roadtripper4828061

We arrived at the park in early afternoon and checked the board at the unmanned office where reservations were listed, our reserved site #55 was listed as open. Uh oh. We drove to our site and found that it was occupied by a tent and easy-up. We called the campground number and reached the ranger and told him our problem. He said he would meet us back at the office, so we drove back to the office. He asked us to produce our printed reservation, which we did, then he said the problem was that their reservation software didn't work properly and the night ranger thought the site was unoccupied so he let another party move to our site. He also said that he was not going to ask them to move, we could find another spot for the night. What? We told him we needed a long, level site so that we didn't need to unhook for the night, he wrote down some sites to check. He was rather cavalier about the situation, which we didn't appreciate. We ultimately found an available site that we could fit into (there weren't many), so we parked and went for a hike.
We had a note on our door when we returned that said the people on our site had decided to leave so we could move to it. What? So we moved to site 55 which was a nice site, it had a long driveway and two large open areas and we could see the sunset out our back window.
We enjoyed our stay at the park, we used this base to explore the northern areas of Olympic National Park and we went out to the extreme northwestern point on the peninsula on the Makah Indian reservation. We also hiked out to the New Dungeness Lighthouse on the spit. The towns of Sequim and Port Angeles nearby were convenient for supplies. We ate some great Dungeness crabs while camping. With boosting, we had good ATT 4G for internet access. The park was busy while we were there, the restrooms were clean and there was a coin-operated shower at each restroom.

We had a reservation at Newhalem Creek Campground in the North Cascades National Park on site C-106 for 5 days. The campground has a lot of large, well-spaced, wooded, paved sites that will accommodate larger RV's. There are no utilities. Restrooms have flush toilets but no showers. With a senior pass, we paid $6/night. The campground was quiet and the non-reservation loops A and B looked to have availability nightly. For a NP campground, it was set up very nicely.

This area is all about generating electricity. From the campground, you can hike into the little town of Newhalem and to the Gorge Powerhouse and Ladder Creek Falls. There are tours available through Seattle City Light (SkagitTours.com) that are very popular - make reservations! We were unable to book anything while we were camping there because we did not reserve in advance.

We had decent ATT 4G signal - with our booster, we were able to web surf and catch up on the news.

On our 4th night at the campground, a ranger came around and told us we had to leave by noon the following day as a precaution because the fires were getting closer. We left the following morning with fires visible across the road from the campground.

The Lava Flow campground is first-come, first serve so if you have a bigger rig you should try to get there earlier in the day. We arrived around noon and were able to find a few sites that would accommodate us (26 ft. travel trailer and 20 ft. truck). Site 26 is a great site as it sits above some of the other sites and it has a decent amount of privacy, though it is not very level. It is also just above the sign that warns big rigs not to proceed up to the top loop due to a very tight turn at the top. We had no problems getting out but a long RV might. There are no site utilities and no dump station; there is water available throughout the campground and the restrooms have flush toilets.

The scenery is awesome, there are very few places like it. The park has a 7 mile loop road to drive with numerous short hikes to points of interest such as lava tubes and cinder cones. We had no ATT signal in the campground but did get some signal while on the loop road and hiking.

We stayed at the Fort Worden State Park Beach Campground for one night after taking the ferry to Port Townsend. This state park campground is administered by fortworden.org; the state park has 2 campgrounds and multiple other lodging options. We didn't have a reservation, and when we called ahead we never got through to a person. We stopped anyway and went to the reception building, the gentleman working told us that he had a couple of sites available, so we chose site 22 on the beach. The beach campground was full service - not cheap at $43/night, but we wanted the opportunity to flush our tanks out well and we wanted to see the beach, having spent a lot of time in the forest. The campground was a typical beach campground - open, flat and breezy. The sites were paved, well spaced and most could accommodate a larger RV. Both the state park and the town of Port Townsend have a lot of interesting historical sites, we easily could have spent several days exploring. We had a beer at the Port Townsend Brewing Company and bought some great seafood twice at the Key City Fish Company nearby.

