roadtripper334254

Stayed here 12/1/19 to 12/4/19. My nightly rate of $56 includes all taxes and fees for booking online. This was by far the most I've paid to stay at a state park, and I think it might actually be the most I've paid anywhere, but I knew I wanted to check it out after seeing pictures. I honestly wish I had just sucked it up and stayed a whole week. This place was awesome. It was massive and busy, but for good reason.

My site was a really nice paved pull-through with full hookups and it was perfectly level. I was on the canal so there were signs about alligators all over the place, but unfortunately I never saw one. I'm thinking it was too cold while I was there. As I said before, this park is huge. If you have a bike definitely bring it because trying to get around by walking takes forever. The park has pretty much everything you could want. A pool, tennis courts, boat ramp, laundry, and tons of hiking trails. You can actually take a boardwalk that goes over the highway and to the beach. When you camp here they give you a pass that gets you free access to the beach, which is absolutely beautiful. I really want to come back in the summer time because it would be amazing to spend a few days on that beach. The location here is also great and it only takes a few minutes to get to tons of restaurants and shops around Gulf Shores.

To be honest, I don't really have anything negative to say about this place except that it was expensive. This is definitely a case where I would say the value of the park is worth the price though. I can't wait to come back in the summer!

Stayed here 8/23/2020 to 8/24/2020. This was another one-night stop on my way out west from Illinois. I arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the host was extremely friendly and helpful. There was only one other rig in the whole park when I was there, which was awesome. The bathroom/shower facility was small, but clean and had hot showers. There is also a disc golf course here and a lot of walking trails that go around Lake Helen, which is just across the street. This was a great spot to stop and rest for the night, but I would have been glad to stay here for a weekend.

Stayed from 7/24/19 to 7/29/19. I saw a lot of negative reviews for this place, especially on google, but I'm not sure what all the hate is about. I really enjoyed it here. Yes, it's buggy, but I feel like you should just expect that when you're camping on a lake. I used lots of bug spray and a citronella candle and was fine sitting outside in the evenings.

One big negative that I do have for this place is that they lock the gate at 10pm and don't give you any options to get back in. I've stayed in another Utah state park with this policy and they let me put a deposit down to get a key so that I could get back in. That wasn't an option here though. We wanted to go to a concert in SLC but ended up skipping it because we wouldn't be back by 10 and they wouldn't give us a way to get back in.

My site was a pull-through and it was a bit awkward getting the rig between the hookups and poles on the left side of the site and the pavilion on the right side, but it wasn't a big deal. The sites are big enough that you have a lot of options for how you want to place your rig relative to the pavilion. I really loved having the pavilion at the site. It had a massive picnic table under it and was a great spot to hang out.

My site had water and electric (30 amp max) but no sewer. There is a dump station right on the way in/out that has a rinse water hookup. I never used the showers at this park so I can't comment on those, but I used the restrooms a couple times and they seemed pretty nice and clean. I did notice that the showers were at the entrance next to the dump station and I didn't see any showers actually inside the park. So if you wanted to use them it would be a little bit of a walk over there.

The lake is in walking distance from the campground and there is a ton of stuff you can do there. My dog and I had a blast hanging out at the beach and walking around on the pier at sunset. There is also a rental place on the lake that rents out boats, kayaks, paddleboards, ATV's, etc. We rented a boat one afternoon and the people there were very nice and helpful and the rates seemed reasonable to me.

The location of this park is great for getting to Provo. We did a couple hikes in the area and really enjoyed it. I had to go into Salt Lake City quite a bit and it was about a 45 minute drive each way to get there.

Overall I really enjoyed my stay here and would definitely recommend it.

Stayed here 12/4/19 to 12/8/19. I honestly can't find a reason to dock a star from this one... I was looking for a place that was nice and quiet, not too expensive, and close to New Orleans (especially the French Quarter) and this place ticked all of those boxes. Check-in was super smooth, my site was nice and reasonably level, there were plenty of trashcans throughout the park, it was quiet, and laundry was free! Granted the machines in the laundry room could have used some TLC, but it was free and they got the job done so I was very happy. I think this is a really great park and will definitely stay again if I ever return to New Orleans.

Stayed here 8/22/2020 to 8/23/2020. I just stopped here one night on my way back out west. I came in late on a Saturday afternoon at the end of the season, before kids went back to school, and the place was totally packed. I actually wasn't able to find a campsite and while I was pulled over trying to find something else in the area a ranger stopped me and told me he could get me in one of the reserved sites where the person had backed out. So I got extremely lucky. I was in site #6 in the reservable loop, which was a huge site. All gravel with a picnic table and fire ring and tons of space between me and my neighbors. My site was electric only but it looked like they had water and a dump station available (I never used either). Each loop also had a restroom, which I never checked out. I walked my dog around the park and we did a couple of the hiking trails and overall it seemed like an awesome spot for the weekend.

