Trailer Life Directory listings don't tell the whole story

Last year we traveled from Florida to Alaska using the directory for campground recommendations along the way. When we got into the western states, we became more and more leery of the commercial campgrounds in the directory. What we were finding is that the campgrounds had turned into trailer parks, filled mostly with working folks. This left very few sites open for travelers, and the atmosphere in the campground, wasn't welcoming to travelers and families. In one Good Sam campground in North Dakota, there was only six out of more than a hundred sites that were available for "campers," and when the workers came home at night, it got pretty rowdy. In another Good Sam campground in Edmonton, AB a fight broke out in the wee hours of the night--lots of shouting, a little girl crying "daddy don't hit mommy," and a truck speeding off through the campground at a high rate of speed. Frankly, we were terrified that we were going to hear gunfire next.

Both of these campground received high marks in the directory, and their descriptions led one to believe we were going to be mostly with other travelers like ourselves. I think the listings need some review. I would like to see the scores reduced if less than 50% of the sites aren't really available for nightly rent, or maybe an annotation to that effect. Frankly, some of these "campgrounds" that are now residential trailer parks with a few open sites should be dropped from the book.