Olive Ridge

First Come, First Served is NOT properly adhered to. Very misleading. 

My family, including little children, were all packed up and ready to camp when we arrived on a Friday morning of Labor Day weekend. Despite that at least 10 campsites were completely empty and claimed to be"First Come, First Served", they had Reservation tags on the site post. No signs of life at these 10+ campsites, as we drove by one after another, ourselves fully prepared and ready to camp. It was upsetting to be prepared and yet see others whom weren't be granted"reserved" access to so many FCFS sites. 

This is the consequence of allowing what should be called"Same Day Reservations", since it meant that people interested in camping SOME TIME over the holiday weekend came by the camp in-person and effectively RESERVED one of the many so-called"First Come, First Served" campsites. 

Can you imagine if this is how restaurants, or anything else, treated First Come, First Served? Campgrounds, especially when in such high demand nowadays and over holiday weekends, should not treat it this way. 

Unfortunately, Olive Ridge Campground does this to the extreme, leaving my fully prepared family out of luck despite being the ones to actually arrive first with our people and equipment, ready to camp. 

I understand this kind of poor practice doesn't only apply to Olive Ridge, but for a place that claims to have a lot of"First Come, First Served" sites, it's very misleading and negatively impacts those of us who took the proper time to be amongst the first ready to camp. Spontaneity feels almost possible these days when people are being allowed to game the system. If they won't change their rules, then we're stuck joining the others in gaming the system, which sucks for everyone.

This campground was easy to get to in a small Kia Forte. Fee was $18/night, reservations for some spots and a few are first come first serve with cash only. We had spot 17 and it was pretty spacious, could see other campers’ vehicles but couldn’t see or hear any people. Lots of trees for shade & hammocks. Spot included a picnic table, fire pit, bbq, tent pad, and bear box. My one complaint is there wasn’t much to explore beyond the campsite, a bit of trees but then it’s fenced off to the highway. We were close to the highway but only heard a few cars throughout the day, not a very busy road.

Spots 1-46 First Come/first serve. No water, no hookups, but beautiful forest around and very spacious. We love it