State Parks

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Asabound

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Feb 25, 2011
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How many of you use state parks near your home for a cost effective weekend getaway with kids ??
 
We do - COE parks as well.  They are even cheaper, especially with my Senior Pass card.  In fact, we use state & national parks almost exclusively.  Most have more "elbow" room than many private parks.
 
We do, we luckily have several really nice "state" parks within 1 hour of our house. 
 
My wife and I have recently found two very nice Virginia State Parks within 100 miles of Washington DC.  Both on the water and as good as you could ask for.
 
Dan T said:
My wife and I have recently found two very nice Virginia State Parks within 100 miles of Washington DC.  Both on the water and as good as you could ask for.
Click to expand...
Have you checked out Prince William Forest?  DW & I will be campground hosts there Aug, Sept. & Oct.  Curious about what you think of the park.
 
we certainly use state parks near home

but not for weekend getaway with kids - just us  :)

pdq
 
There are some very nice state parks not far from here. Larrabee is near Bellingham and Deception Pass, a particularly beautiful area, is only a few hours away. Both tend to get very busy in the summer months being close to Vancouver BC and Seattle.
 
Asabound said:
How many of you use state parks near your home for a cost effective weekend getaway with kids ??
Click to expand...

No kids but we love state parks and use them frequently in the states where we travel. Federal campgrounds are also high on our list of places to stay.

Wendy
 
We use state parks here in our home state of Colorado more often than any other parks when we camp in Colorado. There are dozens of very nice state parks here in every part of the state.
We also stay in some of the National Parks in Colorado but there are not as many as state parks.
 
Here in my area of SC we are blessed with some beautiful COE parks, coupled with the Senior Pass you can't beat.  The State Parks that lease from the COE honor the pass at 25% which is the same discount at 65 years of age.  The Senior Discounts very per state , Tennessee doesn't appear to have a Senior Discount (nonresidents) that I can see, but do have a Veteran's Discount of 15-25%.  Ohio is another with a resident discount, they appear to honor Passport America(for my limited use 1 to 2 times year)  I don't have.  It just pays to plan ahead and research each state.  My preference is COE, Federal,State Park and Private in that order. 
 
Prince William Forest Park is just a few miles from my home.  I drove through the campground for the first time a few weeks ago.  It's big attraction is that it is near I95 and about 30 miles from Washington DC.  It doesn't seem to offer much in the way of amenities or things to do other than hike/bike to forest trails. 

I didn't care for the campground.  Prince William Forest Park itself is a nice one-day visit.  It's a hardwood forest with plenty of gentle to moderate walking and biking trails and a good chance to see deer, turkey vultures and large predatory birds.  Unless your intent is to park and take a toad into DC, or limit your visit to one overnight stay, I'd suggest visiting one of the VA state parks instead.

If you decide you want to visit the sights in DC I suggest you take the metro into town.  The nearest stop along the I-95 corridor from the south is at the Springfield/Franconia metro station just south of the DC beltway.  There is always something interesting to see and do in DC.

Dan
 
One of the big draws in DC is watching sausage being made. 

Seriously, using the metro is great, my one time I found it very easy and quite useful.  Visit the Viet Nam Wall.  The other monuments, the Smithsonian...  Other than the tranquility of Grand Canyon or Yellowstone, it is a place that can take forever to really see. 

Myself, give me the tranquility.

 
There is an article in our library here that has information on discounts offered by federal and state campgrounds. Be sure and let me know if you find any more information at the parks so we can update the article.

Wendy
 
We buy a yearly pass to the New Mexico State Parks and visit five or six of them a year for four to seven days each.
For an old guy like me the pass costs $100 a year and gets free camping unless the site has electricity then it's $4.00 a night.

It's a good deal and the environment is more like camping than an overnight camp ground by a freeway.

We see State Parks as a destination not a lay over.
 
On our big trip last summer we stayed in state and national parks almost exclusively.  We stayed in 2 Oregon State Parks that were both fantastic, we stayed in Kalaloch, and Jedediah Smith State Park.  Locally we stay have stayed in 4 state parks and just scouted out another one this weekend.  While we do have a RPI Preferred membership the state and national parks are still high on our list of places to stay.

Jeff
 
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