camp ground guides

[CC_Turtle]

Hello,

what campground guides do you all use? I am very new at camping with a TM and am not sure how to find the best places to use it in southern california.. what resource do you like the best.. i need info about dogs, ammenities, etc... thanks!

I use the Woodall's Campground Directory, and word of mouth. :)
Red

[CC_Turtle]

thanks.. i will check out yahoos.. we mostly camp... and since we are new at having a trailer.. we camp somewhat close to home :) until i can get used to pulling the trailer.

thanks again,
teresa

[Windbreaker]

Ditto Texas, mostly.

I use the Good Sam's guide and have found it truthful. Just make sure you know how to read it.

Now for the mostly. Some times it is hard for me to understand what someone is trying to tell me about a place. Once a guy said the road to it takes a little getting use to. Translation, plan on driving that last 50 miles at 30 mph. Another time the guy said I never used the showers there, translation - if you do you will die from some little know, very painful disease - most likely rot slowly from the outside inward.

If you can hear what folks are really saying you'll do fine but if you are like me, work on your understanding skills.

[efelker]

Windy:

I hear you... I'm from the PA Dutch area. When you'd ask an old farmer for directions they'd usually say, "Oh, it's don the rood a piece." Translation: Drive down this road about 40 miles further.

[Happytrails]

Also be careful of Mapquest.com directions, they put us 50 miles out of our way and smack dab in the middle of "sniper alley" in MD during all that mess last October because the directions were completely wrong! Ended up spending the night in a motel due to there not being any campgrounds anywhere close, we had run out of gas at Tyson's Corner in DC, it was drawing on nighttime, (driving on a beltway jam packed with other cars towing a TM isn't much fun at night), and we were completely lost and very tired in the middle of Baltimore, MD!

Happytrails.........

[kdrickard]

We have a guide called, "Foghorn Outdoors, California Camping". It divides California into 16 or so regions, so there is probably a section or two, three, etc. that covers the areas you are interested in. It has little icons for each campground that show at a glance the basic facilities -- one of which is a little dog icon for pets. It gives a more in depth narative description that seems a bit more comprehensive than the Woodalls. We picked it up browsing at Barnes and Noble; ISBN 1-56691-486-8 in case you want to look for it on the Internet.

Kevin

[BobWilson]

We are in the San Diego area and use the AAA Camping maps. There is one for Southern CA and Northern CA. The map give specific details in a chart form on the back. It gives the campgrounds that allow pets and how much per pet. It catagorizes by National Park, State Park, Forest Service, County Parks and a few private campgrounds. For conventional RV Parks it is best to use Woodalls or similar guide. Go to Camping World and look at the materials available.

What is doesn't tell you, is what the campground looks like or the size of the sites. so you have to take a chance on that. But most government campgrounds are pretty nice. Weekends are going to be full and some take reservations. We prefer not to make reservations but arrive Sunday afternoon or during the week.

Today it was 110 deg F in San Bernardino. I drove up to check out a couple of campgrounds in the mountains there. Temp at Dogwood Forest Service was 86 deg. At Green Valley a little higher up it was 76 deg F. There were plenty of spots available for the week but the weekends are full. Call for information on the AAA map. The roads are steep up to the San Bernadino Mountains, so I hope you have a good tow vehicle. But they aren't far away from you. National Forest, CA State Parks, and National Parks all have websites for information. You will have to consider length of the site required with both trailer and tow vehicle. Sometimes you can overhang the end of the parking spot and sometimes not, due to the trees (at Dogwood Forest Service campground for example). Also it is always good to check at a ranger station for campgrounds and info.

Hope this helps. Happy researching.
Bob W.

[2619PDX]

We use Woodall's and KOA guides. Have been very helpful in our travels...

Gregg

[Windbreaker]

I'm not overly fond of most KOAs they tend to charge more and don't provide as much as many private campgrounds. Very little local flavor. If you can find a good mom and pop setup that's for me! You find out all of the good stuff in the area that is not in the guide books.

[2619PDX]

Windbreaker. I completely agree with you on the mom & pop type campgrounds.

During our vacation, thanks to Woodall's, we stayed mostly in this kind of RV campground, and it was great and affordable.

Plus you get to meet some neat people that way too.

When we're travelling a lot like we did on our Arizona trip, we found it really helpful to have the Woodall's guide along.

Gregg

[Steverino]

I'm from the PA Dutch area. When you'd ask an old farmer for directions they'd usually say, "Oh, it's don the rood a piece." Translation: Drive down this road about 40 miles further.


