucks, we pretty consistently heard the airboats as they were launched, recovered, headed-out or in. While the airboats are loud as all get-out (they are powered by airplane engines, after all), they weren’t overly annoying or obnoxious because the noise rarely lasted for more than a few moments. We kept our windows shut and the A/C on for our entire stay, so they didn’t bother us too bad. We’ve stayed next to airports (like, next to the runways not just “near” the airport) and the airboat noise at Shell Mound was not as bad as those airport campgrounds. Besides the airboats, why did we run the A/C constantly, you may ask? No-see-ums!

Bugs. No-see-ums, or Sand Fleas, or gnats, or tiny biting minions of Satan, whatever you want to call them; they definitely call Shell Mound their home turf. During the day and times of even a small breeze, the No-see-ums were not that bad, but at night? Watchout! So, when we weren’t in town enjoying Cedar Key, we were comfortably able to venture out to walk the dog and explore the Suwannee Wildlife Refuge. However, given a little shade, no breeze, or some salty sweat, they could be bad. Not a deal breaker, but in our experience a little above average bug-wise for the more rural Florida campgrounds located adjacent to water.

Dump Station. The on-site dump station is located by the front entry and requires removing a chain and backing-in. While we didn’t avail ourselves of it, it looked like a fairly straightforward operation and I would have had no problem using it if needed.

Connectivity. No WiFi in park. Cell coverage was spotty and there appeared to be very little rhyme or reason to it. With our WeBoost cell booster, sometimes we had 1-bar (once in a while 2) of AT&T LTE, sometimes only 4G, sometimes nothing. Same with Verizon. It was about the same in town, except we didn’t have our booster with us. A lot of dead zones in the downtown area with our AT&T phones. Didn’t bring Verizon Jetpack into town, so can’t comment. Not the best cellular connectivity out at the end of the road. So, probably not a good choice for the working / telecommuting traveler.

Location. Shell Mound is located at the end of the road in a wildlife refuge. It’s about 8-miles into downtown and takes about 15-minutes to drive it.

My description of the campground Oracle/caretaker is very tongue-in-cheek. He was a perfectly nice, no-nonsense older gentleman who obviously takes great care of the park. He was on-site for two days of our stay. On the third day, he left and a younger guy took his place. It appears that they stay on-site in the doublewide/office and rotate periodically. The bottom line on Shell Mound Campground is that it is a quirky gem that we enjoyed and would stay at again. The in-town campgrounds looked fine (a little tight), but given the price, Shell Mound was our hands down winner.

We discovered Sylvan Park campground while driving across Kansas, en-route to Colorado. There aren’t a ton of options in the late-fall/early-winter and this Army Corps of Engineers campground fit the bill nicely. It’s a bit of a hike (9-miles) off I-70, but completely worth it based on how nice the campsites were and how quiet the campground was. After dark, besides the occasional vehicle crossing the dam, the only sounds you could hear were the wind in the trees, a pack of Coyotes howling, and the hoots of a couple of owls. There were several LARGE and level pull-through sites that enabled us to stay hooked-up for our one night stay. In fact, our site was so big that we could have fit another 50+foot rig in it. We stayed in mid-November and the water and 50-amp site was $5 with our Access Pass ($10 normally during off-season). There were a few primitive sites (no water or electric) that were free (off-season). The bathhouse and showers were clean and well maintained. There is a very convenient dump station located near the entrance. We could only get 4G with AT&T. Verizon we had 2 bars of LTE. We will definitely stay here again next time we pass through the area.

We spent six days at the Greenbelt National Park Campground and wouldn’t do it again. Read the other reviews and thought that it couldn’t be that bad? Besides, we would be in the city the majority of our time and would only be sleeping here…

While we didn’t experience ticks (April stay), we can attest to the poor upkeep. This park could be so great, but it’s just withering on the vine due to lack of care. It isn’t because of a manpower shortage either. Plenty of employees milling about, but none seemed to be doing anything in the campground…

First, the positives:
PRICE- Great price.

EASY COMMUTE TO DC - The Greenbelt and College Park Metro Stations (Blue and Yellow lines) are super close. The College Park Metro Station had an easy access, open parking lot that worked for our truck. The commute to/from DC was simple and cheap.

POLICE PRESENCE - We felt very secure at this campground. This is a city campground and you can tell that they have a periodic homeless problem. Given this, the National Park Police were present several times throughout the day and night. When they weren’t driving through, the Camp Host was making his rounds.

AWESOME CAMP HOST – I realize that this all depends on the person and that they rotate through a lot, but the Camp Host was the only redeeming quality that we could discern at Greenbelt Campground. He was always patrolling the park, super helpful, and just plain nice.

