Lake Gaston Thousand Trails

There is only one lane to get in. It is gated and you have to get out and use a call box to get someone to open the gate. Meanwhile vehicles are piling up behind you. No good place to disconnect towed vehicle. You have to drive to the very back of the campground through windy one-lane roads to check in with no map to get there. There is very little parking for your rig while checking in. The roads in campground are very narrow and uneven with many tree obstacles. Most of the sewer hookups were not working and a long walk to restrooms. The pool was decent. Most of the RVs look permanent and have the best sites. AT&T download 19 Mbps upload 25 Mbps. Many of the sites are small and uneven with many trees to back around to get into your site. If you have a big rig you will have a hard time finding an appropriate site. The laundry has 3 washers and 3 dryers but some were broken and the room was not air conditioned and was very hot. I was happy to get out without damaging my rig. This stay was free with a Thousand Trails membership.

The Lake Gaston TT marked our first “long distance” (2 hours) trip. Overall, it was a positive experience. When we first arrived, we called down to the trading post who gave us the gate code and told us to drive down to check-in. It’s a little awkward parking in front of the trading post to check-in because it’s a very small area. The staff (one man in particular) tried directing my husband to take one of two spots very near the trading post at the beginning of the loop. They suggested spots were terrible. They were pull-throughs that were inches away from each other and really front and center to everyone With very little privacy. We kept driving through the loop to the other open spots. We ended up in a nice level, spacious spot #27. We were completely surrounded by neighbors, but we quickly learned that the majority of them were annual members who were not there, which made it very quiet and private. Once we got settled, my husband went to tell the staff what spot we took, and the same man who wanted us to take the bad ones threatened that we might need to move if bigger rigs arrived. We smiled, left, and rolled our eyes. First come; first serve. We stayed in our spot for the duration of our trip, and even extended our stay a night. The overall experience was positive. We did the math, and 90% of spots belong to annual members, so there are very few options throughout the park, but of those, there are some good ones. It’s too bad that the lake-front spots are all taken by full-time people, and NONE of them were there during our week’s stay. But, we are quickly discovering that this is a theme with TT. We rented a boat (off-site), and the TT dock was perfect for us to load up and drop off. The pool was open with limited access, and the playground/mini-golf were closed. Our toddler loved the smaller, sandy beach (I think labeled “activity” beach on the map). It was small, safe, and convenient to our spot. Overall, a good experience, but I would avoid it on weekends as I’m sure it gets packed and loud.

Stayed 4 nights as part of our Thousand Trails membership. Partial hookups - water (great pressure at 60psi) and electric. No sewer sites were available. They offer a honey bucket if you schedule ahead of time for a cost ($10 I think) but we were only here a few days so we just used the dump station up at the top of the campground on our way out.

The entry to the gate can get a little crowded which leaves you hanging out in the road. Luckily it's not too busy. The main road down into the campground is a bit steep but paved. Once you reach the bottom, all the roads are gravel/dirt. They're maintained well enough that we didn't have trouble hitting holes or dips. The roads are a bit narrow through the trees so it can be tricky maneuvering around with a larger rig with the trees, people walking, and vehicles parked by the road.

The sites are first come, first serve and since we arrived earlier in the day we had a few sites to choose from. None of the sites were particularly level so we took the least challenging (site 41) and ended up using several blocks to finally get it level while watching our slides so they wouldn't hit the trees.

But after we were setup, this was a beautiful campground. It was hot outside (90+ degrees) but we hardly had to run our AC with a nice breeze and shade all day. We set out our rug, put up a hammock and enjoyed the outdoors.

It's a short walk down to the lake. We fished, used our portable kayak and enjoyed walking around on the docks. The sunsets were beautiful every night. We extended 1 night and wished we could extend more but the campground was full. Beautiful campground on the lake.

Beautiful location with lots of varied sites. Some are more wooded, some have beautiful water views, all have water and electric, and some have sewage, pump out service is available. Fire wood delivery from Thumper is incredible. People are extremely nice, and we made lots of friends. A beautiful lake, perfect for fishing, tubing, wakeboarding… Has laundry, but machines weren’t great. I was a little worried about the first come/first serve site assignments, but it works out really well being able to choose your site. Highly recommend for singles, couples, and families with children. We brought our boat and the ramp is a bit steep, but the slips were great. Such a fun lake to explore. I was a little worried about the first come/first serve site assignment, but it works out great being able to choose your site!

Thousand Trails Lake Gaston has the flavor of a scenic state park campground with its intermingled pine and hardwood shade and gorgeous lake views. Verizon cellular service clocked in at 16.5 Mbps download speed and 4.61 Mbps upload speed. AT&T cellular service clocked in at 82.9 Mbps download speed and 6.87 Mbps upload speed. Check out our video tour of Lake Gaston RV and Camping Resort uploaded here on Campendium.

Nice campground on the Lake. The grounds appear to have plenty of amenities. Good for a TT camp.

