roadtripper1443502

First, the good points...
- $22 for 50 amp site, $20 for 30 amp site. Cut those prices in half if you are 62+. I paid $11.
- Laundry room
- Free wifi
- A huge lake
- Pets allowed
- Lawn and weeds are well maintained
- Campground is adjacent to city park base/softball and soccer fields, so on game nights, you got something to do
- Recycling
- LOTS of room to walk dogs

Now, the bad...
Reservations are only by phone. I called 10 times, left two voice mails, in a two hour period before someone answered.
There is an online map of the campground on their website...but you can't pick your own site. They pick it for you and won't honor your requests for a specific site. This is a problem because...
Most of the sites are unshaded, lined up very close to each other, like a parking lot. There are a couple smaller areas under trees. Between the two different areas, I saw maybe 10 other spots I would have preferred instead. But you get what they give you.
Also, although most of the pads are asphalt...most are sloped/not level and many have uneven surfaces from cracks, crappy patch jobs and ruts from tires. It's bad.

Only 2 'pets' allowed per site. Usually, I have 3 dogs and 3 cats. Cats don't matter, they never go out. Three dogs is an issue at some campgrounds though. Normally, if I was staying longer than one night, I'd pass on a 2 pet limit campground but because I was only staying one night (to plug in for AC on a 92 degree TX day) and the price was so good...I decided to risk it.
Also, first place I ever camped at where you are fined for not leasing your dog and a hefty fine at that...$186. Not like they can chase me down though and go thru my pockets to grab the money.

Laundry room has 4 washers, 4 dryers...yet only one person is allowed in at a time. Hours are limited also, 10am-6pm...which reflects the exact times the office is open.

If you tell them you have two air conditioners...even if you tell them you only use one...they will assign you a 50 amp site. It's only $2 more but again...no choice in the matter...even if you want a nicer 30 amp spot.

Wi-fi is spotty. It kept disconnecting on me. Took an hour before it stabilized, with a weak signal and that's up front near the office.

Showers at the far end of the park are disgusting and the locked/coded door is broken. The locked one up front is in better, though not great condition. It could use an upgrade. Only two showers and the one by the back wall...has no handle...I guess someone stole it. So no way to turn it on/off/control temperature. The other one is fine.
Urinal is too tall for short guys like me.
Two sinks...one for shorter people/kids is nice...but the cold water doesn't work. It's scalding hot only.

Picnic tables are old and rotting. Need upgrades.

Several serious concerns here but you can't beat the price, so it's hard to complain. I'd probably come back for that reason alone, for a day or two. Longer would be nice but I'd hate to get here, be assigned a spot I don't like, on an uneven/bumpy pad and be stuck there because they won't let me pick my own site.
But the place will do in a pinch.

Not a lot I can add here that previous reviews haven't mentioned. They're all spot on. But a few things...
- Spotless bathrooms but like Kane County's Big Rock campground, no garbage cans in the bathroom.
- There is an Equestrian only camping section.
- Fishing pond with a small dock but it's floating, so be cautious. It dips downward closer to the edge. There are probably quite a few cell phones in there from people not expecting the dip.
- There's a big plastic climbing rock for American Ninja Warrior Jr wannabees.
- Two pavilions...one small one in the Equestrian campground and one very large, very nice one near the front gate.
- $35 is too much for non-county residents, at a campground with no showers, for families or seniors on a small fixed income. Just two years ago, it was only $25.
I've added some pictures to the gallery.

I only camped here as a third choice, after two monthly campgrounds in Arkansas told me they didn't take credit cards, only cash or check. It's too bad that we sometimes only learn from our mistakes.

First, this Louisiana State Park charges $5 more than most or all other Louisiana State Parks for off-season rates. A two week stay cost me $211. At other LA state parks...$169.

There are only 26 campsites. None are on or near the water. You have to take a LONG walk or bike ride over to the Day Use Area to get to the two boat launch areas.

Of those 26 campsites, most of the asphalt driveways are not level and/or have deteriorated to the point where there are large holes in them. They're also only about 10 feet wide, instead of 12 feet. I saw one camper leave Site 3 and move over to Site 2 because the driveway was so bad.

Most of the sites are all dirt, which becomes mud when it rains. Only one or two sites have grass. Some have some gravel but the majority are just mud...no leaves, no pine needles, no grass.

