If You Had To Choose Just ONE ?

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UK-RV

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Hi

We will be over in early January to start our 12-18 month RV tour of the US and Canada.

A question for you all (which will hopefully help us too)....

If you had to choose just ONE campground, which would it be, where, and why ?

Thanks

Paul
 
We would choose Mueller State Park near Divide Colorado. Scenery is outstanding. 55 miles of hiking trails in the park and loads more near by. Lots of interesting things to see in the area.

The downside? You will need to make reservations several months in advance. Colorado State Parks take reservations up to six months prior to arrival date and this is a really popular park. Also, elevation at the park is around 9,300 feet. Expect is to get cool at night! Really cool in the shoulder seasons.
 
Paul

I'm sure you'll get some good suggestions here such as Dave's but, before making reservations anywhere, make sure they can accomodate whatever length of coach you buy. The state parks in many states, including California, have "max RV length" restrictions, usually because the sites aren't physically long enough. Some, but not all, Oregon state parks we've visited have sites 60-80 feet long, whereas some others we had to pass up were restricted to 35 feet or even less.. I haven't stayed at state parks in other states, so can't really comment. Also be aware that facilities will vary significantly, from full hookups with 50 amp electricity at most, but not all, private campgrounds to no hookups at National Forest campgrounds.

You might want to order one of the large campground directories such as Woodalls or Trailer Life to read the details of recommendations you receive in addition to contact/reservation info. You have plenty of time, so have them send it via the slow boat.
 
Our most favorite campground is Devil's Garden in Arches National Park (SE Utah). We even have a favorite lot there. Getting a spot requires being at the park entrance at 7:30AM (that was two years ago, maybe it has been changed).
Fantastic scenery and hikes!

Elly
 
If you had to choose just ONE campground, which would it be, where, and why ?

That is so heavily weather dependent in the US, especially the West, that I have to give you two at least.

Winter? Palm Canyon Resort in Borrego Springs CA.? ?This is a decently sited and run commercial RV park with spa and pool sitting in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert State Park:? 625,000 acres of Colorado Desert.? ?You are in the best area I know of to come in contact with the American desert.? Vehicular access in street legal vehicles is allowed in most of the park on designated trails.? ?Commercial 4WD tours are available.? ?The night sky is stunning.? Sunsets are glorious.? ?The little town of Borrego Springs has a nice natural history museum and store and the park has an excellent interpretive program.? ?All sorts of drives, hikes, walks, and presentations.? ?Death Valley is more famous, but Anza Borrego is more accessable.? ?I took a couple of Brits there (Glaswegians) and they were overwhelmed by the experience.? You cannot get much different from Ayrshire.

Summer? Highlands RV Park in Bishop, CA or Mammoth Mountain RV Park in Mammoth Lakes, CA.? ?Either of these two parks give you access to the glorious and largely wild main crest of the Eastern Sierra Nevada.? ?Highlands is the better park in terms of facilities.? ?It at the edge of a town.? Mammoth sits in a pine forest.? ?Highlands is at 4000 feet and will be warm but dry (90?F and maybe 30-40%).? ? Mammoth is at 7800 feet? and will be cooler but even drier.(70-80?F and 20-30%).? ?Day trips will give you access to the high country of Bishop Pass, Devils Postpile NM, the unearthly Mono Lake, the genuine western ghost town of Bodie, the little meadow town of Bridgeport.? ?The place is paved with gorgeous alpine lakes and snow capped peaks rearing up 12,000 to 14, 592 feet -- two miles above the? Owens Valley that Bishop sits in.? ?

The fishing, for rainbow and brown trout is superb -- streams, rivers, and lakes.? Unlike the UK most fishing is freely accessible and the licenses are cheap -- a 10-day non-resident fishing license costs $33.50, 2-day $16.80,? 1-day? $10.75.? ?Trout respond well to baits like cheese, marshmellows, and even worms.? ?Nothing beats fresh caught trout, rolled in cornmeal and sauteed in butter for breakfast.? ?;D? ? Spinning tackle is cheap enough to pitch at the end of your trip.? ?

Both of my sets of recommendations are not famous places that are on the must-do tourist list.? But either of them will well reward a week's stopover and both will give you a good in depth exposure to the American West -- especially Bishop, CA.

 

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Thanks for those recommendations guys.

Anyone else have a BEST CAMPGROUND they care to share - I promise to keep it between just you and I so as not to make it too crowded on your next visit (well you, I and the forum anyway  ;D)

Thanks

Paul

PS I got Streets & Trips the other day. You cannot imagine the fun Im having trying to route nearly every US State plus Canada and trying to time each in line with the seasons and not overstaying our time in the US (we are limited to 6 months at a time and will have to keep crossing the border and then re-applying to come back in) - FUN !!
 
If it is in the summer or Fall our favorite campground is Limehurst Lake South of Williamsburg Vt.  which is south of Barrie Vt.  Absolutely beautifully when the leaves are in their fall colors.
 
Hi Paul

To Date we have visited 35th States and 126 campgrounds. Most campgrounds we have stayed for 3-5 days, not because we didn?t like them, but we had seen all the sights in the area we had planned to visit.
Well that was until a month ago when we arrived at the PLATTE RIVER campground located inside the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park.
We checked in for 2 nights and after 8 nights we were still there. The campground is on the North Shoreline of West Michigan, if you look at a map and go directly west of the town called Treverse City out to the shore of Lake Michigan you can?t miss it. It is part of America?s National Park system so we would advice you buy and annual parks pass for $50. This gives you unlimited entrance to all the National Parks and monuments in the US for a year. This will save you $10 entrance fee at the campground, the campground has 160 sites . About 40 of the sites can be reversed and the rest are on a first come first served basis, the campground is so popular it fills up every night of the week. To dry campground was $16 a night and for a site with electric ( no sites have water ) was $21, you are limited to a maximum stay of 14 nights, this is very normal for National Park campgrounds. The size of your rig will be no problem here, very large sites with huge wooded areas between you are your neighbours, there was even an area to the rear of the site with a fire ring and picnic so big it felt like you had your own little back garden.

The sights to see in the area are beautiful, the campsite is a bike ride away from the beach on lake Michigan which we rode down every night to watch the sunset.The lake is so blue and clear with a sandy bottom we thought we were back in the Bahamas. The water is better than any ocean as there is no horrible salty taste and the temperature was just right. If we weren?t on the beach for the day then we would be floating down the Platte river in our blow up dingy which is right next to the campground, the river after an hours run dumps out into Lake Michigan.
The park is called Sleeping Bear Dunes as it has the largest sand dune we had ever seen, it stands 450ft high above Lake Michigan and if you have a few hours to spare you can climb down to the coast line and back up again.
This would be a site to visit end of July early August ( unless you fancy snowmobiling for the winter), so I would slot it in for summer next year. On the way up to Sleeping Bear you could stop and camp at the town of Silver Lake, also on the west coast, where you can rent a dune buggy and go out on the huge dunes there.

We have put together a list of all the campgrounds we have stayed in with phone numbers and prices. We are out here till May 2006 or could be longer ?????, if you ever need advice on where to stay in a town or state drop us a line.
Maybe we will bump in to you on the road next year and we could exchange stories around a campfire.

Cheers

Julea & Alan Field ( The Brits from Hertfordshire )

1995 Ford F350 PSD Dually
2000 Fleetwood Prowler 5th Wheel 35.5y LSI


 
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