Allaire State Park Campgrounds (NJ) Review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, New JerseyOn16 May 201318 Feb 2018

When staying overnight

at this campground in April of 2013, I was a bit hesitant to do a review because of two things:
1) A lot of activities that the park offers were still unavailable due to off season time or were only offered on weekends.
2) Sandy damaged a lot of trees on the campgrounds and in the park, therefore some parts were still closed off to the public. (including damaged buildings).
Since I was there and there were some things that stood out, a review had to happen.

This is a small campground that offers

45 campgrounds, 6 shelters (which are technically small cabins), and 4 yurts (which are basically large canvas teepee tents). There are some spots that are decently apart from each other at one part of the campgrounds and other that are very close to each other at another part. Both have their benefits and disadvantages. It all depends how many sites you are booking at once. I’d suggest give a call to the main office and ask for their recommendation which spots would suite you and your party best.

Since this is a State Park in New Jersey, pets are not allowed. However, this might change in a near future. There are currently five State Parks that started to allow pets on the campgrounds as a trial run. If all goes well, this campground will allow pets as well.

The park offers a lot of activities

and if you get bored of them, there are even more things to do within an hour drive.
There is:
Biking/hiking
Boardwalk/amusements
Boating, canoeing, kayaking
Charter/fishing boat
Fishing
Horseback riding
Ocean beaches
Shopping/outlet malls
Skydiving
Six flags great adventure park
Picnicking
Hunting

Let’s finally talk about the elephant in the room.

This campground is located a bit too close to a road, and a road that’s located even closer to a major highway. Do expect hearing traffic nice and clear throughout your stay. Even a Spring rain hitting the tarp of your tent won’t drown it out. With this said, I’d suggest to skip the campgrounds and just do a day trip to the park and enjoy great nature, historic town, and activities.

CHECK OUT MY VIDEO REVIEW OF IT!

Watch Hill Marina & Campgrounds (Fire Island, NY) Review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, New YorkOn12 Sep 201218 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 3.5
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 2
Staff & Park Officials: 4
Accessibility: 2

Only a 40 minute boat ride

from Long Island, Fire Island offers miles of beautiful beaches, board walk trails through out conserved habitat, and wide range of animals and birds to observe.

In this post, we are focusing on one particular part of the island called Watch Hill Marina and Campgrounds. Located a short ferry (or by private yacht/boat) ride from Patchogue Ferry (Davis Park), Marina offers over 50 spots to dock your pirate ship (with proper paper work of course) and 25 campgrounds. Just half a mile away from the pier, these beautiful campgrounds come in three types: secluded, open, and 1 group. Secluded campgrounds are surrounded by thick bush and trees with one direction facing the entrance/exit: the boardwalk. Open camp sight are basically a few spots clustered together in a large patch of land. And 1 group camp sight is just an area with 2 or 3 picnic tables and opening for a few tents completely separated from other campgrounds.

Since there are only

25 camp sights, reserving one spot might force you to do some planning and re-planning. In other words they are a bit tough to get. When coming out to camp out during peak warm season (late May – late September), it will be to your benefit to stack up on Tiki Candles, OFF sprays, and full body bug netting. The amount of mosquitoes you will encounter through out camp groudns and other areas will make you swim after the last ferry to get back to mainland.

Car? What Car?

The ferry you take to access the Fire Island is half the size one would take across the Hudson River. It’s passenger only. With this said, carrying all of your camping equipment such as tents, air mattress, cooler with food and drinks will force you to re-think if the trip is even worth making. And in all honesty, it isn’t!

– No open fires allowed (only grills – that’s not camping, that’s BBQ in a backyard).
– The bugs (mosquitoes and ticks) are unbearable.
– Camp store is stocked with absolutely useless junk.
– Snack Bar is highly overpriced (4 mozzarella sticks cost almost $7.00).

But if you do brave yourself and decide to come out, the easiest way to transport all of your stuff from the ferry to the camp sight would be by a cart. Yup! The same ones you see elderly Chinese women transporting cans they stole from your recycling bin. If you are a minimalist and keep everything in your trail bag, speak to one of the park officials (if you can find one) about camping out on the beach. It’s allowed as long as you still pay the same fee you would for the camp sight, register with them in person, and hike at least a mile (on the beach) away from entrance.

