Which sort of camping do you prefer? Do you insist on full hookups, an all - out resort where they deliver food and firewood to your campsite, or do you prefer a more rustic campsite?
Hubby likes full hookups. I like more rustic, where I can get up in the morning and not have to find campers as far as the eye can see.
Full hookups
I like both depending on the circumstances. If I'm covering distance (a string of one night stays) then I like hookups. But once I'm at my destination I like rustic.
[p]I like rustic. In order of rusticity:[/p][p]
National Forest boondocking: I have only done this a few times, but in the National Forests, you can pull off anywhere as long as you don't block the road. I have stayed at some pristine places, next to a creek with no one for miles around. Rare though and you have to work to find places like that.
National Forest Campsites, particularly those with no running water, just hand pumps.
National Parks, mostly because they have beautiful scenery nearby. Campsites are a little tightly packed.
State Parks: some as good as NFS, some like commercial RV parks.
When going cross country, I stay at WalMarts. No check in and can pull in any time. Easy in and easy out in the morning.
In more than 150 nights of RV camping over the last ten years, I stayed in a full hook up RV park three times. Once in Montana to change the oil on my TV, do laundry, etc. Once in Las Vegas to get to the Strip easily and once in Newport Beach, Ca as a destination- the most expensive by far.
David[/p]
We generally stay in designated campgrounds and they usually do not offer full hookups though Canyon Point campground does have electric sites. We have stayed in several state parks but we have selected mostly unimproved sites but several times we have dropped stabilizer's with the "fleet" as they call full hookups (utilities) shore power.
Boondocking seems to be in our future. We like the solitude of nature, although we play well with others and generally learn from people we meet. I love to listen to a fascinating story about someone's life or adventures. We should have a winter rally.
Cosby Campground in the GSMNP is an example of a park that is a boondocking park but is a great park to camp at in a national park.
http://www.recreation.gov/tn/cosby/campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70960
Rustic, no hookups necessary.
Rustic - I tend to camp in state parks and national forest campgrounds. I stayed for the first time in an RV park this past May near Charleston, and while it was nice enough, it was clearly not our style. You hear generators all day and night, not crickets or any nature. Coming from tent camping, the QS10 is like a palatial tent on wheels but we still go camping to get away from civilization and closer to nature.
I do, however, appreciate a bath house and clean water nearby.
[quote source="/post/3129/thread" timestamp="1409522777" author="@subaruwx"]I stayed for the first time in an RV park this past May near Charleston, and while it was nice enough, it was clearly not our style. You hear generators all day and night, not crickets or any nature. [/quote]Why would someone run their generator at an RV park? Did the RV park not have electrical hookups?
Also, every single campground I've stayed at has quiet hours where generator usage isn't allowed. Typically that starts a 7-8pm and goes until 8 or so the next morning.
I think this campground had full hookups at almost every site, but we still heard RV engines and generators all day and night. And I remember seeing something about quiet hours, but I guess that didn't include power generation. That said, the kids really enjoyed the swimming pool at this campground - not something found at more rustic sites.
Quote from: @subaruwx" source="/post/3137/thread" timestamp="1409572479I think this campground had full hookups at almost every site, but we still heard RV engines and generators all day and night. And I remember seeing something about quiet hours, but I guess that didn't include power generation. That said, the kids really enjoyed the swimming pool at this campground - not something found at more rustic sites.
I've never seen that at any other RV park. We stay at them when we're on the go because they're usually quiet and convenient for a quick one night stop (near major roads, level pads, easy to maneuver in, playgrounds for the kids to get out all their saved up energy). Can you share the park name so the rest of us can avoid it?
Oak Plantation campground SW of Charleston. It had trees, it had grass, and the sites didn't seem on top of each other. I think if I had been in a TT, 5th wheel, or Class A like everyone else, I might not have noticed the noise. But in tent on wheels, you hear everything.
Some of the more "rustic" sites in the state parks here in Florida have a limited number of full hookups and a lot with electric and water with a nearby dump station. I don't really consider those resort RV parks, since there are no pools, games, other things to do, etc. You have to love the outdoors to enjoy them. That said, we do enjoy going to Fort Wilderness at Disney (we go a lot since my wife works there). It would definitely be considered a resort, and is NICE. Even at that, Fort Wilderness has a very rustic feel, and seems like it is miles away from the madness in the theme parks. In 10 days, we are heading to the Grand Canyon and will be staying at Trailer Village, another campground I would consider rustic and not a resort.
I guess what I am trying to say is a rustic setting and full hookups are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Somewhere in between. Food and firewood deliveries ?
We've been to two resorts - one had water and electric but nothing else at the site. The other had sewer and TV.
