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DallasSteve's avatar
DallasSteve
Nomad
Jul 20, 2022

County Park Experiences

I bought a motorhome in March, 2020 and started camping on some North-South treks while I was living in the motorhome. Based on suggestions for my brother, who full-times in a Class C, I tried to make reservations at state parks and corps of engineer parks. When I couldn't find something available where I needed to be I would look for a private park. When I couldn't find that a few times I found a county park for camping.

County parks tend to be rare in my experience, but when I stayed in them I've had very good experiences. They tend to be smaller and less developed than the state and federal parks, but they often have their own charm. The first one we stayed at had a 9 hole golf course where we rented a cart and my wife had a blast driving me from hole to hole. We stayed at 2 others on Texas Gulf coast beaches and they were very nice. They were pricier than the average county park, but for being on the beach with full hookup the prices were reasonable. I saw one other in Georgetown, Texas in a beautiful park where I would have loved to stay but they were shut down due to the pandemic.

If and when I'm camping again I want to search out more county parks. I can usually find them on Google maps, if there are any in the area. Most counties don't have RV parks, from what I've seen, but some do. I've also seen them on AllTrails.com. Does anybody else have tips on finding county parks for RVs?
  • IDman's avatar
    IDman
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2022
    One of my favorites is a county park in Oregon with FHU plus a nice, clean shower house. Sites are huge, paved, shady, and sit on a small river. Last time there it was $20.
  • stickdog's avatar
    stickdog
    Explorer
    Jul 21, 2022
    We use freecampsites.net and have for the last 10 years. We've had good luck with them traveling West of the Mississippi. Some are better than others We've only stayed in a few that were free usually first night. They tend to be in county seats often in the fair grounds. The most we've paid was $30 generally for the nicer ones.
  • LMHS's avatar
    LMHS
    Explorer II
    Jul 21, 2022
    https://freecampsites.net tends to be pretty good about listing county parks but not always. Finding county parks tend to be iffy. Also there are some County parks that used to be State Parks. I know of a few that have been transferred. They tend to be small, little-known parks.

    Your best bet for finding a county park is google.com/maps
    Type into the search bar at the top of the map "Campgrounds near (city or county, State)" This search will pull up both private and public campgrounds. You will have to sort thru them yourself. I suggest that as you run across them, you make your own "directory". I like to build spreadsheets and have made a "Campground Log" for listing campgrounds that I would like to visit or have visited in them. Several are small public parks and I try to add as much info for them as possible. When my husband & I first started tent camping, I used to keep all the info in a small notebook. With computers, I have shifted over to electronic and update the info every so often because everything changes.

    You might like this one, it's a good example of a former state park now county/city park:
    Sometimes listed as a state park, Harry McAdams in Hobbs NM is now a county or city park that is backed up to a public golf https://www.campendium.com/harry-mcadams-campground
  • 2112's avatar
    2112
    Explorer II
    Jul 21, 2022
    Dang it guys, you're not suppose to make this public. It's the only place we had left to avoid the crowds in Texas.

    Now that the cat is out of the bag, we are travelers, not campers. We seek out county and city park camp facilities almost exclusively.

    We frequent one next to a golf course and another one on a beach until the LPG facility close to it blew up. Haven't been back.
  • DallasSteve's avatar
    DallasSteve
    Nomad
    Jul 21, 2022
    garym114 wrote:
    Some Texas cities have RV parks. One about 15 miles from me in Stephenville. I have used it to check out motorhome systems before taking off for more distant locations.

    https://www.stephenvilletx.gov/parks-leisure/page/rv-campgrounds

    Just found this:
    Texas County and City Campgrounds

    https://www.allstays.com/Campgrounds/Texas-county-campgrounds-map.htm

    Gary

    Thanks for those links. They both look good. Maybe I was using AllStays and not AllTrails. They both look familiar. Maybe I used both. I guess AllStays would include other states' parks, too.

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