I was on Site 1. My picnic table was 15 feet BEHIND my RV. I could only get to it by walking thru the mud. It was also closer to the driveway of the next campsite than it was my RV...less than 10 feet away. Not what I want to do, walk behind my RV, thru the mud so I can sit outside my neighbor's window.

The bathrooms were not cleaned the entire two weeks I was there. I know that because a green razor was still on the floor of the shower I used, the moth in the sink was still there every day, the garbage can was overflowing and NONE of the four stalls had ANY toilet paper in them. At four rolls per stall, that's 16 rolls of toliet paper not replaced in two weeks. The toilets were stained, people were using papers towels to wipe and tossing them in the trash next to the sink. There's also no benches in the showers to put your clothes or to sit on while you dry your feet/put on shoes/socks.

The bathroom building was pretty new. Yet of the 20 outside lights, only four of them worked. 16 lights burnt out. Also, one of the lights in one of the showers was out, another had a mind of its own, sometimes lit, sometimes not. Now...I'm not a fan of brightly lit campgrounds. I want that pitch black experience when I camp. So having a bathroom lit up like a Christmas tree with 20 lights would not have made me happy. It's just the lack of attention to keeping the bathrooms nice that irritated me. There's also a huge hole in the roof where a tree fell on it during a storm last fall that has not yet been repaired.

In the Group Camping/Picnicking area, there is a bathroom. It had burned up during a fire and also has not been bulldozed/replaced. It's an open, accessible hazard.

In the Day Use Area, there is a building marked 'Nature Center'. There's no nature center. It's being used as a storage building. And the door was unlocked.

There is a nature walk/playgound area for kids where I walked my dogs. It's totally gone to pot. Most everything is faded, dirty or broken. A giant Connect Four board is missing pieces. A giant Pachinko board has many broken pegs.

They have cabins for rent. Six small ones, #1-6 and 8 larger ones, #7-14. Most of them are surrounded by dirt/mud. Like the campsites, little or no grass. Only the larger ones are on the water. Smaller ones are in the day use area. If you're going to rent a cabin, I'd suggest #3 and #12 (or #9, I forget). Those are the only two mostly surrounded by grass.

This place is devoid of wildlife. I just came from Arkansas campgrounds - Opossums, raccoons, armadillos, eagles, hawks, seagulls, pelicans, coyotes, owls, deer, beavers, woodpeckers, squirrels, skunks. I saw or heard ALL of them in a two week period there. At Chemin-A-Haut...An armadillo, squirrel and woodpecker every now and then. Nothing else, except...

Gators. That's good or bad depending on your point of view. What's bad is that there are no signs or handouts warning about them. I didn't even know there were any there. I mean, I heard a couple big splashes, at night, when I was walking the dogs near the big cabins but didn't actually see one till I took a walk off the beaten path and saw a snout in the water that slowly backed out and disappeared as I got closer. I don't mind gators. I just have to watch my dogs more carefully.

Now the good things...

- All Louisiana State Parks give 50% off if you are 62+. The booking website says you need an America The Beautiful Pass but they eliminated that. You just have to show them your driver's license showing you are 62+. It's a great deal. You don't even have to be a resident.
- Free Wifi with four Wifi antennas around the very small park. So Wifi signal was always strong.
- Laundry room. Two washers, three dryers. Only $1.75 each. Clean, new machines. And you can pay thru an app if you don't have quarters...PayRange.com.
- The men's handicapped shower is hot hot hot with a very strong stream of water, not like those wimpy ones you often encounter. And the sinks have normal hot/cold handles, not the ones that shut off after five seconds.
- LOTS of open space, many places to walk my dogs.

