The how, why, and where of Campgrounds

One of the major pluses of this kind of lifestyle is our ability to change our view.  We can almost at a whim pick up and be in the mountains, along a lake, on the ocean, etc.  You get the idea.  I want to discuss how we do that, why do we pick this campground over that campground, how do we get information especially if it's in a place we've never been?  I want to make clear these are Jan and my methods and they work very well for us, and having done this for about 20 years so far, we have only been burnt or even disappointed a few times out of the hundreds of campgrounds where we have stayed.

First of all you need to realize there are several different kinds of campgrounds and different reasons that make one more desirable than another.  It would also depend on why you are traveling, obviously if you are on a weeklong vacation camping trip with 4 young kids, you'd be looking for something much different than what we seek out.  There are destination campgrounds, lots of times resorts with amenities, the campground is why you are going there, lots of folks go to these say over Memorial day to play and swim in the lake, have a campfire, meet some friends or family.  Or it could be you are visiting, say Disney World, Yellowstone NP, Washington, DC, and need a nice campground with easy accessibility, or you want a central location to explore an area, say southwest Colorado, or Moab for example.  Sometimes you need a campground near family or friends for a visit, or just a stop along the way to another destination.  It is also a lot like hotels, you can stay in a hostel with nothing more than a bed or go to a 5-star hotel with every amenity you can imagine.  Campgrounds are the same with a few differences.

You can find a campground that includes electric, water, sewer, cable, and wifi, or you can find basically a spot where you can park and utilize your own self contained unit to provide said electricity, water, sewer, satellite TV, and a hotspot for internet.  The spot might be as cheap as free, all the way up to well over $100/night in certain destinations such as Key West, Lake Tahoe, Big Bear Lake, or along the Oregon coast to name a few.  That affects your budget obviously, but it is also something you can control by determining how much you want to spend on a place to spend the night.

With the internet and apps readily available more and more information is at your fingertips to help with your decisions.  And maybe we are a bit more old school than most, we still put a lot of emphasis on hardcopy guides.  As we map our intended rough travel route, we decide what are our destinations, our worthwhile visiting spots, and finally where do we need just a place to stop for the night.  

There are numerous apps such as Good Sam Camping, Recreation.Gov Camping, Allstays camping apps, and Reserve America camping to name a few.  And we do use some of these but our primary method is as follows.  The first thing we do is pull out our trusty go to bible of campgrounds, 

Good Sam RV Travel Guide, a 1664 page listing of over 13,500 campgrounds in the US, Canada, and Mexico, all rated.  They use a 3 number rating system, on a 1-10 scale, such as 9/8/9.5.  The first number is amenities, the second cleanliness of the restrooms/showers, and the third visual appearance.  Now for us the amenities are not a draw most of the time, we don't need golf courses, playgrounds, mini golf, tennis courts, etc, and we don't use the restroom/showers, we have our own, so the number that is the most important to us is the third and we have found over the years we want at least an 8, although if we are somewhat desperate to find just an overnight stay, we will accept a 7- 7 1/2.  Also in the listing is the size of the site which is critical to us, being 45' long, and one more description necessary to us is "big rig".  That indicates that the roads, turns, overhead limbs, etc are all wide enough and high enough for a "big rig" which is a rig at least 40' long.  So that usually yields us several choices, then we go on the internet to RV Park Reviews to see what other RVers have said.  This is a website that has reviews submitted by everyday campers and travelers, and just like reading reviews on Amazon, you have to temper the ratings, but very quickly you can garner a ton of information about a specific campground, and it is rare that there aren't ratings and reviews for the campground of interest.  And then if more than one has emerged as desirable, we peruse the detailed description in the guide and pick one.

So we map it out, go to the Good Sam book, pick out a couple places with good ratings, check on RV Park Reviews, make a reservation if needed.  And for those just stop for the night places, we use the same process, and will even alter our route somewhat, veer off course a bit, make the day longer or shorter to be sure we have a campground that will meet our needs, the only other requirement we typically add is a pull through site.  A pull through site is a site you "pull through", you don't need to unhook your towed vehicle which makes it nice and easy on quick overnights.  As far as reservations for overnight stops, our normal procedure is to wait until our lunch stop, confirm how far we want to go, then call for a reservation.  Reservations tend to be important for us most of the time strictly because of our size, in fact, there are many campgrounds that we just don't fit into.  So that's how we do it, and here are a few of our campgrounds over the years.

Top of the mountain in NC

Sunset right along the Mississippi

A lovely spot with Karen in the Adirondacks

Also with Karen near Thousand Islands

Boondocking in Yellowstone NP at sunset

Along the Oregon coast

View out the window, Oregon coast

Deer Creek SRA, in Utah

Along the Swanee River in FL

Impending flood in Georgia

Parked across from our "twin" in GA

By the water in Anacortes

Idyllic spot

Out the window in Washington

Private spot in Juneau

Lovely spot in Portage, AK

Enjoying the view

Taking it easy at our campsite with Karen

A little tighter in Palmer, AK

In the wilds of AK

Tail to tail in Homer

Looking the other way

A vistor in Homer

A perfect spot in Meziadin, BC

Nice!

Out the window nearing sunset

In the woods along the water in SC

Sunset looking out our window

A little snowy in a favorite spot!

The flip side, in a parking lot waiting on a part:-)

In Ernie's backyard getting our floor installed

And home sweet winter home in Florida

So just a small taste of the many beautiful spots we have been fortunate enough to see and stay at.  It is so very nice to go so many different places and always sleep in your own bed!