Campground design

[hotpepperkid]

It seams to me there is or should be a lot of research done before they build camp grounds. Which direction should the spaces face, the placement of utilities to accomadate the majority of RV'ers, the type of tree and where to plant them for max shade from say noon to late after noon

[gbopp]

hotpepperkid wrote:
Which direction should the spaces face,

So, what direction should the spaces face? I think you will get several opinions on this subject.

[downtheroad]

...all this discussion about trees, how big they are, how long they take to grow, where they should and should not be located.....

and then there are those who want no trees because they interfere with their satellite reception....
gosh all mighty!

[toedtoes]

Selecting fast growth trees may be an option for private RV Parks, it is not for federal forests, etc.

If everywhere you go, you have trouble fitting into your site due to terrain/foliage, then perhaps you need to look at different type campgrounds/parks or a different RV.

[dedmiston]

westernrvparkowner wrote:

dedmiston wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Unless there is something I don't know about, most trees take 30 - 50 years to mature.

There are plenty of trees that mature much quicker than that. Depending on the size/age of the specimen you begin with, you should be able to plant many varieties of trees that reach near maturity within 5-10 years.

(My wife runs a landscape construction company. She and our son are both Landscape Architects. I've been subjected to decades of flora lore, and one learns this stuff whether one wants to or not.)

The OP was referring to large shade trees. Out here in the west those are multiple decades in the making.

I'm even further out here in the west and we can get good mature shade trees in ten years. You just need to pick the right trees.

[imgoin4it]

Westernrvparkowner: you are exactly correct. The problem I have with at least two parks are that the street are so narrow one does not have room to pull out far enough to miss the trees. Result is the RV brushes against the RV

[rhagfo]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I would bet dollars to donuts CG layout is thought out in advance to maximize use of available land Ie: number of sites, traffic flow, utilities etc.

Course majority of existing CGs are older and were set up for RVs of their era.
Upgrading can be VERY expensive

We are hosting in a older SP now that was built in the late 40’s, many of the now RV hookup sites are backwards. There is a berm or brush about 3’ to 4’ outside the door side, the fire pit and table are on the other side (AKA utility side) no not an easy fix.

[azdryheat]

RV should face north or northeast so that the afternoon sun is on the driver side and the passenger side is shaded. We stayed at North Forty in Utah and all the spaces are like this. Very nice sitting out in the afternoon/evening without the sun blaring down on us.

No trees on passenger side is preferred as that is where the awnings are. Trees on driver side should be far enough away to not interfere with slide operation but then again they may interfere with awnings on neighboring RV. So, no trees would be best unless the RV spaces are extremely wide.

[westernrvparkow]

dedmiston wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Unless there is something I don't know about, most trees take 30 - 50 years to mature.

There are plenty of trees that mature much quicker than that. Depending on the size/age of the specimen you begin with, you should be able to plant many varieties of trees that reach near maturity within 5-10 years.

(My wife runs a landscape construction company. She and our son are both Landscape Architects. I've been subjected to decades of flora lore, and one learns this stuff whether one wants to or not.)

The OP was referring to large shade trees. Out here in the west those are multiple decades in the making.

[dedmiston]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Unless there is something I don't know about, most trees take 30 - 50 years to mature.

There are plenty of trees that mature much quicker than that. Depending on the size/age of the specimen you begin with, you should be able to plant many varieties of trees that reach near maturity within 5-10 years.

(My wife runs a landscape construction company. She and our son are both Landscape Architects. I've been subjected to decades of flora lore, and one learns this stuff whether one wants to or not.)

[downtheroad]

Cars now are all designed by a computer....they input the parameter...mileage requirements, safety requirements, cost requirements, etc. ...and the computer spits out the design.

thus most cars today look very similar to one another regardless of the manufacturer...

I'm glad all the places we camp are not the same.

[westernrvparkow]

imgoin4it wrote:
The single thing that “bothers” me most about layout of RV parks are the ones that plant trees at the ends, one or both of the parking spot. Doesn’t take long for a little growth to make getting into or out of the spot without scratching up the motor home. Stay at several that have this situation and it is tough to get into and out of them and even more so when neighbors vehicles are parked at their spot.. These parks were designed and built that way on flat ground in the south west where space does not look like a limiting factor tp me.

Trees at the front and back of a site are less likely to block slides and satellite reception. It is also a location where the roots will be less likely to grow into the underground utility lines. Plus they forcd the rvs to swing out into the roadway rather then cut short and drive across the sites. There is a lot of reasons trees are placed there.

[jarata1]

What we find at a lot of the state campgrounds you have a lot of people who never camped before and have no ideas of rules

[dewey02]

westernrvparkowner wrote:
Unless there is something I don't know about, most trees take 30 - 50 years to mature. Pretty hard to anticipate what the needs of RVs will be in 2068.
Design of parks is almost entirely dependent on the topography and unique features of the site. Flat, level sites with straight wide roads might be easy to construct in a Kansas cornfield. Not as easy to carve those features out of the side of a mountain. Placing utilities in the ideal spot isn't always possible. Sometimes that would require removing a 200 year old tree or blasting thru 50 feet of granite.
Personally, I don't want exact uniformity in much of anything other than McDonalds.

X2 on the above. From the standpoint of public campgrounds, many of these were constructed 50 or more years ago, when a lot of camping was tent camping. They have been "modernized" since then, with various amenities added, but the overall layout is difficult or impossible to change do to topography, etc and so remains the same.

And there are many ideas that go into campground design that are done SPECIFICALLY to regulate what the camper does or can do. Rather than posting a sign with numerous "Don't do this, don't do that" signs everywhere, the campground is designed to prevent, or at least discourage the unwanted use. Many of these design elements never occur to the average user, and there have been many posts on this website with people saying things like "Why do they do this, it makes it hard for me to do X." Well they did it that way on purpose, because they don't want you doing X.

[Dutch_12078]

One of the reasons we prefer state and national park campgrounds is the wide variety of sites, terrain, and natural "landscaping". The first photo below is a site at a private park that has "cookie cutter" sites for the most part, and the second photo is a site in a national forest campground. Both sites have full hook ups. Which one would you prefer?

[imgoin4it]

The single thing that “bothers” me most about layout of RV parks are the ones that plant trees at the ends, one or both of the parking spot. Doesn’t take long for a little growth to make getting into or out of the spot without scratching up the motor home. Stay at several that have this situation and it is tough to get into and out of them and even more so when neighbors vehicles are parked at their spot.. These parks were designed and built that way on flat ground in the south west where space does not look like a limiting factor tp me.