I also have to add that homeless folk hang there. 11:30 one night, as I was walking my dogs, a small white truck pulls in the campground, parks outside the bathroom. I didn't see the person park or get out but when I came back from walking my dogs, from inside my RV, I saw a woman come out with a towel. She got in the truck and left the park. When I asked about it at the office the next day because they have a gate that's supposed to be locked at night...she told me they only sometimes lock it and that another homeless person, a guy, comes during the day to shower. Then there was ZZTopper.
Two days before I left, an old maroon truck with a camper attached comes in. The guy driving had a long grey/white beard and dark sunglasses on and some kind of hat. Later, as I'm in the passenger side captain's chair streaming, he walks past the front of my RV. He has his hand out and open but very close to his side...as if he's asking for a handout on the sly. I ignore him, pretend to keep watching my stream. He stops, stares at me. Now mind you, he still has on the hat and sunglasses, with that long raggy beard. He goes around the side of my RV, stops and stares at me, then walks back to his camper. The next day, I'm on the roof, cleaning branches and water off the awning and here he comes again, side of my RV, stops, stares at me. I ignore him, climb down, go inside my RV. He circles around the front of my RV, stops and stares at it/me. I see him later, just before I walk my dogs. He heads in one direction, down the road, on his bike. I wait till he disappears, go in the OTHER direction with my dogs, INTO THE WOODS, on a trail. A few minutes later, here he comes down the path behind me. Then, after I get back with the dogs, I see him cut across the campground, walk in front of my RV and stop and stare at me again. He walks up to the bathrooms, which are like 50 feet away from me, stops, turns and squats on the pavement for a few minutes, staring at the side of my RV. Then he gets up, walks back to his camper, again, past the front of my RV, stopping, staring. Mind you, for all these instances, he has on the sunglasses and hat, with his long, dirty beard and never once said one word to me...just stopped and stared. I left the next day because my time was up there but if it wasn't, I would have left anyway. The guy was creeping me out.
Now mind you, I have nothing against the homeless. You do what you gotta do to survive. Hell, I'm homeless. Covid killed my business, so I had to retire. Bank made me sell the house. I live on the road in my RV. So a couple homeless people using the shower isn't a huge deal. It might be for others though. But this last guy, following me around, stopping and staring at me, stalking me, never saying even one word...well that was too much. You have been warned.

Two out of five stars. One of the worst campgrounds I've ever been at. The only things that gave it two instead of one star was the free WiFi, great showers, nice laundry room and big, wide open areas to walk the dogs. I'll never go there again unless I have no other choice.

I couldn't help myself, just had to respond...

In researching where to camp next, as I move on from Georgia into Florida...I saw this place on Campendium's map, on the ocean. Intrigued, I read some reviews, checked out the website.
#1 - To the guy previously who reviewed and anxiously stated that it's not $22 a night like a previous reviewer stated...it is...if, as another reviewer stated, you stayed for a month. $650 monthly divided by 30 days = $22 a day. Great deal.
#2 - Looking thru the campgrounds info...I saw $4 a day, per dog. My 3 dogs would cost me an additional $12 a day, so $48 becomes $60. No thanks.

No one has reviewed this campground in over a year. In researching and trying to make reservations...
- I found the reservation process tedious, confusing and time consuming. Took me about 30 mins to figure it out. You have to register on the website, confirm your reservation thru email before you can even access the camping reservations. Once there, there are no maps, no pictures to show you what's available or specs for each site. You have to guess which one to take and only after that are you given a map, which is messy. Again, no specs to know if your vehicle will even fit the site. No senior discounts. And only when you have exhausted every possible form to fill out, right before you pay, are you told its $35 + 3.07 tax.

