Issues oh the issues. Nothing really new which may be the bad part. Things just seem to be standing out more than they used to. You always see little issues here and there but most are easy work arounds. You know, just deal with it, enjoy the trip and move on. Seem’s though especially in the last year or so that issues are growing and it’s no longer in a random campground or two. I could understand if I looked around and saw some site struggling and others looking refreshed. That tells me they are working towards improvements. Cool, no worries. Change is coming. That just isn’t the case across the board at least not in our experience.

Old campgrounds are struggling to keep up with site and campground maintenance. New campgrounds are making smaller less relaxing sites. So which way do we go? Even the last place we just stayed at… The campground is beautiful, site size over all isn’t bad, showers are nice, don’t get me wrong, but still has a laundry list of issues piling up and clearly not enough funding or attention or both to correcting things. We arrived a day after some very hard rains had come through. Understandably that can create beyond normal conditions anywhere but we still had water standing in several places two days later including but limited to the fire pit areas throughout the campground. You can’t just put some sand in the bottom and lite it up and where should you sit anyway. That doesn’t really cut it. This campground like I said, is beautiful but it needs fill around the sites and virtually every single site needs a load of gravel or several. The majority of the sites had extremely narrow pads to park on to the point that putting boards under your stairs was almost mandatory and sitting under the awning was virtually not happening. We did get somewhat lucky with ours. Our fire pit was usable after we put some gravel in it and our chairs fit under our awning just barely when needed. We had almost enough gravel under us. Even so, this just shouldn’t be an issue in my eyes. I fully understand upkeep costs money and takes time but this was also a higher end facility with no signs of improvements on the sites. They had overhauled the bath houses recently-ish I’d say which is great but are still missing the big picture on the sites. It does not seem beyond expectation to set up on at least somewhat level ground. Put out the awning and comfortably relax under it if desired. Enjoying the campfire and not worry about sitting in water seems within reason also.

I am also not one to worry about blacktop or concrete on sites. That doesn’t concern us too much but even these sites have typically gravel off the side with fire pit and picnic table, your outdoor living area really. They also seem too regularly come with a 3 inch drop which end up hiding under your camp mat and is begging for a twisted ankle. Better yet when that lip is where all the water congregates after a rain comes through. One of our favorite places to stay has this as the biggest issue. Blacktop sites, buried in the trees, which could use some trimming by the way as well and gravel pads along side each site and a huge lip on almost every site. Drives me nuts honestly. Most of these sites would benefit with even a pick up load of gravel and some tree trimming.

The existing campgrounds I will say are where you usually find the bigger sites which is nice, most of the time. The weird thing and for whatever reason seems to be very, very common, is the fire pit placement in new and old campgrounds. They are placing them or have placed them in the back corner of no mans land. They give you a pad, whether concrete or gravel (the outdoor living area) and place the pit in a corner. Enough room to put three chairs at it, if you are lucky. So where does the rest of the family sit? We travel with friends from time to time. That can account for the need of as many as eight chairs. That’s always fun trying to figure that out. Honestly, every time I am booking a new, unfamiliar site and or campground, I am studying the pictures for parking pad size, obviously site depth and fire pit placement. It’s just something I need to watch for.

I do appreciate the websites that are updating information for those of us booking online. Better pictures to work with and good site info to let us know where we fit, does make things easier. On the other hand I am not a fan of booking online without site verification. We had one last year that we booked and stated that site location was not guaranteed. Which means you have “A site”, maybe the site you asked for but then maybe not. Not cool. In fact when we arrived the gal let me know where to head too and I’m glad I was paying attention. They had moved our two sites. I questioned her and she was magically able to move us to where we had booked. They weren’t filled and even worse the two sites they wanted to put us on, we wouldn’t have barely fit on anyway. Essentially, This means whoever gets their first gets to pick where they want. Now if you have open sites in a campground and you are a walk on, then that makes sense, but not when I have made a reservation.

This may sound like a lot of bellyaching to some but we spend a good bit on our rigs and on campsites for that matter. I don’t need all the frills and thrills of an amusement park when I’m camping. I just want a decent site to relax, hangout and enjoy the time while I’m there. Really all I’m asking for is trees trimmed up, some gravel and better fire pit placement. Doesn’t that seem simple enough.?