state parks with big motorhomes

[Magua]

About to purchase a Georgetown 379. Moving up from a 30 foot travel trailer. We adore state park camping and are planning a fairly epic round-the-country trip, but realize our ability to get in/out of them is about to change with the big boy. Is there a website/guide somewhere that's a compilation of state parks across the country that fit big rigs and have some hookups? Or is this wishful thinking (or a helluva project I should embark on?)???

[rockhillmanor]

Yeah, "that's the ticket"...fudge a bit to get into a campsite you shouldn't be in...that's always cool, so everyone has to slow down and squeeze by cuz you were inconsiderate....I love those guys!............Dennis

It's not even campers being stupid.

In the Boston area I called ahead to find out if my coach towing would fit into their sites AND be able to maneuver the road in. CG owner said absolutely yes.

I headed out, found the road in, and within the first turn and first hundred feet or so I could see I was going to be dead in the water NO WAY would any coach my size EVER fit even down the entrance.

I had to unhook and back out. I SO wanted to get in the toad and drive down to the office to give the boy a lesson on what RV can and CAN not fit into his CG......but I didn't want to end up on the 10:00 news. :R

Soooo.....sometimes you can't even have faith in the CG owner.

[frankdamp]

It depends on how old the SP is, and they don't tell you. We did the Oregon Coast last season and stayed almost exclusively in State Parks. The only one we had trouble with was Harris Beach, just north of Brookings. I guess that park pre-dates 102" wide rigs with slides and was designed for 30' or so length.

We found the roads in the park to be narrow and the sites were square on to the roads. Backing even our 32-footer (102" wide) was dodgy. I used an unoccupied tent site, opposite the site we'd chosen, to set up for backing in. Unfortunately, I didn't see a 24" or so high rock wall on the sidewalk side of the rig. DW was on the driver's side making sure I didn't hit the picnic table and I scrunched three stow-bin doors on the RH side against the wall.

Not serious damage, mainly scratched paint. If we hadn't decided to sell the MH, I wouldn't have bothered fixing it for now.

All the other OR SP's we stayed at were fine, but we were a bit disappointed how far we had to walk to get to the beach at Fort Stevens (we don't have a toad).

[Kidoo]

Executive wrote:

tropical36 wrote:

Kidoo wrote:
I have a 34PDD, when I reserve if I say I have a 32 or 30 foot, would they come and mesure the RV? I am pretty sure the 34 foot would fit a 30 foot site.

That's the ticket and if you see a park online that has size restrictions that aren't too far outta range then just shorten your rig a foot or two.

Yeah, "that's the ticket"...fudge a bit to get into a campsite you shouldn't be in...that's always cool, so everyone has to slow down and squeeze by cuz you were inconsiderate....I love those guys!......:S......Dennis

A couple of feet won't make much of a difference on a campsite. Of course you cannot fudge 45 plus toad to 35!;)

[Executive45]

tropical36 wrote:

Kidoo wrote:
I have a 34PDD, when I reserve if I say I have a 32 or 30 foot, would they come and mesure the RV? I am pretty sure the 34 foot would fit a 30 foot site.

That's the ticket and if you see a park online that has size restrictions that aren't too far outta range then just shorten your rig a foot or two.

Yeah, "that's the ticket"...fudge a bit to get into a campsite you shouldn't be in...that's always cool, so everyone has to slow down and squeeze by cuz you were inconsiderate....I love those guys!......:S......Dennis

[mockturtle]

As I said before, it's not the size of the site but the room to maneuver that can sometimes be the limiting factor.

[tropical36]

Kidoo wrote:
I have a 34PDD, when I reserve if I say I have a 32 or 30 foot, would they come and mesure the RV? I am pretty sure the 34 foot would fit a 30 foot site.

That's the ticket and if you see a park online that has size restrictions that aren't too far outta range then just shorten your rig a foot or two.