Lincoln Trail State Park in Illinois is a great place to camp while traveling I-70 across the country. It is approximately 5 miles from the interstate, just out of the little town of Marshall. We had a reservation for a pull-through site with electric ($20/site plus a $5 reservation fee using ReserveAmerica). The site was long and level, perfect for an overnight without having to unhook the truck and trailer (50 ft. total length). The restrooms were clean and the host was on-site and friendly. The campground was quiet and since we were there on a Sunday night, uncrowded. This was the second time we stayed there while crossing the country and I think the next time we're passing through we will have to spend additional nights to enjoy the park and the small town nearby.

We found this gem of a COE park on previous trips across the country and always plan to stay here when we're in the area. Wilson Lake is a large recreation area with 3 COE parks and a state park. We like the Sylvan Park COE campground that sits below the dam in a shady grove of trees. There are long, level pull-throughs with electric and water as well as back-in sites, some with full hookups. Site 13 is a back-in site with full hookups. The restrooms are clean with showers and the park is quiet. We paid $11 for the site with a senior park pass with no reservation fee through Recreation.gov. If you are there for more than one night, the eccentric town of Lucas to the north is a great place to visit. There you will find the "Garden of Eden" and "Bowl Plaza"!

This park is all about the beach and is very popular with families. The sites are very close together and site 13, where we stayed, backed up to the day use area parking so there was a lot of vehicle traffic. Site boundaries were not respected, we continually had people walking and kids biking through our campsite, right past our back window. The sites were paved and level. Our site had electric and water was available at the dump station. The camp host kept the bathrooms and token-operated showers clean. The beach was beautiful and close by, but at low tide the water was a long way out.
There was a strange check-in process when an attendant wasn't on duty, you had to call the office on the yellow phone at the check-in board to register. Site prices varied and they had a color and shape coded listing at the board, but no campground map to pull it all together. We had a reservation and had to pay an $8 reservation fee and a $5 out-of-state fee in addition to the $40/day camping fee. If we were to stay here again, we'd get a site at the other end of the camping area. We experienced a huge storm with high winds while we were at the campground and we were glad that there were no trees around us to blow down.
We stayed here to access Olympic National Park and we were able to see the Quinalt Rain Forest and some of the huge trees in the area. There was really not much else around, we had no ATT cell service and no TV. The little village of Pacific Beach had a couple of general stores and a few cafes, but not much else. For us, this park would be okay for an overnight, but there wasn't enough to do to keep us busy for more than that.

This state park is an urban oasis in Aurora, Colorado. It is not cheap, the full service site we had was $26.00 plus a $10 reservation fee (ReserveAmerica) plus a $9 day use fee that was paid at the park entrance. The campground was full the night we visited (a Tuesday) and the friendly host told us that it was full every night during the season. Our site was a long, level, paved pull-through. The park has a large, modern restroom/shower facility and it has in-park wifi that was not operational when we visited. Biking is big in this park with trail access to the city.

This is a great park to stay in when visiting the Denver area. You are on the edge of the city so there is a lot of traffic outside the park but the camping areas are a distance away from the access roads.

Lodgepole Campground is a no-frills national forest campground with well-spaced, wooded sites. It has vault toilets, one water pump and no dump station. The American River is next to the campground. The campground is about 10 miles from Mount Rainier National Park on the Mather Memorial Parkway (Rte. 410). The scenery on the drive to the park is fantastic, just after Chinook Pass entering the park is a great Mount Rainier photo op with Tipsoo Lake in the foreground. At Tipsoo Lake there is the beautiful 3 mile Naches loop trail that makes a great short day hike.
We stayed at this campground because we could make a reservation and it had some bigger sites. Site 6 is a paved pull-through and fairly private. We had no ATT cell service. Access to Mount Rainier NP is not great, the Sunrise area is closest. We visited the Ohanapecosh area as well and loved the "Trail of the Patriarchs" and Silver Falls.