thefreefive

Hartwick Pines, like many Michigan State Park Campgrounds, is really well maintained, with nice sites and clean facilities. This particular campground also has some local activities and an interesting museum with a wood-shaving festival in the summer.

The campground has a variety of sites, some completely wooded while others are in more open areas. Bigger rigs may have trouble getting into some sites and a few of the bends are somewhat tight, but we had no serious issues in our 42ft class A.

I was hoping for better cellular internet performance than the previous reports, but I'm sad to say that nothing has changed. Despite being in an LTE service area on both the Verizon and AT&T maps, we could not get LTE service on either, even with the use of antennas and a booster.

The local towers are also very congested in the evenings, so expect very poor network connectivity here. The best I managed to achieve was about 5Mbps in the very early morning on AT&T. Most of the time download speeds were well under 1Mbps on both Verizon and AT&T.

But other than that, we enjoyed our stay and the central location is convenient as a hub for visiting nearby areas.

As other reviewers noted, this area changed from a State Park to a State Wildlife Area recently, so it is still listed in many guides as a State Park.

This campground has undergone some changes since we were last here in 2009. The only staff presence here now is the campground hosts who stay in the centrally-located administrative building. The gate entrance/fee station is no longer manned.

Tall RV's need to be aware that the entrance at the gate station is only 13' 2" high. Taller RV's will need to enter the park through the exit lane on the left. The height numbers are fading and difficult to see at night.

Services:
The park has up to 50amp electrical and a dump station - that's it! There is no water at the park, either potable or non-potable. According to the camp hosts, the water quality tested poorly and the water here was shutoff because there were not funds to make the required changes. Therefore, you MUST bring your own water here. Since there is also no water at the dump station, it is not possible to clean out hoses after dumping.

There are three loops - A, B, and C. Only loops B&C have vault toilets available. The bathhouse is closed.

The sites are very nice with shelters, tables and fire rings on concrete pads. Parking is mostly gravel but a few sites have pavement parking pads. A majority of sites are pull-through and they are well-spaced.

Location:
This campground is in a great location with spectacular views of the Great Sand Dunes and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The National Park is a short ~30 minute drive. Alamosa is also about 30 minutes away.

We certainly hope this park stays open but it appears funding is a problem. It's not clear whether there will be any maintenance on the park going forward or what it's ultimate status will be. However, at present, given the price, this campground is the best value around.

We had decent cell access with Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile though both AT&T and the Verizon towers got congested and slowed down most evenings. We test T-Mobile but didn't use it. For Sprint this is a roaming area.

The location of this nice state park is hard to beat, located just over the bridge in the upper peninsula on the edge of St. Ignace.

The campground seems more used than other Michigan State Parks we've visited - the sites were adequate and the facilities were clean and functional.

Overall, this is a great location for exploring the local area.

Cellular service was very good on both AT&T and Verizon with good enough performance for basic streaming, even during peak hours.

Stopped here for an overnight not knowing what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.

The campground is six 30amp with water sites in the main city park. The park was clean and tidy with a playground.

The street approaching the campground has some low tree branches - tall rigs will want to pass through gingerly.

An active train track runs right next to the park and we had one come through during the night on our stay.

There is no bathhouse, only a portapotty on site.

The public library is right next door and their WiFi is available, though only during operating hours.

AT&T and Berizon signal was not great, but adequate for low-res streaming in the evening. Signal enhancing with an external/MIMO antenna helps a great deal here.

This is a great little gem that is worth the 15-minute drive from I-70, especially for anyone who wants affordable 50-amp service in the middle of Missouri.

The road into the area off the highway is quite narrow and could be a bit scary for those not accustomed to driving wide vehicles on narrow roads.

The campground comprises three loops - a primitive loop primarily for tent camping, a basic electric loop with 30 amp service and a third loop with 50 amp service. There is only one site (besides the camp host site) with full hook-ups. All other sites are electrical only, though there are water pedestals scattered around as well as at the dump station.

There is a convenient and functional dump station near the campground entrance and a bathhouse that is clean and in good condition.

This is a heavily treed area, so the majority of sites have decent shade, especially in the afternoon. Site size and length vary and not all are suitable for big rigs. The pad length description for each site on the Missouri reservation site seems pretty accurate.

Cellular internet access is spotty, with weak coverage on AT&T and Verizon. Getting a decent signal will depend on your gear and site location. We got workable signal for basic tasks using an AT&T nighhawk mobile hotspot and netgear antenna. For voice calls, I had to walk up near the bathhouse, which is higher elevation.

There is free unsecured Wi-Fi at the park which doesn't adequately reach the sites near the bottom of the hill (38, 39, 40) - a Wi-Fi booster may help here. The speeds were about 9Mbps during the day, but were considerably slower bordering on usable in the evenings with the campground about 3/4 full.

This campground is part of the Arrow Rock Historic Site which was the original beginning of the Santa Fe trail. There is a fishing pond, a loop trail, a historic town with historic buildings, and a very nice and informative visitor center and museum.

Overall, this was a great break from the heat and drudgery of I-70.

We stayed here the last week of May 2018 including over the memorial day weekend.

Our $15 rate was for a non-electric site and included the 50% access discount. Normal rate is $29 a night (2018 rates). Electric sites are $53 a night.

It's a great campground in a great location. The campground is undergoing some renovations - a couple of the loops are closed and another couple loops are freshly paved.

