State and Local Parks Clearance Question - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

State and Local Parks Clearance Question

DebbieM · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bummer. I think just bad luck. I swear sometimes the folks that answer the phones know the least about the park. I like to also try rv review type sites and maybe a couple of other blogs I follow to see if they have any reviews also. Google satellite helps sometimes.

TRAILERKING · RV-Dreams Family Member

Not sure about all around the U.S. but I know up here in Canada it's insane. I swear most of the campgrounds up here are still stuck in the 60's and 70's. A lot of sites are designed for tent trailers. Then if the site is huge and large enough for a big motorhome or fifth wheel, then the trail to get in and out is impossible without "Scratching" the sides of your unit all to hell.

It's the first thing I state on the phone that if the sites and trails in and out are clear enough with no low crowding of branches. There have been some places where we arrived and turned around and left......

-- Edited by TRAILERKING on Sunday 15th of March 2015 09:47:07 PM

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have had this happen a couple of time. I think that some people do not really listen to you, they are just filling in spots on a computer. Other times I think the people have only had expereience in smaller RV's or 5th wheels and do not understand the challenges of the bigger vehicles.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

TRAILERKING wrote:

It's the first thing I state on the phone that if the sites and trails in and out are clear enough with no low crowding of branches. There have been some places where we arrived and turned around and left......

-- Edited by TRAILERKING on Sunday 15th of March 2015 09:47:07 PM

I will try asking specifically about entrance and exit as well.......good point. I was assuming if we talked about how big the rig was they would think about the entrance and exit but maybe that is not fair. We were told at the seasonal site we stayed in last summer that many of the campgrounds were built in the 60's and caging tem them after the fact to accommodate bigger rigs is challenging

-- Edited by Lee and Trace on Monday 16th of March 2015 03:55:37 AM

-- Edited by Lee and Trace on Monday 16th of March 2015 03:57:07 AM

2riker2go · RV-Dreams Family Member

We had one campground like that on our maiden trip with our rig. We got in and out, but it was very scary, as the campground was clearly not made for big rigs. It really affected the type of campground that we prefer now - open campgrounds with few trees. When I am looking at a new campground, I always check the reviews, and if there are any kinds of comments about it being tight, or sharp turns, or low hanging trees, we don't try it.

TomW · RV-Dreams Family Member

You may have booked at a park that does have acceptable sites but they don't book specific sites. By the time you arrived the acceptable ones may have been taken. If you have followed H & L for very long you will notice that is what they sometimes find.

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

I usually look at the reviews in rvparkreviews.com to determine if a campground/RV Park has big rig access.

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm sorry about your experience, Trace, but really appreciate your posting about it. It definitely gives me something to chew on when trying to find a place to stay.

We're about to embark on a 5 day journey to Raleigh (we're STILL at the boondocking rally site waiting for a part to be installed), and since it's impossible to plan anything in advance yet, I was planning to just play it by ear as we go, with state parks as overnight destinations. I really do appreciate the warning!

Jim and Barb · RV-Dreams Family Member

Barb will usually call ahead to new campgrounds to make sure we would fit usually picking out a site with the help of the person in the office. Twice we have been told that we would fit "without a problem" only to pull up and see there was no way. In both cases they let us drive around until we found one we would fit in. Luckily they were not too full.

Just because a site is 50' does not mean you will fit into it. There were a couple of U shaped pull thru's that were 50' but had trees at the middle bend and we would not have made it.

Following the blogs of others with like-sized rigs helps as we have used them to pick campgrounds and even specific sites.

Lynn and Ed · RV-Dreams Family Member

We take a multi-prong approach. This sometimes includes visiting a campground prior to our stay, if we are staying in the general area, and we are not certain about a campground and/or roads leading to the campground. The approach typically includes:

1) Reading through all relevant reviews on RVParkReviews.com (and possibly other websites such as RV Dreams, etc.).

2) Performing a google image search for pictures of the overall campground and campground sites (i.e., looking at photos, that are NOT official campground photos, can be very helpful to identify narrow roads, low hanging branches and awkward site layouts). Oftentimes, the pictures are associated with a blog. We then review the associated blog entry to find pictures of the Blogger’s rig (to obtain an idea of the rig’s height and length), and then will read the blog entries (or campground review associated with the blog) to try to get any clues about trees and/or any other impediments that might be an issue for big rigs.