This is a large campground with a ton of sites. A lot of those sites have great views too, but unfortunately all the good sites are filled with long-term residents. Also, I only counted about 10 sites that have full hookups that are not filled with long term residents. So you will most definitely get just a water/power site. Although they do offer a “dump-buddy” service 3 days a week, which we did not need, since we were only there for 2 nights.

Most of the sites are not level and we saw several people having trouble getting their rigs in AND out. We didn’t have too much trouble getting in or out, thanks to our 4x4, but we never did get our trailer completely level. They recently put gravel down in most of the sites which only seemed to make the traction worse AND it was not fun to walk on.

All that said, the staff was friendly and the grounds and facilities were well kept. The beach areas were great and the views (from the beach) were great.

We’ve found that most of the Thousand Trails campgrounds have a lot of full-time residents/renters but this was the first time it ever really bothered us. It would be nice if they kept some of the “premium” spots open for part timers/travelers like us.

We didn’t try the wifi, but cell service was good and we had no issues with power or water. There is a dump station near the entrance with 3 or 4 "stations" with fresh water faucets.

As members of Thousand Trails, we'd made reservations ahead of time for full hook-ups. When we checked in, we were sent to site 211. Someone had just pulled into it and hadn't told the office, meaning they didn't have reservations...they just showed up and took an open space. I had stayed up until midnight 60 days in advance in order to follow the rules that Thousand Trails spells out online. We didn't fit anywhere else with our 42' fifth wheel and truck, that had full hook-ups. We were taken to site 124 on the other side of the park, and it had only water and electricity. We were going to be there for 12 days. We were told that a honey wagon could be ordered for M, W, and F for $10 each time, and call ahead by one day to reserve. Jennifer, the office manager, was very kind but quick to explain that Thousand Trails does not guarantee anything regarding which space you will get when you get there. I understand first come, first served, and that's why we drove at break-neck speed from our last RV park to get to Lake Gaston. However I don't understand someone who doesn't even have a reservation being able to hijack my full hook-up reservation from 60 days in advance. It's not right, no matter how you slice it. It ended up being okay. We were on the side of the park with mainly full-timers or actually people who weekend at the lake. Tons of RVs there through the week with no one in attendance, and then boom. The weekend finds all of the RVs full of campers. Our site 124 was one of the largest in the park. It was close to the little store, the beach, boat dock, and most of all - the ice cream. We ordered the honey wagon at our expense, used the bathrooms, did laundry, etc. Wahers are $2 each load and dryers are the same. The laundry room and bathrooms near us were spotless. We had a great 12 days. It was super quiet during the week, and then pretty loud on the weekends. Partiers directly across from us were very loud, very drunk, very obnoxious, and had the yappiest loudest most shrill barking dog till midnight on Fridays and Saturdays that we've encountered in 5 months of full-time RVing. They were the only drawback to any of it. Even with the drawbacks, I'm still giving this park a 5-star because we enjoyed the beauty of it all so much. We will be back someday.

We came and were situated at site 33A which though it didn’t have sewer was directly across from the bath house. (And also had an amazing view of the lake at sunset!)
This bathhouse has 4 or 5 shower stalls across from 5-6 toilet stalls and numerous sinks. Though the showers had new heads and it seemed like newer shower curtains the room could really have used a cleaning. There was obvious rodent feces along the sink counter directly against the wall, and more spiders and webs throughout the room that I could count. There was also a cig butt in my daughters stall and for all the above mentioned that is the only reason I’m docking the rating a star. I’m keen on cleanliness. We are getting naked and vulnerable in these rooms, after all.

The temps dropped suddenly to the 30-40 range and because the room isn’t heated I only used the stalls once.

The little store on the grounds is nice with a “grill” with lunch hours.

They do abide by laws and rules and I do appreciate that as I saw the general store remember to bag items after the sale of alcoholic items and even the manager told a REGULAR! that her child must be fully licensed to drive the golf cart. These things are commendable as I’m 100% over seeing a 14 year old drive a golf cart with their friends in a busy park.

The roadways are narrow and often look one-way.

I’m sure this location would be real sweet for the summer but we were there for fall.

One last note- the rumors of the sites being uneven are very true. We managed but if you come here be sure to bring your big levelers opposed to the cheapest things you can find like us. And maybe some wood to even out your ladder. 😜

T-Mobile user- had 1-3 bars the whole time.

We only stayed one night on our way south and did so only because of our TT membership which offered a no-additional cost campsite as opposed to our staying at a Wal-Mart. Really enjoyed the location; didn't really enjoy trying to get our motorhome level. Since we only had the one night, we gave up, blocked and chocked and hoped for the best.
Very nice shower house, camp store, propane for sale, et al. Every staff person we encountered (and we saw so many in a one-night stay!) had great attitudes and helpful advice. I don't think I'd recommend bike riding or walking (unless you have more expertise/experience than I), but a great place to stay by the lake, dip your toes in the water, and relax.