Make it a day trip!

Get there early, bring a beach umbrella, a towel, and a cooler full of beers! The beach is clean and the water is nice. See if you can spot a dolphin or two.. we did! Overall, if coming out camping, I would recommend to do so in off season when bugs disappear. Unfortunately this means the beach is too cold to enjoy. But that’s OK! Instead take a long hike through out the island and do some bird watching or see how many deer, hares, and foxes you can spot.

Elkmont Campground (TN) Review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, TennesseeOn06 Jul 201218 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 1
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 5
Staff & Park Officials: 4
Accessibility: 5

This Campground is

one of the 3 most popular campgrounds in The Great Smoky Mountains. It contains 208 platformed sites that are positioned pretty close to each other. It’s great when a large group of friends camp out together and not so great when you are just their neighbor.. not a friend.

Platforms you say?

Yes-yes I say! The cool things about platforms: no worries about uneven, slope-like spots, tree roots, medium sized half submerged rocks, and other “awesome” nature things thrusting against your tent floor. The not-so cool things about platforms: can’t fit more than one tent on it. Let’s face it, very few of us travel with a 1 or 2-person tent to campgrounds. We tend to schlep our 6, 8, or even 10-person tent with us and unfortunately only one large tent can fit on the platform. The campground allows 2 tents per spot but because of the platforms, there is little room left for the second tent without being too close to the neighbor, eating area, your auto, or the fire.

You’ve set up your camp and

had the celebratory light beer (got to watch the weight and everything) with not so light burger… what’s next? Since it’s the Smoky’s, time to burn those calories with hiking. The park offers many awesome trails to choose from. Please keep in mind that even though pets are allowed on the campgrounds, they are NOT allowed on trails due to large population of bears and irresponsible dog owners. Got Tennessee or North Carolina fishing license? Go to the river and catch some dinner! The park also offers horse rental, horseback riding and trails, interpretive programs and trails, and many other things you can check out here.

So you’ve done all the activities

and it’s time to wash off all the sweat, dirt, and deer ticks. Sorry friend, you are out of luck. Although this is a pretty large and very popular campground, it still pretends to be hidden somewhere on the path of back country trails. There are absolutely no showers in the campground! I was told there are some paid* showers at Lazy Dayz… where ever that is.

Camp by the river…

… if you can get a spot. There a few spots available by the rive for tent and RV camping which has it’s ups and downs. The ups are that you have quick access to wash bacon grease off of your frying pan after which take a dip in to cool off and go Rambo on the fish…. or just dip your feet in and spend some quality time with the kids catching diner. The downs are that the river noise tends to mute the sound of your neighbors generator and who wants that? Oh ye, also mosquitoes. They like shade and water, so keep that in mind!

There is no camp store at this particular campground. There is however a camp booth with a few vending machines.

Although alcohol is allowed at this campground, driving while drinking isn’t (just like everywhere!), so don’t do it. The park officials are very keen on taking your license away and throwing your belly full of bud light in jail!

Check out our video review!

Cades Cove Campgrounds (TN) Review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, TennesseeOn06 Jul 201218 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 1
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 5
Staff & Park Officials: 4
Accessibility: 5

Cades Cove is

one of the 3 most popular campgrounds in The Great Smoky Mountains. It contains roughly 159 platformed sites that are positioned pretty close to each other. It’s great when a large group of friends camp out together and not so great when you are just their neighbor.. not a friend.

Platforms you say?

You’ve set up your camp and

had the celebratory light beer (got to watch the weight and everything) with not so light burger… what’s next? Since it’s the Smoky’s, time to burn those calories with hiking. The park offers many awesome trails to choose from. Please keep in mind that even though pets are allowed on the campgrounds, they are NOT allowed on trails due to large population of bears and irresponsible dog owners. The campground itself offers bike rental which is very popular. Got Tennessee or North Carolina fishing license? Go to the river and catch some diner! The park also offers horse rental, horseback riding and trails, interpretive programs and trails, and many other things you can check out here.