Over a 2 week period, June 7-21, I stayed at Sylvan twice, on the weekends. During the week, I was 'across the street' at Lucas Park Campground. I wasn't planning on staying at Sylvan at all but after 4 days at Lucas, temperatures shot up into the 90s and 100s, so instead of leaving and driving in that, I opted to plug in and sit in air conditioning. The weather broke, briefly, for one day...in the 80s...so I explored the town of Lucas and went right back to those two campgrounds until the Temps dropped. I'll review Lucas Park on that page. As for Sylvan...
Check in and check out times at both parks is the same, weird. 6pm.
Big drive thru sites, on gravel, seemed mostly level. Maybe 70 percent are decently shaded.
First thing I noticed was LOTS of anthills and ants. At another campground id had a problem with ants crawling up my electrical cable and getting inside my RV. Not here. No ant issues.
No access to Wilson Lake, you're on the other side of the dam. Limited access to the spillway, down a narrow path, mostly used by fishermen. You can't see it from most of the sites.
Horse flies. They loved me and my chihuahua/terrier. Had to swat a couple that landed and bit her.
The grass is only mowed...at both parks...once every two weeks, making for a very sloppy looking Park.
High grass and weeds also attract bugs. There were many. Don't leave your porch light on unless you want more.
Walking the dogs was a challenge. Bugs were always attracted to my flashlight at night, flying in my face, eyes, ears and mouth. Very small burrs in the grass would get caught in my socks and pinch my feet. I had to pull them out of the dogs paws with tweezers twice when they started limping. Some dog owners didn't pick up their dogs' doo, so watch where you step. And every time I walked the dogs, they would come back with fleas and ticks on them. I pulled a half dozen off my legs as well. There were 8 in one night on my chow/shepherd/collie. And then the bathrooms...
Yellow lights in the bathrooms and showers attract hundreds of flying insects. Not an exaggeration. One time, I went to get paper towels out of the dispenser and a wasp flew out. At least 1-2 cockroaches on the walls/floors of each of the 3 bathrooms and 2 separate showers. I have never been to a park/campsite with so many bugs. In 5 months of traveling/camping from IL to FL to TX to KS, I have never seen one cockroach...until Sylvan.
Also no cell phone service...T-mobile...and very limited wifi...1-2 bars.
Sylvan is nothing special. Just a campground where you are right on top of your neighbor with no foliage for privacy. No lake access. Buggy showers/bathrooms. High grass and weeds. There is a park for kids to play at. Camp hosts are a nice older couple but they don't do much except check people in.
Boring, buggy, unkempt. I would only stay here again if I had no other option.

After reading all the reviews here, I noticed no one mentioned anything about reservations. So I went to their website, where there was very little camping information. 'Click here for reservations'. So I did and it took me to ExploreMoreIL.com. When I went there, it said you needed to reserve at least 3 days in advance. Well, it was exactly three days in advance, so I tried. It showed every campsite open at $20 ea...until you entered dates...then it showed no campsites open! 'Unavailable'. So I tried other dates. All unavailable. So I called. Got a park employee that said the 3 day advance notice was for peak months, that right now it was first come, first served. That's why the reservations website wasn't working. He told me $30. I told him the website said $20 (plus some $5 surcharge thing). Asked about senior discounts. He didn't know anything about either one. So I went to the park, expecting to have to argue over $20 vs $30.
The campground host told me $20. Relieved. No arguing. Then he looked at my age on my driver's license and said, "$15 Mon thru Thur for seniors, $20 on weekends. $30 is only during holiday weekends." So I signed up for 3 weeknights, $45...and wound up staying for 9 days. It is that darn nice here.

Small, compact campground at only 50 sites plus maybe 10 more tent sites. Most sites are fairly close to your neighbor but there's a few with more space between. Lots of mature trees. Forest on 3 sides, more open state park grounds and the Ohio River on the other side. Nice, new, clean bathrooms which consist of 8 separate rooms. Yes, 8. Shower, sink and toilet in each room. You can lock the door and take as long as you want. Sites are either 30 or 50 amp. At least some of the sites are marked if they are 50. Small children's playground. Can't hook up to water, must be shared with other campers. LOTS of squirrels. 8 different times, day and night, 2-4 deer came into the campground. You learn to watch where you step! And thats it. Very simple, small, clean campground. In the woods...in a state park...within 500 feet of the Ohio River...with two trails, 2.5 and 8.7 miles long...with the remains of Fort Massac and a replica next to it...and a Visitor's Center/Museum...and a trout pond, aptly named 'Trout Pond'. And if that isn't enough, you can take the gravel road along the river, which goes under I-24, take a short hike or bike ride down to the river and view all the graffiti that generations of teenagers have displayed underneath the bridge. And if that isn't enough...yes, downtown Metropolis, Superman's home is less than 2 miles away with the 15 foot statue, streets named Truth, Justice and American Way, the Superman store and Museum, a few other stores with Superman items and other antiques, the Chamber of Commerce with its own museum/collectible/memorabilia that also sells Dippin Dots, the Noelle Neil/Lois Lane statue, the now vacant Metropolis Planet, a nearby cemetery where the Birdman of Alcatraz is buried and Harrah's Casino, right on the river...this is all within 4 miles of the campground...biking distance. Even closer...Big John grocery store with another big statue to rival that of Superman, Subway, Sonic, Dairy Queen, Hardee's. There is so much to see and do here, that I extended my stay from 3 to 9 days.

