roadtripper677996

Arrived at 8:30 and parked in the truck area. Lots of spaces. No problem staying overnight. There’s security. Large clean bathrooms.

Pulled in here after a 5 day trip to dump our tank. It’s the first rest area/welcome area in CT heading East. My GPS had it wrong. Follow signs for car trailers then you’ll see the dump station sign on your left. Take that left into what looks like RV parking. It’s to the left side just before you exit the lot.

We stayed for free in exchange for hearing their membership pitch. The woman was very nice but based on the condition of this park, I wouldn’t spend 10-12g for stays like this. There was no T-mobile service and non-existent Wi-Fi at our site. There were big potholes filled with water that we had to drive through ( hadn’t rained in over a week). Bathrooms and showers were old and dirty. The pluses were the food: Friday night fish fry for $8, champagne breakfast for $6, and a nice Tiki bar where we got to see some football playoff games. Of course we were jammed in close, unlike state and county parks. There were things for kids to do, like an arcade, small pool and mini-golf. If they want to sell memberships they should move the sales pitch to a nicer park.

If you look for the lake on google maps, it’s not too hard to find, shows up as a “recreational area”. Go slow at the entrance, as it’s washed out after a cattle strip. We were one of 8 other people there. Beautiful sunset. White Sands NP opens at 9, so it’s handy to stop there.

The good: seniors get $2 off, without any type of pass. The beach is right there, over the dunes. Next to the monarch butterfly gardens and walking distance to town. Bathrooms were clean, except for the one right off the beach, that one had wet sandy floors( near site 11, which is the camp hosts)
The bad: little oversight of rules, like keeping dogs on leashes, lots of sketchy people wandering off the beach, in fact this seems to be a place where non- campers walk around. There have been thefts, mostly of bikes and generators, according to the hosts. And when we arrived at 4 pm, there was no one at the ranger station. And road noise from 101 was loud from 4-7.
Overall, people are really friendly here. We had more conversations with people in one day than we had in 2 weeks at Arizona campgrounds.

We got the last site (spring break week). Since we were leaving early we didn’t unhook, but were disappointed that the loop we were in had no restrooms. Only sites 1-23 are walking distance to it. It’s very quiet, close to town, and has nice walking trails.

Stayed here instead of at a rest area. It was very quiet and there were only 3 other RV’s here. Our spot had 20 and 30 amp service, and sewer hook-up. No water though. There was an open restroom at the park but it was very dirty. The dumpster was overflowing. Overall, though, for the price, it was better than a Walmart or Rest Area.

Stayed here on March 3, 2020. It was eerily deserted, only one other person here. I dropped a check in the slot ($18) for one night, it was never cashed. A ranger came by in the morning to clean the bathroom.

We arrived at 3pm and found one of the last spaces. There were 9 of us, 3 with small trailers, 2 vans, 2 truck campers, a small class A and a tenter. The protocol is to park sort of close to each other so there’s room for everyone. Pretty quiet at night except for the distant sound of the birds. Most arrive back between 4-6pm and they flew away about 20 minutes before sunrise. Set your alarm! Good vibe here, people seek this place out and are happy to be here. GPS( from Tombstone) had us driving down Coughlin Rd. We kept going past it, took a right at the next paved road and another right on Bagly, to Coughlin. It was a lot shorter distance on the dirt road that way.

Stayed here for 2 nights in January while visiting a friend in the area. We were only there in the morning and after 7pm. Sites were well-kept. There were only a few people at the primitive sites; they had a nice view of the lake. Bathrooms and shower were clean but older. I was disappointed to hear gunfire until 8:15, after dark, from the range across the lake. And the site we had was near the access road; there was road noise from trucks and cars at 5:30 am! Despite that, I’d stay again; there’s not many reasonable options to camp in the area.