I'm from the same area. When we moved here from L.A., it took a while to get used to the country roads. Directions would often be "...make a left at the cows by the white fence..." sort of thing. Also, many roads here are marked by little green signs that are either (a) obscured, (b) turned 90 degrees by some joker, or (c) you have some nut job right on your tail and by the time you can read the fine print, it's too late!! Don't get me wrong - it's a great area - signage and road conditions are just my pet peeves... ;D

[efelker]

Steveerino:

Any of those old farmers help you back the TM into your driveway by giving you directions? I'm sure they'd say, "Come ahead back."

[mjlaupp]

Directions would often be "...make a left at the cows by the white fence..." sort of thing.

Don't knock it. At the time of day you asked for directions, the farmer knows the cows will be by the white fence. If you asked for the same directions at some other time of day, then you would be pointed to another landmark. ;)

MJL

[B_and_D]

I also vote for the Foghorn campground guides. Have the one from CA (on our third now, 760 + pages) and also the Pacific NW edition. They show SO many campgrounds, and give you a pretty good idea of what they are like, not only from amenities standpoint, but from the aspect of what would appeal to your sense of what makes a great place to camp. To the credit of the Foghorn series, at least in Northern Ca, we seldom find a campground not listed in the book.

My dream job...traveling from campground to campground, writing the whole trip off, including a Sec. 179 rapid writeoff on the TM, to write and publish a camping guide. Sigh...but it would be really hard to compete with those Foghorn books. IRS would probably say it was a hobby loss. >:(

Another guide we've used is the "Recreation Lakes of California". One summer we did a "Lake Trip" and visited a lot of the lakes in this guide. It describes the fishing and boating aspects of each lake.

[grayghost]

steverino wrote:
by the time you can read the fine print, it's too late!! Don't get me wrong - it's a great area - signage and road conditions are just my pet peeves

steverino - i just read a good hint for driving on highways and trying to determine when you should get into the turnoff lane to exit - the passenger uses a pair of binoculars to see the signs way before you approach it, so that there is enough time to get over.

[Windbreaker]

Or you could do as we do. Consider each wrong turn an adventure, we see our best stuff on wrong turns. Remember the road not taken this trip must be taken next trip.

[2619PDX]

Windbreaker. I like that. During our recent 2 week trip to Arizona and California, we purposely took the backroads from our home in Portland, Oregon.

It's the road less travelled, you know? Man did we see some pretty country too!

ALL - What is FOG HORNS travel guide anyway? Not familiar with that one...

Gregg

[B_and_D]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566914868/steinede-20/102-9535492-5896936

Amazon.com's list of the Foghorn/other camping guides

The Foghorn guides we have are by Tom Stienstra. The reviews call them the "campers bible" and I have to agree (I think that's what they meant, spelled it "bilble").

here is Tom's site (new from the last time I did a search)
http://www.tomstienstra.com/

We are lost without this guide, at least in CA.

[Russ-Bett]

We have been using the following guides:

Passport America -- if you are a member of Passport America, you can get 50% off on the parks in their guide.

Woodall -- we use this to confirm the quality of site we are getting in the Passport Americ guide, since they have more detail than the PA guide - plus if there isn't a PA site where we want to go, we go to a Woodall site.

Finally, we go to the KOA guide -- we use KOA if there isn't another site in the area we want to go. So far our experience has been that they are more expensive than other parks -- however, the are clean and safe.

[Windbreaker]

I've never used Woodalls, do you get the 10% discount with them like you do with the Good Sams?

[saswine]

I use two very helpful guides--Anderson"s camping & RV park travel directory and Woodall's.
Another source is the State welcome center----Great FREE directories!!

[borgman]

I have been very impressed with "The Unofficial Guide to the Best RV and Tent Campgrounds in the USA, 1st Edition" ,published by Frommer's Guide Series. in 2002. For a large number of campgrounds, they have had inspection teams on site, and discuss where the best places to camp are in the campground, how friendly the owners are, what locations to avoid, and so forth. They give good maps, and rate many campgrounds from a large variety of viewpoints, including scenary, beauty, privacy, cleanliness, and many more categories. It is the most detailed description of the basic "intrinsic character" of each campground that I have seen anywhere. If a campground is just a parking lot, it says so, without pulling punches. If there is a better campground nearby, it says that you are better off going another 15 miles to the alternative campground. Incidently, it doesn't take advertising, so it is not beholden to anybody and can be very candid.

Best Wishes
WyomingRockHound

[jniles]

Do they rate government (city, state, and fed) owned campgrounds? If so where do I find one?