And there are few bad points...
- The showers are heated by tankless water heaters, so it takes time for the showers to heat up. The first one I went in was cold, then lukewarm, then cold again, then finally hot. The next one went from 5 mins of cold to all hot.
- No trash cans in the bathrooms. You're expected to bring your trash to the garbage cans outside.
- Despite the river being 500 feet away and downhill from the campground, during very heavy, extended rains, the river has come up and flooded out the campground.
- Homeless people live in the park. I was walking my dogs at 9:30pm and 6:30am, in the dark and was freaked out seeing a lone figure standing by a fire he had started at a park pavilion...right across the road from the campground.
- Hunting is allowed in certain areas of the state park, so take care if you are here Oct thru January.

That's really about it. 4.5 stars. I love it here.
I will be uploading many pictures.

Over a 2 week period, June 7-21, I stayed at Lucas Park Campground twice, during the week. On weekends, I was 'across the street' at Sylvan Campground. I wasn't planning on staying two weeks but after 4 days at Lucas, temperatures shot up into the 90s and 100s, so instead of leaving and driving in that, I opted to plug in and sit in air conditioning. The weather broke, briefly, for one day...in the 80s...so I explored the artsy/quirky town of Lucas and went right back to those two campgrounds until the Temps dropped. I reviewed Sylvan on their page. As for Lucas Park...
Check in and check out times at both parks is the same, weird. 6pm.
Some sites are big, others...not so much. Also too many rude people flaunting the rules by having too many vehicles on one site and parking on the grass. It makes for an overcrowded mess. Park Ranger comes in but just warns people. 3 strikes and you're out kinda thing.
The rule here seems to be, you either get a shaded site with no access to the water or you get access to the water but with zero shade. Only about six sites had direct access to the water in my loop. If no one was on those sites, no problem...anyone can use the access. But if those sites filled up, then you were out of luck as you can't just walk thru someone's site and use their access. It seemed like many of the sites were not level. Tree branches above site 37 scraped the top of my RV and AC covers, so I climbed on top my RV and trimmed em. Probably shouldn't have done that but I did.
LOTS of anthills and ants. At another campground I'd had a problem with ants crawling up my electrical cable and getting inside my RV. Not here. No ant issues.
The lake is MASSIVE. The park is massive. It's a great, calming experience just to be able to see and experience it.
The grass is only mowed...at both parks...once every two weeks. However, at Lucas, when I was there, they came to mow 2 weeks in a row, which I appreciated. High grass and weeds attract bugs. Don't leave your porch light on unless you want more.
Walking the dogs was a challenge. Bugs were always attracted to my flashlight at night, flying in my face, eyes, ears and mouth. Very small burrs in the grass would get caught in my socks and pinch my feet. I had to pull them out of the dogs paws with tweezers twice when they started limping. Some dog owners didn't pick up their dogs' doo, so watch where you step. And every time I walked the dogs, they would come back with fleas and ticks on them.
The bathrooms were remarkably clean and fairly bug free...unlike Sylvan. No cockroaches here...unlike Sylvan. The one thing about the bathrooms was that many of the shower handles were hard to turn on and off. And there were no heat controls. You got what they gave you, generally hot...maybe too hot for some.
Wifi on site 37 was iffy...1-2 bars. It was better on site 21, 2-3 bars.
The camp hosts were great, constantly driving around the park in their golf cart, checking people in. I saw them going around the park picking up trash. No complaints there.
At night, during the week, with fewer people there, less lights, you can see thousands of stars in the sky, satellites, airplanes and a space station if you're lucky. I just laid out on a picnic table one night for an hour with my binoculars star gazing.
Although there isn't a lot of privacy, foliage, separation at sites...and many have no shade at all...camping by the lake makes up for that.
There is a park for kids to play at.
During the 8 days I was there, no one came to clean out the fire pits, despite being told that they would.
Lucas is definitely the better of the two parks, with camp hosts that love what they do and care about the park.
But this every two weeks mowing thing...thats got to go. You need to mow every week, at all your parks.

Most city campgrounds I've been to aren't even manned with personnel. You drop your money in a box or stop at city hall and that's it. This place has a down home feel to it, with a building that looks like an old country store or antique shop or restaurant...but isn't. It's just a place to check in, hang out and chat with the locals.

