A Few of our Favorite State Park Campgrounds

Posted in Florida, Georgia, South Dakota, State Parks, Sunset, Washington, WildlifeTagged , , , , , , , ,

We love camping in state parks. Most state parks we have found have big sites, beautiful surroundings, and wildlife.

We didn’t discover state park camping until the only place we could find to stay in Arkansas on our way home on our first RV trip was Lake Dardanelle State Park in Russellville, Arkansas.  Our site was big, we weren’t lined up like sardines next to our neighbors, and we had a nice lake near our site. From that night on, we have looked for state parks whenever we travel.

Here are just a few state parks we love.

Custer State Park, Custer, South Dakota – the Black Hills, scenic drives and wildlife.

Mama bison with baby on Custer State Park Wildlife Loop Road in June, 2011
Custer State Park Game Lodge Campground Site 12
Mount Rushmore as seen from Iron Mountain Road in Custer State Park
Along the Needle Highway in Custer State Park
Needle’s Eye on Needles Highway in Custer State Park

Cape Disappointment State Park, Ilwaco, Washington – 2 lighthouses, a path to the beach behind our full hook up campsite, a dog friendly beach on the Pacific Ocean, and  a Lewis and Clark museum. What’s not to love?

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, WA
North Head Lighthouse seen from beach at Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington
Blondie enjoyed the beach at Cape Disappointment
A path to the beach was behind our site at Cape Disappointment State Park
Henry enjoying a beautiful sunset at Cape Disappointment

St. Joseph Peninsula, Port St. Joe, Florida in Florida’s Forgotten Coast – beautiful uncrowded white sandy beaches, nature trails, and sunsets.

Enjoying a January day at St. Joseph Peninsula
We could hear the waves from our campsite
We had the beach almost to ourselve
Deer at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park
We watched the sunset every night

Stephen C. Foster State Park, Fargo, Georgia – Huge sites in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Boat ride through the Okefenokee Swamp
Big Pull through site at Stephen C. Foster State Park, Georgia
Alligator in the Okefenokee Swamp
Alligator in the Okefenokee Swamp

Other state parks that stand out are Itasca State Park in Minnesota, Claytor Lake State Park in Virginia, Beverly Beach and Humbug Mountain State Parks in Oregon, Kentucky Horse Park in Kentucky, and Cattail Cove State Park in Arizona. We’ve also camped in many Florida and Georgia state parks and love them all.

If you are an RV’er or tent camper and never stayed in a state park, give one a try on your next trip. And if you don’t camp, many state parks have cabins for rent and a few even have lodges.

12 thoughts on “A Few of our Favorite State Park Campgrounds”

    1. Another of our favorites is in your beautiful state of Alaska – Deep Creek Beach State Park in Ninilchik. We would have stayed in more state parks there but our rig was too big to fit in most of them.

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      1. Yes, the view of the volcanoes across the Inlet from Ninilchik is spectacular. Byers Lake is another of our favorite Alaska state campgrounds, with great hiking up Kesugi Ridge and a pristine lake for kayaking or canoeing (with a view of Denali from the lake that is breathtaking).
        We purposely bought a small trailer so that we could fit into state and national park (and forest service) campgrounds. It’s a small living space, but it works for us. So far we are happy with the choice, but after a year or so we may feel otherwise!

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  2. We feel the same way about National Forest campsites! For the first 30 years our camping was done in tents and we were looking to get away from it all. Moving to a pop-up was a bit of a change but we could still fit in many of those sites. Now that we have an RV, we do check out state parks with hook ups or RV parks. We find we no longer fit in the sites at our early favorite places.

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    1. Holly, there are a lot of places we don’t fit. I research the ones I’m interested in. I use recreation.gov for the federal parks we are interested in and look at the site size. For state parks I go to their state reservation system website to be sure. I have even called parks to ask for the best sites for our size rig. Most of the state parks where we’ve stayed had electricity, some water and electric, and some even had full hookups. We’ve dry camped in a few and for a couple of days it is worth it! It just depends on where it is. We are going to try a few county parks on our next trip.

      Have fun on your fall trip!

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      1. Our priorities have changed, along with our rig. Now, John looks for RV spots by where the internet signal is the strongest. He spends a lot of time online and when the wifi is good, we like to stream from Netflix. Definitely a far cry from our days in tents with no water or electric!
        Have a grand time Beth, and happy campsite uHunting!

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