Stayed here 10/21/19 to 10/23/19. I wasn't sure what to expect for crowds here as the whole campground is first come first serve in the fall. It turned out the campground wasn't even half full and there were tons of open sites. The sites are all very nice. There are some back-in sites and some pull-throughs. Each site has a paved pad, a concrete picnic table, and a fire ring. My site, and all the others I looked at, were huge and you had tons of space between you and your neighbors. All of the facilities were very clean and well maintained. The campground is also just down the road from the visitors center and cave tours.

The cell service here (Verizon) was much better than I expected. Most of the time I had 2 bars of LTE and it worked great, but every once in a while it would cut out and I wouldn't have any signal at all. For some reason my Jetpack worked more consistently than my phone. It ended up being good enough for me to work there for two nights.

Overall I thought this park was great. I honestly wish I could have stayed longer.

Stayed here 9/16/19 to 9/20/19. This is a nice, big park with a lot of hiking trails and things to do. This was my first time staying in a Wisconsin state park, so the $38 sticker I had to buy for my vehicle was a surprise. The $34 nightly rate I paid includes taxes and fees for booking online, but it doesn't include the $38 vehicle sticker. I thought it was kind of frustrating that I didn't see any mention of this extra fee anywhere until the time I checked in at the park.

Otherwise I really enjoyed my stay here. My dog and I hiked a couple of the trails around the park which was fun. The sites were nice and easy to get into. They had gotten a ton of rain at the time I was there, but the sites were still in good shape. There is a dump/water station at the entrance that was easy to get in and out. This also appeared to be the only place with dumpsters. Dodgeville is just down the road and has gas, groceries, and most everything else you need.

Stayed here 7/17/19 to 7/24/19. I was a little skeptical pulling in because it looked like a mobile home park and a lot of the permanent resident campers were kind of an eye sore, but the lady that helped me check in was very nice and helpful and once I got out to my spot it was all good. They actually gave me a reusable canvas bag with the campground logo on it because apparently most places in Moab won't give out plastic bags, so I thought that was really nice. My site was a pull-through with full hookups and was kind of away from the permanent residents. It wasn't very busy when I was here so most of the time I didn't have anyone next to me, but I could see it being crowded if the park was full.

All of the amenities at this park were amazing. There are trash cans and dog bags all over the park and a nice dog run area in the back corner. The wifi was blazing fast (maybe because I was right next to the antenna and there weren't many campers here) and I didn't have to use my cell hotspot the whole time I was here. The laundry facility was also very nice and had 3 washers and 4 dryers. And the showers were probably the best part. They were large tiled showers with a ton of pressure and hot water, which was so nice after long days of hiking.

The only negative thing I could really say about this place (which isn't really even the parks fault) is that the mobile homes next door could get kind of loud sometimes. Dogs barking, loud music early in the morning and late at night, etc. It wasn't enough for me to dock a star from the overall rating though. Staying here for a week was a really great experience.

Stayed 4/13/19 to 4/15/19. I was here really early in the season so there were only a few other campers here. We actually had snow one day that I was here. Despite that, my stay was really nice. The host greeted me right away and showed me where my spot was. Like all IL state campgrounds I've been to, I didn't have a water hookup and had to go to the other loop of the campground for both water and the dumping station. My site was also really unlevel and I had to use a bunch of blocks to get the camper level. It also took a while to get into Springfield from this campground, but I think that was good and bad. Bad for the travel time, but good for the fact that there was no highway noise. Overall I really enjoyed my stay here and would definitely recommend it.

Stayed here 10/30/19 to 11/4/19. This has been my favorite campground in my travels out East so far. I didn't have a reservation and decided to take my chances with first come first serve on a Wednesday morning. The staff was really helpful in getting me a site, and ended up hooking me up with number 39, a full-hookup site. It didn't seem like they had many first come first serve sites, so I think your best bet, especially if you're coming during a busy time of the year, is to make a reservation.

I will agree with the other reviewer that said the road was pretty narrow. It made it a bit challenging to back in, but the site was nicely angled so it really wasn't too bad. The site itself was great. The RV pad was paved and then the whole area outside it with the picnic table and fire ring were gravel. I only used the restrooms once on my way out and they had flush toilets and were immaculate. I never checked out the showers.

The thing that's so great about this campground is that you're deep in a beautiful North Carolina forest, but at the same time you're only minutes from Asheville. This was the perfect base camp for exploring Asheville and doing some of the hikes off the Blue Ridge Parkway, without being in a crowded RV park. There are also tons of hiking and mountain biking trails right within the park.

The one downside is the poor cell service. I knew it likely wasn't going to be good enough for work before I came, but I ended up not having any data (Verizon) at all. I noticed that if I walked up into some of the other loops I could pick up a tiny bit of LTE signal, but from my site I didn't get any at all. However, it only took about 5-10 minutes to get to a cafe with WiFi to work, so it ended up not being a big deal.

Overall this place was almost the perfect experience for me, except for the poor cell service. And for people that don't work full time from their rig, that's probably not even a factor. I would definitely recommend this campground to anyone wanting to camp in the Asheville area.