The western half of the campground (from the entrance road) does not allow generators. There are several tent sites as well as two employee loops as well as the group campsite loop. The eastern half has one electric loop, two loops closed for renovations and the remainder allow generator use from 8am-10pm.

None of the site (except the employee sites) have water or sewer connection - there is a double dump station and a water spigot near the entrance. These are crowded in the morning as people check out.

There is a wide variety of site sizes to fit tents up to big (45ft) rigs. Since it's first-come-first-served, those with larger rigs will want to arrive early to increase the chance of getting a spot since those are more limited in number. Unlike a lot of other campgrounds, ensure you check in at the office first - don't go find an open site and then go to the office.

Internet access varies a lot across the campground. The towers are all in the Jackson area, to the west-southwest of the campground. This means the sites furthest east have the weakest signal.

- Verizon was generally good throughout the park with 2-3 bars of LTE and decent latency and speeds (except evenings)
- AT&T was much more spotty and signal disappeared at the east end of the campground.
- We didn't use our T-Mobile connection, but it showed decent signal strength in the campground.

Even on Memorial Day weekend, the campground didn't fill up completely, but we were still early in the season.

Overall this is an excellent campground with great access to the Tetons while being close to Jackson for supplies/groceries. It doesn't have the epic views of some of the other campgrounds, but it is still very scenic and a joy to stay at.

This campground is all about location, which is important to see a park as big as this one.

There is a large variety of sites available from tent sites up to big-rigs. Most is dry camping however - the electric sites are by reservation only and are usually reserved months in advance. Most areas do allow generator use however, from 7am-7pm. The climate also works great for solar.

Most sites have picnic tables and fire rings along with paved pads for the RV or vehicle. There are some trees and shade for some site, not all. The sites are primarily gravel (this is Death Valley after all!)

There's decent flush bathrooms scattered throughout as well as water stations.

The dump station also has a fresh drinking water fill station.

There are dumpsters and recycling bins around the campground.

The visitor center is in easy walking distance.

Cell Coverage

There is one AT&T HSPA tower at the nearby airport which shows up as 3G on AT&T devices. This tower isn't very tall and has short range, but it covers the campground completely. Speeds varied from 1-5Mbps depending on how crowded the tower was - it tended to slow down to about 1Mbps in the evenings. Latency was high at around 200ms.

Verizon is a 3G roaming area
- Speeds were about 500kbps download with high latency (~250ms)

No Sprint coverage

T-Mobile is a roaming area.
- Did not test speed or connectivity

We stayed here to access the various Mt. St. Helen's attractions and the location is very convenient, although distant from St. Helens itself. One of the National Park visitor centers is right across the street from this state park.

The area itself is lovely with lots of trees - there are some trails in the park itself as well as a wetlands trail in St. Helens' visitor center across the street. The site we had included water and electricity - there were a handful of full-hookup sites available. A dump station is available by the entrance.

This is not a place for big rigs. The roads are very narrow and winding with some places needing to squeeze between big trees. Depending on where your site is located, it can be a tight fit to navigate. Our 29ft class C made it through fine, but you must be aware of trees and obstacles on either side and go slowly.

The sites themselves are pretty average and fairly tightly packed. The park is in a heavily forested area, so in most spots, there is little, if any sunlight. This is great for cooler temperatures, but it does mean that it feels dark and we had to have the inside lights on in the RV all the time.

The area had a lot of mosquitos in mid-July, especially near sunset.

The staff was friendly and helpful.

Internet connectivity is very poor here. For people who need connectivity for work, we would not recommend this park. We had very weak coverage on all three cellular carriers, even with high-gain antennas and advanced gear, and the heavy trees meant no Starlink. Network congestion in the evenings made the internet on all three carriers useless, but we could get basic work done in the morning. We could not reliably make or receive phone calls. Some spots in the campground seemed to have slightly better connectivity, so micro-geography is a factor, but even then, connectivity is overall terrible. The park Wi-Fi didn't work at all for us.

Overall we probably wouldn't stay here again because of the poor connectivity (we work on the road), but otherwise, it's decent and conveniently located.

We basically agree with Drivin' & Vibin's review above and it is still accurate except for cell coverage.

This is a decent spot but there is some noise from the concrete plant as well as road traffic. There are also train tracks, but we saw no trains over the course of three days. Additionally, the area to the east is a bird-hunting area and we did hear some gunfire from hunters early in the morning.

The cell service in this area improved since Drivin' & Vibin's review and we got great connectivity here on AT&T and Verizon and ok connectivity with T-Mobile.

Sand Hollow actually has two campgrounds - the "Westside" campground which has pads and full hookups and the "Sand Pit" Campground, which has partial hookups (electricity and water) in a dirt/gravel area. This review is for the Sand Pit campground.

We stayed at this park in order to visit Zion and the surrounding area. The campground is somewhat convenient - about 45 minutes from the park depending on traffic.

The sandpit campground is on the south side of the lake. The roads and sites are compressed gravel and all sites are pull-throughs. However, the site utilities are on the passenger side.

This campground caters to OHV users and most people camped here had OHV's. The noise was not that bad as the vehicles did not spend much time around the campground, but they did generate a lot of dust.

The shower/bath house is very nice and looks newly built.

The dump station is near the other (Westside) campground on the other side of the lake.

There's not much else to say, this was a good stop for us but nothing special.