Friends, Please Review Public Campgrounds

We love this website and use it to select sites whenever possible. I also faithfully post a review on every single park we stay at, even if there are already a lot of reviews. My greatest frustration is how few state and federal parks actually have reviews. I don't know if this is just because folks don't take the time to post, whether they're intimidated by the process of adding a new campground and possibly creating a duplicate listing, or whatever. But, I implore you, please review the campgrounds you visit! I'm finding that the national forest campgrounds are particularly underrepresented. Maybe because some of them aren't RV friendly? I know a lot of you love national forests as much as I do, so please post your opinions. There are other campground review websites which seem to get more public campgrounds reviewed as a percentage, but there's not a one which gets the traffic that this site does.

 

Good post. I think you hit on the problem that most that do reviews are RVers and do not stay in NF. I have been full timing at least 7 months a year or more for the last 11 years are have spent a sum of 2 nites in the NF.
We do how ever stay at NP and NRA a lot. At Lake Mead NRA right now. And we do write reviews on them.

 

We have never stayed in NF or a NP. Have always looked for RV Parks along the way. I think we have become too much creatures of comfort and only look for full hook-ups and cable tv so we don't have to set up the dish.

 

I can say that we write up all parks we stay at. We move a lot and spent two to four nights in a campground before we move on. We stay in County, State, CORE, and Nat. parks along with Good Sams parks. County, State, CORE, and Nat. parks have a lot of land to park on but no pools, WiFi, phone hookup's, site sewer dumps, 50 amps or all the good stuff. If you like a noise free zone this is the place to be. We never use anything in a park but WiFi so other types of parks work for me.

The more people who write up sites the better information we all have to work with. So keep the writeup's rolling in.

 

We need a smily for jealousy! Wow John what a great retirement(?) you are having. I hope you get to enjoy many many more years.

 

Have looked at National Park campgrounds in the state of Maine and they can not physically accommodate the large RVs. The sites are narrow, and are not deep enough. This site condition does not allow for the use of slides, and awnings. Speaking for ourselves, I guess we're spoiled as We like the amenities and the comfort, but also realize that we may be missing out on a location of interest.

 

We have been RVing for many years and have never stayed in a governmental-run campground, state or federal. We have tried a few times but have always run into hassles such as a no reservations policy, no sewer connections, restrictions on length of stay, sites that will not accomodate big rigs, and other problems. To us, it just is not worth it. Like everything else, if you really want to screw up a good thing, let the government run it.

 

Great post! I want y'all to know how much I appreciate the reviews. We are newbies (though my hubby grew up camping with a travel trailer) and I depend on them before planning a trip. We just have a little travel trailer but since our weekends are precious to us, I would hate to waste one on a dilapidated, nasty park.

Since I use the service, I feel like I should contribute by posting reviews as well. But I am not sure how best to assign a numerical rating. I only know about our needs and wants, so I rate versus that. But, some people may be different like needing wider spaces (I wouldn't know how to judge that myself), pools, kids' playgrounds, etc.

Our main criteria is space, privacy, shade and lots of natural areas. And of course, quiet and clean and safe. I realize that not everyone thinks like we do, but if people leave good, detailed comments I think it's easy to see where people are coming from.

 

IMO you should rate the park according to how you felt about it. Then in the camper's comments section, you can clarify your numerical rating with what you liked and disliked about the park. Although both are important, most of us on here have learned to rely more on the comments than the actual number assigned.

 

I am one of those guilty of hardly ever rating a SF or SP campground. The reason, I might really like the facilities, most are excellent. Then rowdy neighbors move in and the whole picture changes drastically. It seems some folks feel since they are tax payers they are owners of the park and really blow it for the rest. The parks are understaffed any more and security is almost non existant. Therefore rather than tear down a very nice park with negative comments, I just do not rate it. After all the next guy might not mind rowdy neighbors.

 

We like provincial or state parks as well as national parks and bought our 22' trailer with that in mind. Because of the size we can fit in most places without any problems and for only two of us we don't need any bigger rig. As we stay never more than a few days in the same spot, lack of water/sewer hookups is no big deal, and many have at least electricity. As for the original poster, any national or provincial park in Quebec and Ontario will be perfect for you, and most of the parks in other provinces will be fine too. Provincial parks in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland generally have no hook-ups at all.

 

Ok, here I go. Becki and I are also Newbies to RVing. On Sunday we leave with our brandie-new, as yet un-named, Jayco 5er for our Maiden Voyage. Two weekws ago we did a weekend Shake-down that went well.

We are headed to the Fool Hollow State Park in the White Mountains of AZ for a week of fishing. Fool Hollow has gotten good reviews and is about 6 hours from home.

Last night is spent the whole sleeping time trying to get the rig into a slot. And right after we got settled into our site 100's of feet from any other camper, some guy with a popup and 12 kids decided to move in right next to me. It was a recurring nightmare that lasted all night. You know the kind that you can't seem to get away from all night?????

