roadtripper7649241

We stayed here during Austin City Limits. We liked that the park was about 20 minutes from anything in Austin. It was also extremely well maintained due to its proximity to the Texas State Park Headquarters. We made good use of the trail system, but the best trail was closed due to flooding damage. It will remain closed until sometime mid 2016. Cell service was adequate, but slower than expected for being inside Austin.

Verizon: 3 bars. Unboosted: 10mbps down, 1 mbps up. Boosted: 11mbps down, 10 mbps up.
AT&T: 2-3 Bars. Unboosted: 0.2mbps down, 0.2mbps up. Boosted: 0.2 mbps down, 0.2 mbps up.

I think AT&T was having backhaul issues or was overloaded due to ACL. Either way, it wasn't great throughout the city. Our Verizon backup saved our bacon and I was able to continue working throughout the week.

Note: the cell service is “off network” for ATT and Verizon. That meant we could only use 100mb despite our “unlimited” plan. Google Fi will use the network here just as it uses others. Overall a fine site. The bathrooms and dump station are closed in the winter.

We visited Mammoth Lakes, CA during early May after a winter of record-breaking snowfall. Because of the amount of snow, many of the campgrounds and BLM/NFS roads were closed. This site is a small turnaround on BLM land near the airport. There was enough room for our 31' Airstream and Malimish's Casita. If this spot is occupied, you can probably find others as the majority of land out there is BLM. If you're in a truck camper or van, you can take the right split before the turnaround and get a nice small spot with a view.

Upon arrival, we noticed lots of broken glass, shell casings and various trash. After a brief cleanup to protect our dog's paws, we settled in for the work week here. A couple of days later, a local stopped by and basically told us we were on his shooting range. (Ah, so he's the one who trashes the place.) Malimish told him it's BLM land and after an awkward stare down, he drove off in a huff. We didn't see or hear from him again during our time there.

This site is close enough to Mammoth, has great views, and cell service. The downsides are cleanliness and the final stretch of road coming in is narrow. We're in a relatively narrow vintage Airstream (94 inches) and had to hold back a couple bushes so we didn't scratch our polished aluminum.

On arrival, this park seemed ideal for an overnight. It was dark, quiet, and free - a rare combination in West Texas. There are electrical hookups, which is very cool for the city to provide. The only downside, is the train track to the side of the park. 3-4 trains went by sometime in the middle of the night, jolting you awake with their horns. It was not a very restful night before another day of driving.

Thanks for the hospitality, City of Dumas!

Other than having issues with reservations, this was a great place to stay. There are full hookup sites as well as water/electric. In general the sites are spacious and spread apart. Our site's sewer was not well placed for the slope of the site, but we made it work with creative parking and some rocks. Bathroom/Shower facilities were very well maintained, and they sell ice on an honor system at them.

There are a lot of good trails and the Indian Lodge architecture is worth checking out. The McDonald Observatory Star Party is a must. The scenic roads through the mountains are fantastic on a motorcycle. Marfa is within striking distance, which is a bonus.

Connectivity is problematic. Unless you have a booster, there is no cell service at all on AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile. With a booster, I was able to snag 2-3 bars of Verizon and AT&T LTE (5mbps up, 0.6 mbps down). Campground wifi, as expected, doesn't work.

Quartz Creek Campground sits between Kenai Lake and Quartz Creek. It’s a beautiful location with water access and views. When we arrived on a Saturday, the campground was full, but we lucked into a cancelled reservation for a waterfront site.

Pros: beautiful location, large sites.
Cons: can be packed on the weekends with reservations, cell service is pretty iffy and wasn’t fast enough for working. Bathrooms aren’t maintained very well. Dump station costs an additional $8.

We popped in for a night so we could knock out several errands in Anchorage. The location is very close to shopping, etc in Anchorage, which is great. The campground is pretty wooded, but it is close to the highway, so there is some road noise. Our primary issues with this campground were some of the guests and the state of the facilities. The bathroom fixtures were obviously 2nd hand prison issue. The stalls had no locks, there were no soap dispensers and the sink was a trough. There were several groups of people camped that were seemingly down on their luck. There were several screaming matches at the camp site across from us during our stay. There was also a lot of coming and going of various people in cars held together with packing tape and trash bags. Overall, it didn’t feel like an environment I would like to leave anything of value unattended in. Hard pass.

We drove through and considered staying here. It’s not a bad spot, just mediocre. It has cell service and is reasonably secluded. Not bad.

Pros:
The location is good if you need to be around the Huntington Beach area. There's a dog beach nearby (1 mile on a nice bike path). There's also a pretty good brewery down the street - Riip Brewing. Surfing can be had right down the beach.

The restrooms were spartan, but cleaned daily.

Fire rings are available on the beach until 10pm.

Cons:
Highway 1 runs about 40 feet behind the campground. With a 60 mph speed limit and the SoCal car culture, expect to hear the latest in aftermarket exhaust mufflers while inside your rig. We ran our air conditioner just to drown it out.

There isn't much maneuvering room. While the site lengths are generous, good luck getting in or out of the spots. Hopefully you'll have a neighbor that can move their vehicle, or an empty spot across from you. The road that goes down the middle of the campground is just too narrow to be comfortable when entering or departing with larger rigs.

Check-in time is very strict. While the park won't charge you an extra day use fee (like some other CA State Parks), the camp host is pretty particular about the check in time - even if your site isn't occupied.

Shadow Mountain is a popular place. When we arrived on a Sunday, all of the spots that have been previously reviewed were taken. We continued to slog up the hill, bouncing over sharp rocks and trying to keep our momentum up. We finally found a spot that would accommodate us about 3/4 up the mountain. The road is probably one of the rougher dirt roads we've towed on, and the incline doesn't help. The road is also very busy, depending on the day of the week. Expect plenty of Suburus, and tour vans.

Pros:
Beautiful views
Good location (near Grand Teton, drivable to Yellowstone, not too far to Jackson)
Sites are well spaced out
FREE

Cons:
Cell service - see more info below
Rough road
Busy road (dusty)

Cell service:
The bars were there, but the speed was not. We tried Verizon, AT&T, an omni booster and a directional antenna on a 28ft flagpole. 4-5 bars of boosted service, 2-3mbps _if_ you're lucky, and depending on time of day. In the afternoons, speed slowed to a crawl. We finally settled on AT&T with the directional antenna at a very precise compass heading. It provided good speeds at night and in the mornings, but again, not very good in the afternoon. I resorted to commuting to the Jackson Library every day. If you do video conferencing for work, you might have to also. (The Library is super nice and has fast internet)