Now the Negatives:
DIRTY - Greenbelt Campground was not just the dirtiest National Park Campground, but the DIRTIEST CAMPGROUND (public or private) that we’ve stay in. Trash was scattered throughout and the bathhouses were abysmal. We stayed for six days and bathhouses were cleaned twice. Trash was frequently overflowing.

POORLY MAINTAINED – We routinely saw the park employees driving around the campground, but I never saw them do anything—from the appearance of things, I don’t think they ever do anything other than drive around?!?! Bathrooms were falling apart—moldy tiles that had fallen off the walls were piled in a corner of the shower. The sites are paved, but the asphalt is in sure poor condition (cracked, broken-up, and frost-heaved), that it hindered effective leveling of the trailer and walking around was treacherous. The Fire Rings are ineffective, at best…basically, a concrete slab. There were numerous deep muddy ruts throughout the campground that demonstrate that very few people care about this place.

SMALL, TIGHT CAMPSITES – Recreation.gov said our 30-ft trailer would fit in our site. Upon arrival inspection, you would have trouble getting a 20-ft trailer in that spot! Luckily, the Camp Host was fantastic and worked with us to move to a new site that would accommodate our trailer and tow vehicle. Not a lot of trees and the sites were right on top of each other. Our fire ring was essentially right outside our neighbor’s door?!?!

NOISY - City Campground and you hear a lot of traffic noise. Also, a lot of helicopters flying around...

It should be noted that it rained twice during our stay, so the campground was a muddy, dirty mess throughout. I didn’t upload any pictures because I didn’t take any…it was such a sh!t hole that I didn’t want to take any!

A large state historical area, Champoeg State Park has a wonderful campground that is situated along the Willamette River and is at the front door of Oregon’s Willamette Valley winery area.

The paved sites in the B-Loop where we stayed all appeared large and many had FULL hook-ups. The bathhouse and showers were clean and modern. It was a short walk (3-min) through the woods to the natural playground area that was WAY COOL! Our son loved it.

Our site was more expensive than most because it was full hook-up (with 50amp service). The dump station and trash areas were very clean and convenient.

The park itself is criss-crossed by numerous biking trails that lead the visitor center of historic sites. Each day of our stay, I took the dog on a long walks around the park and enjoyed the ability to run on these nice paved trails along the river.

We didn't check-out the visitor center, but I did wander through the historic area that dates back to the 1820s.

We stayed at Crosswinds Campground mid-week in late March and had a fantastic time. While the facilities nearby are sparse, the campground is located about 40-min from downtown Raleigh, 25 from Cary, and 15 from Apex. Crosswinds is one of several campgrounds located around Lake Jordan. During our timeframe, it was one of two that were open and the only with a good beach area. Since we were there in March, there were only two loops open and the park was about 1/3rd full. Based on the Reserved notices on posts, it looked like the parks fills up on the weekends.

The park is large and very well kept. There was one bathhouse in our loop and while it was clean, it was a decent hike from our site. As mentioned in other reviews, Crosswind’s sites are all nicely spaced with convenient trashcans located throughout. This was one of the nicer state parks that we’ve stayed in and its layout reminded me of some of the nicer National Park campgrounds. We opted to camp in one of the “Duplex” spots because we were meeting another family. The Duplex spots allow two RVs to share one HUGE site. There were about 10 double sites in our loop.

Here is how the double sites work if you’re interested: The price is twice the normal site cost. If you’re camping with friends it’s the same cost if split, but having the double site is more convenient. The Duplex spots are significantly bigger than the normal spots. Not only are they twice as wide as normal spots, but they all appeared to be longer. We had two Airstreams (our 30-footer and our friend’s 27-footer), plus our trucks (both double cab/crew cab) in the site and could have easily fit four to five more full size cars in the site. The layout of the sites is very conducive to camping with two RVs.

The entire site is double the width of the normal sites and the designated RV parking spots sites within the Duplex site are staggered. If looking down at the site, the left-hand RV sits further back in the site than the right-hand RV. The rear (left-hand) RV’s curbside door and awning opens onto the HUGE outdoor living area, complete with two picnic tables and a fire pit. The front (right-hand) RV’s rear would face the outdoor living area. The curbside room (to open awning, etc) available to the front (right-hand) RV in this set-up is somewhat limited, but not a huge problem. There are two separate sets of electric and water risers (one for each rig), so each RV has its own shore connections, so sharing isn’t an issue. The risers for both RVs are located in the normal location relative to your RV that you would find them in a typical site.