So you’ve done all the activities

Just like the North Rim Campgrounds in Arizona, do expect be positioned next to caravans and trailers. Do expect having a generator run most of the day and the fumes ruining the fresh air you came here for. Do expect be awakened at 8AM by trucks collecting garbage and emptying sewage tanks. Do expect pick up trucks with roaring engines passing by your tents at 5 mph throughout the entire day. Don’t expect anything remotely healthy at the camp store. Half the the food that is being sold there is either fried or food you are expected to cook at the campgrounds yourself (burgers, hot dogs, etc). Coffee was OK!

Check out our video review!

Douthat State Park Campgrounds (VA) Review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, VirginiaOn13 May 201218 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 0
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 5
Staff & Park Officials: 4
Accessibility: 5

Ahhh…. This place is awesome.

Karen and I stopped here for a night during our trip back to New York from Virginia beach. The nature here is absolutely magnificent.
The park offers activities such as hiking (which is a must!), as well as inexpensive kayak/canoeing in the lake, and row boating. I highly recommend skipping on the row boat unless you have an electric motor with you. They are very heavy and hard to navigate…. Not to mention rowing! The park is awesome until you’ll settle in with your tent….

The camp sights are

all paved with gravel and separated with what looked like wooden beams. Not much privacy since the spots are put together like parking spaces rather than a nature retreat. Fortunately we got lucky with our neighbor who was a friendly Ohio native hiking through with his dog.
Although the campgrounds seem small and squished together, the park itself is really big. Once you enter the main office to register for your spot, don’t be surprised to still have a ten minute drive up the hill. During our visit, we got a chance to have a conversation with the host – an elderly, very hospitable couple. They were very happy to answers any questions that we had and info us in on why no fires were allowed until 5pm.

Right… The fire situation.

Due to the dry weather and low humidity during the summers at that part of west Virginia, there are no open fires allowed on campgrounds until humidity rises a bit… Which happens to be around 5pm.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

If you are road trip enthusiast, I highly recommend take a drive through RT220 going North towards Union, WV. It’s one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever driven through. It’s narrow, curvy, slightly dangerous when wet, and full of blind spots.

Godspeed and good luck fellow traveller.

Kittatinny Canoes Campgrounds (NY) review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, New YorkOn07 Jul 201118 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 3.5

Environment & Nature: 5

Available Activities: 5

Staff & Park Officials: 5

Accessibility: 5

One of my favorites!

I’ve been to this campground a few times and every time I’m there, I love it. The campgrounds are located on the Delaware Water Gap, Upstate New York and Pennsylvania. They offer over 200 sites in wooded area and by the river. The wooded area has a lot of secluded sights separated by thick bush. There are a few sights that are in an open area (for those who get a bit claustrophobic with the trees) but they’re a bit too close to each other. The sites by the river, however, are kind of on top of each other. There are only a few (about 6-8 spots) that are available for people who aren’t signed up for an activity. The rest are for groups who not only go here to camp, but also rent equipment to go rafting, canoeing, or tubing. Aside from these activities Kittatiny also offers hiking, zip lining, and paint ball.

It’s a well maintained private campground

which is why they are a bit more expensive if comparing to state parks. The staff is always friendly and helpful. The camp store is always stocked with camping equipment such as tents, sleeping bags, chairs, blankets, tiki candles, and more. Aside from that, they also offer Boars Head deli, coffee, some camping food, and much much more! The nature there is very beautiful. The river, the forests, and the hills paint a quiet get a way from busy city or just a busy life. Go ahead, spend a whole day on the banks sun tanning, swimming, or fishing… it’s a guaranteed relaxing experience.

The trash problem

is something you may come across when camping out next to the river. It’s a sad truth – there’s always garbage everywhere, especially by the water. The campsite we were staying in (which is one of the 6-8 by the water) was pretty filthy. People before us decided to toss the remains from ribs they had for diner (I assume) all over the place and leave some plastic rings and aluminum can tabs from beverages scattered throughout the site. We gathered 13 golf balls in the water by the shore, which I found very weird, and at the same time disgusted by human nature to trash what doesn’t belong to them – nature. Some asshole decided to just toss their, what I assume was, a bad mattress (why else would you leave it behind?) right on the shore instead of properly disposing it. There are garbage cans everywhere for your convenience. Is it so hard to use them?!