Actually we are looking forward to the peace and quiet of an early trip and some great fishing, and NO TV.

Wish us luck. I will post a review of the CG when I return and likely a quickie report here also.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

For those who never try public campgrounds, I really can't dispute your reasons. But, you'd be surprised how wonderful a good National Forest Service campsite can be. Peaceful, quiet, generally lots of downed wood for campfires. In most forests, some have electric, but very few have water, and I'm not aware of any which have sewers, WIFI, pools, etc. If you're sightseeing, you probably don't care. If you're staying for a long time, you would.

We do find many dry camping campgrounds get completely filled up every weekend and some fill every night. It may be that those who fill these sites don't read these reviews, therefore don't post. Or maybe they figure their favorites are too precious to advertise for fear that they can no longer get a site when they want one.

If you frequent these types of campgrounds, and don't post for fear of an avalanche of unwelcome new users, please reconsider. We're already seeing some COE campgrounds in MN and GA closing due to budget constraints. The justification used for the selections was lack of useage. I'm personally familiar with a couple of the GA closed campgrounds, and I can tell you that they get lots of useage--on summer weekends. A bit of advertising may have encouraged through-travelers or full-timers to check them out and use them during the weekdays, thus eliminating the lack of useage argument.

Anyway, to all who review every campground you stay at, thank you. To those who don't because of bad experiences with rowdies, please reconsider. You can assign any number you want--it's not the numbers; it's the narratives that I pay attention to when selecting a campground. Just take a few extra minutes and write meaningful comments, and trust the reader to sort through the relevancy of the review to their needs.

 

I put reviews in for a few of the ones I've been at. I will continue to put review's in for the remainder of the state campgrounds.

I am a bit afraid that people will find out how great some of these are and I'll not be able to get in them though

 

The worst nights that I have spent RVing have been either a National Forest or a truck stop. We go to National Forest and NP. Most of the NF that we have stayed at, though limited as they maybe, draw a bunch of drunks who want to party till 3 in the morning. I real don't need this in my retirement.
You can stay at a private CG and still enjoy the NP & NF. Right now we are staying at Lake Mead NRA, in the full hook up section. It is run by a concession and patrolled at night. Very quite.

 

There are lots of reviews of public campgrounds on CampgroundReport.com which is one of the reasons I prefer that site to rvparkreviews.

I stay in public campgrounds quite often. I find the natural beauty is much better at these places compared to private campgrounds and RV parks. And you can find many with full hookups, or at least electric.

 

As promised earlier in this topic here is my Review of Fool Hollow State Park in Show Low arizona. This was posted to new reviews as well.

This was our Maiden Voyage with our new 5'er and we were exceptionally pleased. For a state operated facility this campgroud is superlative. Sites are large and widely spaced. There is no attempt to maximized utilization. Sites are level and easily accessable for even the largest rigs. Some sites a doubles to allow small groups to share a single site with individual hookups, no sharing necessary. The lake is beautiful and several sites are right on the lake. Fishing was good. We will be eating smoked trout for some time. The privacy, and quiet was just the thing for the week we spent there. The CG was sparsely populated while we were there, but we chose this on purpose. The CG is reportedly very busy while school is out during the summer. It is only about 2 hours from Phoenix and the high altitude is a welcome relief from Phoenix's 110+ degree summers. Each loop has excellent, well maintained bathroom suites (I.E Private toilet, sink, and shower). Off site you must try Charlie Clarks Steakhouse in Pinetop about 15 miles away. Superb menu including wild game, venison, buffalo, quail and walleye. We are already planning a return trip to this CG after Labor Day and the kids go back to school.

We had an extrodinary time and this proved to be an excellent first trip with our new 5'er.

I whole-heartedly recommend this park, especially in the spring and early fall.

Hope you all enjoy it in the future.

 

We spent our winter trip staying in State Parks and have found most of them are great. A few are busier than others, but we would take that over some of the over-priced private parks. Why pay for services you don't want or need. We prefer nature and quiet to tourist traps and people cruising around in golf carts. Most of the State Parks have been or are being upgraded to accomodate the 'camping' of today. When the grandson is along, he enjoys the lesson learned on nature walks, watching wildlife and talking with rangers. It's amazing what you and the kids can learn about an area. Best of all the cost of stays this trip was less than half of what we had planned (great with gas at $2.50+). We especially were impressed with NM park system and British Columbia had some wonderful provincial parks, too.

 

Hi,

I'd like to encourage reviews of public campgrounds. It's true that they're often not easy for larger RVs to navigate, but many campers don't have a vehicle that large. We, for example, camp in a Vanagon. The public campgrounds seem to offer us more nature, in exchange for offering fewer amenities.

I haven't yet found a review site for camper-van sized camping. (We may decide to set one up ourselves!) Tent campsite reviews don't care about things like level sites or hookups. Most RV review sites seem more interested in hookups and amenities than in the surrounding areas. This review site is one of only a few that tells us some of what we want to know.