3) Using google earth to look at roads leading to the campground and the campground.

4) Speaking with individuals at the park--this step typically providing us with limited to no value. Even after explicitly sharing our length and height, the typical response from the campground employee is “we have big rigs stay here all the time”. If we are still unsure about clearance and site length, we try to speak with the campground hosts (if any) to get their input. Also, it can be helpful to ask the Campground Manager and/or host what height the trees are trimmed to AND when the last time the trees were trimmed.

5) We typically use a spotter (which ever of us is not driving) when entering/exiting and navigating through a campground. This has helped us proactively identify any possible challenges. At some campgrounds, the hosts or workampers will take one of us to our site, on a golf cart. This enables us to quickly spot issues, and look at alternative sites (if needed).

This process takes time, but helps eliminate surprises ... we find it is worth the effort, particularly since we have been RVing for less than a year.

However, one of the best sources of information are friends/individuals you trust, who have similar campground/park preference to yours and a similar sized RV. We also like Howard and Linda’s recommendations to arrive at the campground early enough in the day to go to plan B (if needed).

On edit: This approach has worked well for us and has helped us identify/stay at some great State, City and COE parks.

-- Edited by Lynn and Ed on Tuesday 17th of March 2015 04:49:37 PM

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've had the same issues, more than once, and unfortunately last summer at 2 campgrounds in a row, both of which were the closest state parks to where we used to live and we wanted to be close by to see friends and shrink to storage room. I had questions for both and spoke to a ranger at each park and we still had navigation issues. In one case it was due to the trees not being recently trimmed, we didn't want to drive under the branches so had to stop, walk down the entrance station where the ranger held up traffic so we could drive in through the exit lane. We started using Google Earth after that, especially if we knew we were in a heavily treed area.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks guys...Lynn and Ed thanks so much for the multi-step approach!! I am bookmarking RVPark Reviews, and I agree following in others footsteps is smart. We drove Anastasia State Park yesterday and of the 5 sites the ranger felt we could actually get in and out of three....that's out of 131 sites in the park. I have to say as much as I love most state and county parks the difficulty with finding a site has really turned me off. Hoping when we get out west this will be less of an issue as they aren't as wooded... I knew from listening to Howard at the rally that he spends hours finding a site. I don't mind the hours of research, but to actually get there and 3 out of 4 times have the site be impossible to get into is not a good return on my hours of time invested. I'll try adding blogs and park reviews into the research and see if we get better results...thanks

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

A few years ago, I was talking to a Ranger at a public park and this subject came up. He told me that they came in with a 50' tape, measured the length and width of the site and determined from those measurements what size RV would fit. No consideration was given to turns, trees or anything else to come up with the maxim RV size.

This info was then given to the people at the gate and the people who make the reservations for you.

Jim

DebbieM · RV-Dreams Family Member

Don't give up Trace! There's a reason those state parks are state parks. The park and area around it is usually pretty spectacular and usually cheaper and more private than private parks. We stay almost exclusively at State parks (9 mos now) and have only had an issue at 2. One was a bit tricky, the other we should have passed on (but was our fault really). I think Steve is getting very good at maneuvering and maybe were a bit more daring too (?). Checking RV reviews and google earth are definitively helpful. We do call directly to the campground and verify if we aren't sure. Most state parks have pretty good info on the length and width of the sites.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

I know you guys have had an incredibly experience with State Parks Deb which makes me keep trying since we have roughly the same size rigs...either Steve's more of a dare devil than Lee or it's just luck of the draw :) Either way I agree it's worth it just requires more research and a backup plan.

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

We gave up on State Parks. Never have openings in the summer when we are traveling on weekends, plus so many states charge extra for a towed car behind the motorhome ($5 a night more more) unless we buy a state pass.

Barb

LandYachty · RV-Dreams Family Member

We love State Parks and National Parks (and Forests). The difference between Government run parks and RV parks is trees. We carry a telescoping pole that goes to 14' (we are over 13') to measure trees. We also have a electric chain saw on a pole (generator required). Gotta to say, Canada is the worse, people would line up at Provincial Parks to watch us (try to) park! We are workamping for the summer and it took us over 1 hour to get the rig into the host site. Let's see length, width, and height problems! Once we got settled into Franklin RV Park (NC) the first thing we did was to go to each site and clear tree limbs for the big rigs - they don't do that in Government parks.

PS - We do backup a lot!