Video Review

North Rim Campground (AZ) review

ByPaulInArizona, Campgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy PostsOn28 Jun 201118 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 1
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 5 (hike, hike, & more hike!)
Staff & Park Officials: 5
Accessibility: 5

Karen and I got a chance

to go to Las Vegas for a week in August of ’10 & going for a road trip to North Rim was the highlight. We ended up planning out our trip around April, and when we tried to book a spot on the campgrounds on the North Rim we ended up with two possible choices: a spot by the bathrooms or…. yup, you guessed it, another spot by the bathrooms. Right away I knew that might suck, but hey! it’s the Grand Canyon, who cares about crappy camp spot.. right?

We rented a car in Vegas (Vegas is the closest airport to the North Rim btw) and a 500 mile round trip that took us from Nevada, into Utah, and then down into Arizona, began. When entering the park we thought we had finally arrived and could set up, no longer be on the road… but alas, we still had about a half hour ride to the campgrounds. Upon entering, to our surprise, we spotted large, furry, and very calm wild buffalos. I think this is actually my first time seeing a buffalo, considering I live in Brooklyn, NY.

When we finally did arrive

at the campgrounds the staff was very nice and helpful with surrounding area and wildlife info. But when taking a ride
through the loops, scouting for our camp sight, I noticed something frightening… RVs & Mobile Homes on top of tent sights. It’s as if the park thought it’d be uber cool to have an RV sight with a HUUUUGE bus and 15 people in it “camping out” next to a more primitive and intimate tent site for 2-4 people. Again, my same thought, ‘whatever, it’s the Grand Canyon!’ The only time I will be spending in the campground is during a meal and at night.

Since this was a two day trip, by the time we did get to North Rim from Las Vegas, the darkness was quickly creeping up
on us. We set up our tent and rushed off to catch what would be one of the most AMAZING sunsets we had both ever seen. The serene hum of the wind somewhere in low elevation, burning red sky, and a hint of lighting from somewhere very, very far away illustrated an absolutely breathtaking image. After the sun had completely set and we cautiously crawled back to the campgrounds, our bacon wrapped Nathans’ cheddar cheese franks (the most un-kosher thing you can ever have) with a pint of Guinness and Hoegaarden were the hit of the night.

The night sleep however

was not as serene as the sunset. I was repeatedly woken up by Boeing 747 toilet flushes that were emerging from the bathroom located next to our campsite throughout the night. To top it off, as the sun rose and the wicked people with their weird bowels crawled back into their resting spots, as I finally fell asleep, I was awaken ONCE AGAIN!!! by something even worse – an RV the size of a Greyhound bus idling right next to my tent. Not only it was extremely loud but I also had a feeling it was largely responsible for all of the pollution in Newark. The stench coming from it was… well, have you ever driven through Newark? If you have, you’ll know. And if you haven’t, you my friend, are a lucky bastard.

Once we packed up, we were ready to tackle some trails!

History Lesson: During the early 2000s park officials were performing a controlled fire and it got out of hand. Winds picked it up and the fire ended up burning a large segment of the woods. For a good 20 minutes or more, as you drive up to the official entrance, it’s hard to miss of what appears to be miles of burnt dead trees. It’s a very eerie sight. Why I bring this up now? Mainly because there are a couple of trails that lead you through some of these areas and I thought I’d give you heads up.

We picked one of the shortest trails that are offered, mainly because of our time limit. It sort of seemed like it looped around the canyon (which is a silly thing to even think
of) and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Every step we took, it was a different angle, equally as beautiful as the previous (if not even better). I highly encourage you to dedicate a week or two of just hiking and camping out in the “backcountry”. You will need to acquire a license though, so don’t rush. Plan your trip, register for a license, and enjoy!

Cape Henlopen State Park (DE) review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Delaware, Legacy PostsOn02 Jun 201118 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 3
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 5
Staff & Park Officials: 5
Accessibility: 5

This park is very cool!

It’s by a beach, easily accessible by road AND a ferry from Cape May, NJ. It also has some WWII history. Well, not actual battle history, since Germans never made it here, but the park and surrounding area has more than 20 look out towers strategically placed overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the coast.

The beach is pretty.

Even though the sand road was for “licensed fisherman,” I didn’t care for it and still snuck in to check out the place. Although it was cloudy and kind of
rainy the beach was pretty clean and seemed like a nice place to hang out… or fish. It was still too cold to swim, so we didn’t spend much time there… just a quick look.

