I stopped here because I needed a place to sleep and the nearby campgrounds were full. I was pleased to find that St. Lucie South was not only a good place to spend the night, but an enjoyable experience in its own right. This is a COE campground built adjacent to a lock. The waterway is a canal that connects Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic. The campground isn't particularly large, but it is very nicely landscaped. Plenty of grass and tall trees.

I stayed in one of the three primitive tent sites. Each of these comes with a tree, a gravel tent pad, and a small picnic shelter. There is a water spigot nearby, and bathrooms with flushing toilets, hot and cold running water, and showers are located up the road a ways. These were fairly clean when I visited.

There were lots of interesting animals to observe here, including flying fish, big tree lizards, big frogs that hopped out of the canal and onto my tent at night, and something that I'm fairly certain was a gator but never got a good look at. Unfortunately, there was also a large mosquito population that made things not so fun after nightfall.

My neighbors here were also a bit distracting. They were a very loud family who appeared to be living at the tent site next to mine.

I stayed at Ocracoke Campground during a two day north-to-south traversal of the Outer Banks. This ended up being a perfect jumping off point for enjoying the town of Ocracoke in the evening and the following morning, then taking the afternoon ferry to Cedar Island. The beach is also just a few yards away.

The Outer Banks are about one foot above sea level, and it had just rained, so a lot of the campsites here were flooded. The sites along the dunes were high and dry, though, and I got one of those. There was plenty of room for my tent, and the stakes went into the sandy soil easily but held fast. For company, I had a small community of burrowing ghost crabs. These were very fun to watch, but also very shy, so good luck getting photos.

The bathrooms here were clean and modern. Showers are located in separate buildings.

I arrived here around 8:30 pm after being turned away from nearby Northwest River Park & Campground. Apparently they don't want your money after a certain hour. The host at Bells Island Campground was happy to take my money and show me to a lovely campsite right on the water. I set up my tent in the dark, but discovered in the morning that I was on a big lawn with shade trees and a lovely view of Currituck Sound. My campsite had a solidly-built picnic table, a water spigot, and even a trash can.

The bathroom here was a little funky in its design and layout, but it was clean and served well enough. Overall, I couldn't find anything wrong with this campground, especially at the low price point. Management here is doing a great job.

I stayed here for a single night while I was exploring West Virginia, but I wish I had stayed longer. This is one of the most beautiful campgrounds I've ever seen.

The front section of Seneca Shadows isn't all that interesting. There are standard sites here with gravel pads, water, and electricity, good for trailers and RVs. The sites are of an average size and have plenty of shade and privacy.

There is also a large tent-only section at the back of the campground. This is where I stayed, and this is what made Seneca Shadows memorable. The tent section is a giant meadow with picnic tables and tent pads arranged around the edges. There is also a picnic shelter here. Parking is adjacent; expect to carry your gear a few hundred feet. Many of the sites have shade trees, and a few have shrubs for privacy, but nearly all have an incredible view of Seneca Rocks, a magnificent geological feature.

There are vault toilets located close to the tent section, but these didn't smell great so I avoided them. There are real bathrooms with flushing toilets, running water, and showers located just up the road. These were nice and clean when I visited.

I intend to return someday for a closer look at Seneca Rocks. This place is a destination, not just a stopover.

I rolled into Key West without any clear idea of where I was going to stay. Boyd's was the first place I came across, and I felt no need to look any further. I was initially concerned about crowding here, but Boyd's had multiple waterfront tent sites available on a weeknight in August. I got my pick, and it came with shade trees, a picnic table, and iguanas. Incredible.

This campground's top selling point is its location. If it were anywhere else, I might have grumbled about the price, or the tightness of the campsite, or the proximity to neighbors (they are mere feet away). But, you're in Key West, literally right on the water, and close enough to downtown that you can get there by bicycle (or, in my case, kick scooter). This felt like an amazing bargain, especially when you factor in the excellent bathrooms and the large, clean, temperature-controlled swimming pool. There is also a camp store and a laundry room. Every amenity you could ask for, basically. There was even fast WiFi coverage throughout the whole campground, a first in my experience.