Although the sites are close together, no real privacy...at least most have a mature tree or two on them. There's a dozen sites on the lake, a dozen sites further back completely wooded/shaded. The rest of the 30 or so sites are right across the road, most with a view of the lake. It's not a big lake but it's not a pond either, roughly 2 miles of shoreline, with a 2.25 mile gravel trail going all the way around. Fish jumping...I saw a BIG one back in the more remote part. Lots of turtles sitting on logs, a couple dozen geese...the typical Canadian plus a few white ones plus a few others with mixed coloring...and a dozen or so ducks...ditto on the coloring. A great blue heron, on the shore, near the campers...let me walk right by him on the path, 15 feet away...and didn't fly away. And I saw a deer. No skunks, raccoons or opposums...and I walk my dogs late at night and early morning when it's dark and I have a flashlight. I'm sure they're there but over 4 nights, I didn't see any.

Only about 1000 feet of the 11,000+ foot shoreline has camping on it. The rest is woods, which is nice. Litter along the lake is minimal. One side has 3 or 4 lampposts that are lit up each night...even though you're not supposed to be on the path after dark. There are two, square, concrete basins on that same side, in the water, at the water level. I'm guessing that is for when there are massive rains, so that the lake doesn't overflow its banks. Instead it flows into those basins and down into the gully on the other side of the path. There's two boat/fishing docks, a boat ramp...electric motors only/no gas motors, bait sold at the gossip house, exercise stations at various places along the gravel path. And for an interesting change, an old cemetery across the street. Still used by plenty of us dying today but also plenty of old stones in there. Oldest I saw was a woman born in 1810. Of the newer ones, many above ground crypts and elaborate/unique headstones.

On the grounds itself are a couple of children's playgrounds donated and put together by volunteers, at least 6-8 pavilions possibly more. Clean, well-kept bathrooms. A small laundry room...2 washers, 2 dryers, cost me only $4.50 to do two loads. A park employee that walks around picking up trash. An elderly gentleman that collects cans from campers to recycle because he has limited income. Bird houses. Totem poles. A giant 'Community Chair' for photo ops. Bathrooms are locked overnight but they give you the code. PLENTY of large areas to walk your dogs.

Within walking distance is the towns outdoor amphitheater and pavilion and 4 baseball fields. Everything else is over a mile away. In fact, the Saturday I was here, I heard music the other side of the trees, so I walked my dog over there to see if there was some Halloween celebration...and kept walking and walking and walking, looking for it. I gave up walking and went back for my bike. Sound travels far here. Turns out the music was coming from the local high school football game a mile away. Johnston City Indians made the playoffs and the music was playing over the p.a. before the game started. Small town football here is just like Friday Night Lights. Parking lot full, streets full, junior high parking lot 2 blocks away full. Both bleachers full of people and many more standing or tailgating or 'camped' along the sidelines. More than half the town must have been there. I left after the first quarter, JCI winning 22-0.

And all of this for only $15 (62+ senior discount), $25 if you're not aged.

There was some noise, mostly rowdy 10 yr olds but it was Halloween weekend and sites are close together. The bathroom ceilings could use a paint job. Gnats all over the window sill in the laundry room. No campsite info. No brochures. No website. Wi-fi is spotty...sometimes good, sometimes nothing. They said they're working on upgrading both the wifi and website, hopefully done by January. The website they say is theirs tho, is currently for sale. Www.Arrowheadcampground.com
There's also something called The Storybook Project developed by someone in Vermont, on the trail. Literally, it's pages ripped out of a kids book, displayed under plexiglass, all along the trail. It's just dumb. No adult would read them and many are elevated too high for a child to even be able to read them. Some have been vandalized/removed. Waste of money. They'd do better to highlight the areas plants and animals.
But all those things are trivial. Not quite 5 stars because of them but better than 4 stars...so 4.5.
I'll be back next October and for a longer stay.

Reservations strongly recommended. This is a popular place. 55 spots, 51 of them taken when I pulled in...and it's the off season, end of October. With no website for info, no reviewers here mentioning reservations and getting voice mail when I called...with no one calling me back...I almost didn't get a site.

I uploaded about 52 pictures here.