[CC_Turtle]

Hi WyomingRockHound,

does the guide also let you know if dogs are allowed?

thanks,
Teresa

[Larry_Loo]

We used Trailer Life's Directory for 2 years until we stayed at a Kennesaw, Georgia RV park that was highly rated by Trailer Life's staff. We had reserved a space for a week's stay there based on their high ratings. It turned out to be the worst RV park we've ever stayed in! One of the more vocal RVers even wrote a sarcastic criticism of the RV park on a bathroom mirror with a felt pen. It was obvious that Trailer Life's staff did not make an on-site evaluation of this place for their directory.

Now we're using Woodalls directory to see if their ratings are more accurate. I don't intend to be misled again by Trailer Life. :( :(

[borgman]

Hello Teresa, John, and Karen

Yes, it lists regulations on pets. Most say "pets on leash, cleaned up after". I saw one that said "pets on leashes, 6 ft. or less".

Mostly, it lists commercial campgrounds. State Parks and Forest service campgrounds appear largely absent. I checked for Kurt Gowdy State Park, between Laramie and Cheyenne, and couldn't find it.

I am looking at the book now.1174 pages, 8.5 by 11 inches. I opened it at random, and ended up in the write-up for Waterfront Park, Seward, Alaska. It has a 3-star rating for RV sites, and a 4-star rating for tent sites. It lists 8 more ratings for the campground

Beauty 5-star
Spaciousness 2-star
Security 2-star
Insect control 3-star
Site privacy 1-star
Quiet 2-star
Cleanliness 2-star
Facilities 3-star

Then it has paragraphs on (1) General description, (2) Basics, (3) Facilities, (4) Restrictions (pets - on 6-ft. leash, fires - in pits only, ages - no alcoholic beverages allowed, maximum length - no restrictions, back-in sites only, Other - Quiet hours 11pm-7am.), and (5) How to get there

I get the impression that it is very specific and candid, letting the chips fall where they may. Readers can leaf around and try to located a campground with high ratings in whatever aspect of camping they desire.

The drawback to the book is that it doesn't list all existing campgrounds. But it seems to list most areas that I frequent. It tries to mitigate this fault by giving a supplementary list of additional campgrounds without the full treatment of the main listings. I guess that they will add more main listings in future editions. The book that I have was published in 2002.

Hope this helps you evaluate whether you want to go to the trouble of acquiring this guide. I just checked Amazon.com and they list the new price at $21.99 but are selling new copies for $15.39 and have some used copies starting at $13.99. Happy camping!

Best Wishes,
WyomingRockHound

[jniles]

WyomingRockHound, Thanks for the info. We may try this one. Almost all of the good (I know the TX guys say there are not any good ones in OK) campgrounds in OK are US or State owned and never rated even though listed. Hmmmmm . . . . wonder if there is a 1st Amendment issue there somewhere. Probably not. Just the IRS lurking.

[Northwoods]

Found out today (3/15/04) that a brand-new edition of the Frommer's Guide is to be released in late April. We'll wait to get that edition on your recommendation. Missouri has excellent info on State Parks on the State Park Website, but then we love this state. Olga (Northwoods)

[Sinclue]

CC

I second the endorsement of the California Camping book (Foghorn Press) by Tom Stienstra. It is very useful and right on target. But it is generally oriented towards tenting so most commercial RV parks (ie places with lots of hookups, etc) are not included. If thats the way you want to go then one of the big books (Woodalls, GoodSam, CampingWorld) is what you should look into. You can see them all and compare them at a Camping World store. We also use the AAA info. They have both a booklet and two very useful camping maps (Southern & Central Ca. and Northern Ca).

If you travel with dogs as we do then I'd add The California Dog Lover's Companion by Maria Goodavage and DogFriendly.com's California & Nevada Dog Travel Guide. They also have Dog travel guides for other parts of the US. They are especially useful to us because they have a list of local vets and emergency vets. One of our dogs has seizures (idiopathic epilepsy) and although we are able to deal with them effectively it is good to know that we could locate a "local" vet quickly if needed.

jp

[jquigley]

My wife and I use the Good Sam online Trip Planning guide. It has been really helpful we also get our directions to the camps they have an excellent trip guide and even give you the current price of gas on the road. Another great resource is the National Park Service online. The url is: http://www.nps.gov/ they have listings for all the parks. You can search by zip code, by geographic location (State). There is lots of information as well.
We also have the 2004 Trailer Life Directory, which has proven to be an invaluable asset.
Happy camping.
John & Yvonne Quigley