We had strong AT&T and Verizon signals. The park was fairly quiet, except during one afternoon when the local nuclear power plant spent about an hour testing its alarms.

The campground is alcohol-free and has several signs telling you as much. That being said, we kept our consumption on the down-low and had no problem. Again, this was mid-week in March and I would expect enforcement to be stronger in busier periods during weekends and in the summer.

Driving westward on I-84 in early December, we needed a place to spend the night between Boise and Portland--Emigrant Springs State Park fit the bill as they keep a small handful of sites open into the winter. As we climbed higher into Oregon’s Blue Mountains, we found ourselves leaving the high desert scrub and entering a winter wonderland. By the time we arrived at Emigrant Springs State Park, we were in full-on Frosty mode. While I-84 was clear of snow and ice, as soon as we exited we found ourselves navigating a rutted, crusty mix of snow and frozen slush. We pulled into the park and noted that the water was secured to our site because of the freezing temperatures. We looked for the water faucet at the bathhouse, but didn't find it. Luckily, we had enough water in our tank to get us through the night if we showered in the bathhouse. (Later on, I found the water faucet inside a box next to the drinking fountain--deceptively labeled "Water"!). Regardless, we spent a glorious (if a bit loud due to the proximity to I-84) evening camped in a virtually empty state park, nestled amongst beautiful snow covered cedars trees. It was beautiful. The noise from the interstate wasn't an issue with the windows tightly shut and the furnace keeping us toasty. The bathhouse was clean and warm. The separate shower rooms were all clean and warm. The shower water was HOT, HOT, HOT. The stars were fantastic.

I'm not sure I would want to actually camp here in the summer because of the ever present noise from the interstate, but it was great for an overnighter.

We stayed at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park during our off-season Oregon Coast tour in January 2017. We wanted to spend time near the Oregon Dunes and this place nicely fit the bill. If you're visiting the Dunes area of the Oregon Coast, you can't go wrong with Umpqua Lighthouse State Park.

There are other Oregon State Parks near the dunes, but because Umpqua Lighthouse was closer to the Smith River where I spent several days fly-fishing for Steelhead, it won out over Honeyman and Tugman. Also, after a few days of dry camping and electric-only sites, we wanted a full hook-up site.

We were pleasantly surprised by Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. We arrived without reservations and had no problem getting a full hook-up site. In fact, during our stay, the camp hosts outnumbered the campers most of the time!

The campground is located in your typical PNW coastal forest, amongst tall cedar spruce trees—our dog tracking pine needles into the rig got old pretty quick! All the sites were fairly private and had a nice outdoor area with picnic table and small fire ring. The full hook-up sites are all 30amp vice 50amp if this matters.

Overall the campground was clean and quiet. While you can’t see the dunes or see the ocean from your campsite, you can hear the waves crashing. There is a small lake behind the campground with a nice hiking trail that circumnavigates it. The Umpqua Lighthouse is also in the park and is worth going to see. We visited both during the day and again at night—night was better! There is a museum for the lighthouse, but we didn’t go in.

Almost all of the full hook-up sites were very large with room to spare after parking our 30’ trailer and truck. Additionally, most seem to be located close to the campground entrance, while the trash and bathhouse is located down the hill in the main loop area. The electric and water sites all appeared fairly large too. The bathhouse dated but clean. The showers were hot with ample water pressure.

The town of Reedsport isn’t anything to write home about. We went to dinner in Winchester Harbor one night (Fishpatrick’s Crabby Café) and it was good, but pricey for what we got. There are a couple of grocery stores in town (Safeway and some local chain) that were adequate. A few miles outside of town (on 38 along the Umpqua River) is a wildlife viewing area with a large herd of elk--worth the trip to see them. AT&T cell coverage was strong and reliable with 3 bars of unboosted LTE.

Stayed at Pine Near in early November during a fall Steelhead Fly Fishing trip to the Methow River, so I didn't spend a lot of time in the park during the day. I wanted full hook-ups because temps were going to drop below freezing and Pine Near hit the spot!

Owners are very friendly and walked around the park with me while I picked the spot I wanted (a lot of empty spaces in November!). After 10-mins of discussion, she helped me back in to the spot I decided on and swung by again later on to see if I needed anything.

Great location in "downtown" Winthrop. It's off the main street, but an easy 5-min walk to the main street. Several good options for food and beverages in town and the local brewery made that walkable distance a key attribute!

Very clean restrooms and laundry facilities. Strong WiFi and AT&T (even inside my Airstream without a booster for either).

The Methow Valley is one of my favorite places in world and Pine Near is a excellent base camp for exploring.