[Kidoo]

I have a 34PDD, when I reserve if I say I have a 32 or 30 foot, would they come and mesure the RV? I am pretty sure the 34 foot would fit a 30 foot site.

[2gypsies1]

Rockhillmanor: We have found just the opposite. We have no problems with any type of campground west of the Mississippi and many other states in the south. We have no desire to go to the far eastern states so don't know about those.

We easily fit with our 40' motorhome in national parks, state parks, forest service campgrounds, Corp of Engineers, city and county parks - especially in the West. For California we wouldn't fit in state parks but there are plenty of forest campgrounds we have stayed.

You just have to do your research in many ways - there are many good web sites, Google Earth. One thing with having a motorhome, you can detach the toad before entering the park and scout it out first for any obstructions.

There are many of us with big rigs that utilize these types of parks. We see them all the time.

[rockhillmanor]

Halmfamily wrote:
Shouldn't have any issue in Alabama. We have a forty foot fiver and have not had any issues except with a couple low slung tree branches but a pole saw took care of those. Good luck and enjoy your new A.

Ditto on carrying one of those pole saws with you. When I upgraded I took one along and they come in real handy. In my experience CG owners had no problems with me taking off a low branch in a site they had me scheduled for but couldn't fit because of a low branch hanging.

From what I've read here on the forum it seems the majority of the CG a long rig doesn't fit in are mostly out west. I've only RV'd east of the Mississippi and have never had a problem. BUT that didn't include Boston. Will NEVER RV to Boston ever again, you'd be hard pressed to get a PUP into any of the parks there.

[DSDP_Don]

We previously had a 36' coach and now a 40'. We camp in County, State and National parks all the time. We do fine that if you go somewhere popular, you may need to know which sites are bigger and if they're available.

On a side note.....you say you're leaving on an "epic round-the-country trip". Is this a trip of many months and several days in one spot, or travelling through several states and stopping at things like the Grand Canyon. The reason I ask..... we did a cross country trip last year with certain destinations. While driving between major attractions on our itinerary, we estimated how far we wanted to drive that day and then located a campground in that area.

If you intend to do something similar, I think it will be very difficult to locate State or County parks, know if they're any good and then hope they have an opening that will fit your coach. To me, this would take a TON of investigating and a pretty rigid itinerary where reservations would be needed.

[tropical36]

Magua wrote:
About to purchase a Georgetown 379. Moving up from a 30 foot travel trailer. We adore state park camping and are planning a fairly epic round-the-country trip, but realize our ability to get in/out of them is about to change with the big boy. Is there a website/guide somewhere that's a compilation of state parks across the country that fit big rigs and have some hookups? Or is this wishful thinking (or a helluva project I should embark on?)???

No matter what they say or how they measure, we usually fit and find that there are always bigger coaches than what we have in most every one of them. What's funny is when they go by a wheel stop to the street, without consideration of the overhang behind the wheels and in which case we only require 30ft.

[mockturtle]

I agree that the interior road access to the site is more apt to be an issue than the site size, itself. That said, when my late husband and I full-timed in our 36' DP we only found one state park we couldn't maneuver our rig into, due to trees. In some state parks there are 'pull-throughs' which you may want to avoid, as they are C-shaped and can be very tricky. Stick to the back-ins.

[Raymon]

We have camped in many of Pennsylvania's nice state parks. Many are really out-dated. The pads, mostly gravel, are narrow and difficult to back into. Some of the roads are very narrow which limits how far you can swing the front end of the MH or tow vehicle when backing into the sites. There are very few pull-throughs.

Ray

[Dale_Traveling]

The individual campsite size isn't difficult to research but the interior roads can be and you'll find little info in this regard. Between narrow lanes, drainage gullies, trees, boulders and such lining the roads you might have a few tight turns, pulling or backing into the site. For the most part you should be OK if they have sites that will accommodate you but research and plan your stops and call the park if you are still not sure.