The campsites are

semi-secluded, pretty large, and divided by a few bushes. There wasn’t much dead wood to burn nor do I recommend running into thick bush for it after Karen found a tick on our mattress in the morning. Since we went there in the off-season, or pre-season, which ever you prefer to call it, the park wasn’t packed so it’s hard to give it more a accurate “serenity” rating.

Overall,

the park is huge! The staff was very friendly and helpful for checking in without any reservations. They have paved trails for those who are afraid to get dirty, primitive campsites for the youth (teach ‘em young!), kayak rentals, fishing piers, basketball courts, air pumping stations for bicyclists, and more.

If you’re camping out with kids,

make sure you check out Lewis, a proper all American town with little restaurants, coffee shops, souvenir gifts, mini botanical garden/parks, and the pretty cool Zwaanendael museum (which is free, but making a donation is suggested) with findings of the first settlers, articles from sunken ships, and a kids workshop on the second floor.

First Landing State Park (Virginia Beach VA) review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, VirginiaOn01 May 201118 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 1
Environment & Nature: 4
Available Activities: 5
Staff & Park Officials: 5
Accessibility: 5

First Landing State Park

(also known as Seashore State Park) is a pretty cool park located right on beautiful Virginia beach. Don’t expect any solitude/privacy because the campsites are on top of each other (literary). I was woken up at 6am by my neighbor, 4ft away from my tent, packing up his truck. The only reason why I gave it a 1 was because some other sites on this campgrounds seem to have a bush or two in between them.

The campgrounds

do not have any dry wood around. I was forced to go up to the camp store (that closes at 9PM) and buy 2 overpriced bundles. Thankfully the park doesn’t have any ticks but the ranger told me they do however have chiggers. I found that out after I went into the woods trying to get some free dry wood.

The park offers

boating, swimming, nature and history programs, hiking, biking, picnicking, a boat launch, cabins and 20 miles of trails. My
favorite activity was the beautiful clean beach. Instead of hiking to it through the campground, we decided to drive a little farther down and park in the residential area. Once we got to the beach it was quiet and empty, even though it was well over 80°F out — probably because it was Monday morning.

Accessing the park is very simple. It’s 5 min off of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.

Big Bend Campground (WV) review

ByPaulInCampgrounds, Campgrounds & Trails, Legacy Posts, West VirginiaOn01 May 201118 Feb 2018

Solitude/privacy: 4
Environment & Nature: 5
Available Activities: 5
Staff & Park Officials: 5
Accessibility: 3

This campground is located

on the Potomac River in Smoke Hole Canyon. It’s a bit of a tricky place to get to but once you do you won’t want to leave. They offer fishing, hunting, kayaking, water tubing, and some trails to be tackled. We got there at 2 o’clock in the morning, exhausted from our travels; the camp hosts were already asleep and we didn’t want to disturb them. We took a ride around the first level of the campground and the loop was filled with RVs & Mobile Homes which made me wonder if we were at the right place. Once we exited the loop we found out there was a road going up to other levels, so we took it and grabbed one of the first spots that were available. We quickly set up and went to sleep. In the morning we heard an ATV pull up to our tent and a voice of a woman emerged asking us if we were awake. It was the camp host. She was very sweet and polite, thanked us for not waking her in the middle of the night and told us the amount due for the spot per night ($18).

The check out time was 1pm.

It gave us plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful nature. Smoke Hole Canyon is connected to the George Washington National Forest so the scenery is incredible. The campsites were not on top of each other (which made me happy, even though it was Tuesday and no one else was camping out near us). Each site was connected to the main camp road with driveways and separated with thick bush and trees. If we had any neighbors, we would not see them nor probably hear them that much.

Although we were staying there

only for a few hours and since it was pre-season time, we did not get a chance to do any of the activities, but judging by the environment, activities like fishing or kayaking would have been incredible.

Getting to the park, however, was a tricky situation. The first half of the road was very curvy and mountainous (a lot of up and downs)… kind of made me sick The second half was a lot worse – it was gravel road (about 5 miles). Gravel is not necessarily bad but it was so bumpy, I couldn’t do more than 12 mph and in some spots 5 mph seemed too fast. There were parts where I feared for my 10 year old car. On the way back, we were going during the day and the nature was beautiful. Even though it was such a bumpy road, it was totally worth it.