The rest of our camping has been state parks, all of which so far have been level, paved pads, electricity and water. Three had sewer and one even had TV !
We are happy enough with water and electricity. We very much want a little space around our site, but also enjoy meeting other campers.
What I dislike about resorts is the ones that are basically a parking lot, you could walk from roof to roof.
I think we may play with some boondocking next year, given the right weather conditions and trip duration.
Grand Canyon Trailer Village is rustic? You and I have very different definitions of rustic.
David
[quote source="/post/3180/thread" timestamp="1409659221" author="@david"]
Grand Canyon Trailer Village is rustic? You and I have very different definitions of rustic.
David
[/quote]
I certainly don't consider it a resort. If boondocking is the only form of rustic, then I do have a different view. To me a resort would have enough amenities to make it a destination in itself. As I said, we go to Disney's Fort Wilderness frequently. That is a resort, and as such we often spend a long weekend never leaving the campground. We can hike, swim, use the hot tub, etc. Trailer Village has full hookups and that is about it. The campground does not have showers, unless one wants to walk over to Mathers Campground and spend $2 for a short shower. Sure they are packed together, but the attraction is not the campground, it is being a half mile from the rim.
Guess rustic is in the eye of the beholder. The original post defined resort as full hookups and to me a campground needs much more than that to be considered a resort.
Ok, yes rustic is in the eye of the beholder. Let me then define degrees of rustic to further the discussion starting with 5 star rustic and working towards less rustic:
***** Remote, pristine, no one within hundreds of yards, and maybe miles. This can really only be found by boondocking in National Forests or BLS lands and you often need 4WD to get there and usually a low profile trailer. But to me, it is the nirvana of camping.
**** Developed campgrounds, but the sites are layed out so that you can't see your neighbor. This is rare in NFS, national or state parks.
*** Developed campgrounds, where the view of your neighbors is only on one side and the other side fronts to a creek, lake, hillside, etc. If the site is layed out properly your RV will block the view towards your neighbors and you have a mostly private site. We have camped several times this summer in state parks with that degree of rusticity in NY and Vt.
** Developed camgrounds where the view is open to your neighbors but the sites are layed out so that you back in off of the access road. You have a picnic table and a fire ring.
* Developed campgrounds where the view is open and the sites are layed out parallel to each other so you can drive through. Often no picnic table and rarely a fire ring. The GC Trailer Village meets this definition.
Notice that I said nothing about hookups in these 5 definitions. I have camped in 3 star destinations with power at the site (but installed discretely) this summer.
Then there are the RV parks with parallel sites with little or no trees in between, concrete pads to drive through, full hookups and often with a swimming pool, playground, horse shoe throwing pits, etc.
And FWIW in my experience with the 16TBS which most people would call a 20'er, I can back in to 90% of the 1-4 star campsites even though they may have been originally layed out for tents. Some campgrounds explicitly limit trailers to 20' max length. A LL 21 which is a 25' by most measures can back in to 80%. A LL 28 really gets limiting and unless you have an unusually deep site and have a good turning radius to back into, you probably need a pull through site.
David
[quote source="/post/3185/thread" timestamp="1409666887" author="@david"]
Ok, yes rustic is in the eye of the beholder. Let me then define degrees of rustic to further the discussion starting with 5 star rustic and working towards less rustic:
***** Remote, pristine, no one within hundreds of yards, and maybe miles. This can really only be found by boondocking in National Forests or BLS lands and you often need 4WD to get there and usually a low profile trailer. But to me, it is the nirvana of camping.
**** Developed campgrounds, but the sites are layed out so that you can't see your neighbor. This is rare in NFS, national or state parks.
*** Developed campgrounds, where the view of your neighbors is only on one side and the other side fronts to a creek, lake, hillside, etc. If the site is layed out properly your RV will block the view towards your neighbors and you have a mostly private site. We have camped several times this summer in state parks with that degree of rusticity in NY and Vt.
** Developed camgrounds where the view is open to your neighbors but the sites are layed out so that you back in off of the access road. You have a picnic table and a fire ring.
* Developed campgrounds where the view is open and the sites are layed out parallel to each other so you can drive through. Often no picnic table and rarely a fire ring. The GC Trailer Village meets this definition.
Notice that I said nothing about hookups in these 5 definitions. I have camped in 3 star destinations with power at the site (but installed discretely) this summer.
Then there are the RV parks with parallel sites with little or no trees in between, concrete pads to drive through, full hookups and often with a swimming pool, playground, horse shoe throwing pits, etc.
And FWIW in my experience with the 16TBS which most people would call a 20'er, I can back in to 90% of the 1-4 star campsites even though they may have been originally layed out for tents. Some campgrounds explicitly limit trailers to 20' max length. A LL 21 which is a 25' by most measures can back in to 80%. A LL 28 really gets limiting and unless you have an unusually deep site and have a good turning radius to back into, you probably need a pull through site.
David
[/quote]
This is a good summary. I like the star rating, including the classification of Trailer Village. This also allows for campgrounds that while not 2 - 5 star rustic, certainly are not resorts.
I also find the taxonomy useful. Most of my camping is **. Sewer and TV are nice to haves. The obstacle we will have to deal with at some point for what I think of as "rustic" is unlevel pads and lack of electric/water. I would feel more adventurous with a second battery and more confidence in being able to prepare and maintain safe water quality in my fresh tank, but really, we normally carry a gallon of home bottled per day for drinking and cooking, and could get by with only using the tank for flushing. That handles any long weekend.
I'm not sure I'd agree with that as the rustic scale. I've been at full hookup sites in rv parks that were 4 star on that scale. It seems more like the privacy scale. Here's my suggested rustic scale:
For each item below you get a point, add them all up and the lower your points the more rustic it is.
[ul type="disc"][li]You're staying at a "site" (not just the side of a forest road)[/li][li]The site can be reserved[/li][li]The site has a picnic table or firepit[/li][li]The site has running water within walking distance[/li][li]There are trash cans within walking distance[/li][li]There's a dump station within a mile[/li][li]There are recreational opportunities nearby (ranger programs, visitor center, playground)[/li][li]The site has electrical hookups[/li][li]The site has water hookups[/li][li]The site has sewer hookups[/li][li]The site is paved[/li][li]The site has cable tv or telephone hookups[/li][li]The campground has a pool[/li][li]You check in at a "front desk"[/li][li]A guy in a golf cart guides you to your site[/li][/ul][div]
On this scale we like to stay at campgrounds that are 7-10 (more on the 7 side though). Feel free to add items to the list.[/div]
DH and I are having this discussion now. Camp Driveway is not available to us, so all of our shakedown time will be in campgrounds. Once we get the camper organized, I want to boondock. My husband doesn't. Compromise is the word...
[p]Last Sunday we camped at Chittenden Brook Campground, a US Forest Service facility in northern Vermont. It definitely rates 4 stars on my list. None of the adjacent campsites are visible from this site. The picture is from the back of the site looking up to the access road. To the back behind the trees about 100' is Chittenden Brook where I caught a 5" trout. Sleeping with the brook bubbling in the background is heavenly. It is one of the prettiest sites I have camped in east of the Mississippi.[/p][p]
[/p][p]David[/p][p]
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[quote source="/post/3493/thread" timestamp="1410369610" author="@david"][p]Last Sunday we camped at Chittenden Brook Campground, a US Forest Service facility in northern Vermont. It definitely rates 4 stars on my list. None of the adjacent campsites are visible from this site. The picture is from the back of the site looking up to the access road. To the back behind the trees about 100' is Chittenden Brook where I caught a 5" trout. Sleeping with the brook bubbling in the background is heavenly. It is one of the prettiest sites I have camped in east of the Mississippi.[/p][p]
[/p][p]David[/p][p]
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[/p][/quote]Looks nice! Funny thing is, I forgot what web site I was on and immediately thought, "Hey! He's got a Camplite."
David, you are boondocking there, right? Looks great. I am going to show this to my husband. He is looking at resorts. I am looking at these wonderful pictures of an RV in a natural setting, no other RV in sight.
What is the road like into the campsite?
leslie:
The entrance road is gravel and about 3 miles long off of paved hwy 73. It is steep in one spot and I had to shift to 4 wheel drive because the front wheels started spinning going up. I probably could have made it in 2 wheel if I had started up the slope with more speed. But if I only had 2 wheel drive and couldn't make it up, it would have been a long back up to get to a turn around. That probably puts off a lot of people.
David
We usually stay in state parks. Most have water and electric. I am currently planning an solar panel/battery system for the winter for lights and charging the phones. Have to have AC 80% of the time in Texas! So most of the time have to have shore power!
Larry:
I grew up in Texas and our family camped in the hill country before air conditioning was invented (or so it seemed). In October there are lots of places you can camp without A/C: Pedernales Falls CG, Lost Maples CG, Garner State Park- an oldie but goodie, Bastrop State Park.
David
I prefer trees, some space between sites, and a clean bath house. Full hookups are not needed. So I guess I fall into the "rustic" definition although we've found a rustic atmosphere in some RV resorts and resort type atmosphere in some state parks.