If I ever journey back to the southernmost point in the continental US, I would stay at Boyd's again in a heartbeat. This campground ticks all the boxes.

This park is now the standard by which I will judge all other state parks. I haven't seen its equal anywhere in the US. I would give it ten stars if I could.

When I first pulled in, I saw a sign with a braggadocios statement along the lines of "Florida state parks: the best state parks in the country." This was my first night ever in Florida, so I thought to myself "yeah, well, we'll see about that." If all Florida's state parks are this good, though, that may not be hyperbole.

First off, the park is a destination in itself. It has excellent bike paths and walking trails, as well as a lovely beach within walking distance of the campground. There is also an abundance of small lizards and large tortoises, both very entertaining to watch.

The campground, however, is superb. It is cut out of the jungle, so every site has abundant shade and privacy. Some sites are better than others, of course, but I didn't see any that looked unattractive. Bathrooms are well sited, spacious, nicely designed, and clean. All in all, I couldn't find anything to complain about, which is rare.

That said, reserving your campsite in advance would be a good idea here. The only reason I was able to stay three nights was because someone else cancelled. In this case, however, the campground's popularity is well deserved. Well done, Florida.

Considered purely as a campground, this place was a big disappointment. It's basically an RV park, and a mediocre one at that. The spaces are tight and close together. You get a gravel pad with little to no shade or privacy, an old picnic table in one corner, and… that's about it. Full hookup, but not terribly useful to me as a tent camper.

I had much higher expectations for this place, given the reviews. I thought I had lucked out when I showed up without a reservation and they told me there had been a cancellation so yes, there was a site available (so, it was booked almost solid on a Monday night in August). But the fee was sky high for what I got. Haven't been this let down by a campground all summer.

The only redeeming qualities from my perspective were the nice bathrooms and the walking trails. Otherwise, the rest of the park was in sorry shape as well. Bathrooms closed, playground closed, boardwalk closed. Wouldn't recommend this campground unless you're mainly there to go snorkeling or to take a glass bottom boat tour.

This is a really, really nice private campground. You get a ton of amenities for the very reasonable fee: well-maintained bathrooms, a swimming pool, a laundry room. The property is beautiful too. Plenty of trees and grass, a picnic area, a couple of hammocks, and lakes that host a large population of Muscovy ducks. These were fun to watch. They're quite tame and will come right up to you.

It had rained buckets the day before I arrived, so there was quite a bit of standing water. I had no trouble finding a dry area to pitch my tent, though, and I didn't see a single mosquito the whole time I was there.

On the less fun side, there were lots of biting red ants here. I kept stepping on their highway and regretting it. Some other things that could have been better: there was a sodium light close to my campsite that stayed on all night. Not too bright but I would have preferred it to not be there. The drinking water situation was also a little janky. There are a couple of shared spigots, but one was busted and they were both about six inches off the ground. I kept having to pirate the water hookups in empty RV sites.

Notes on the amenities: I used the laundry room and it worked fine. The dryers are the industrial type and took three cycles to dry my clothes, but otherwise, no issues. The pool is small and often full of children, but I enjoyed it regardless. They keep it clean and there's a good community spirit to it.

This place looked promising at first. I arrived on a Friday night and there were multiple tent sites available. Very pricey, but Charleston accomodations are like that, and the park looked pleasant and well developed. I set up my tent and was happy… at first.

Right after I went to bed, a major thunderstorm rolled in. I'd weathered such storms before, and my tent usually performs well. My campsite had a raised tent platform filled with sand, which I assumed would drain well. It did not. The tent was "floating" for a while. Standing water under the floor. Only a little water leaked in, luckily.

When I got up in the morning, the tent pad had mostly drained, but the rest of my campsite had turned into a swimming pool. I walked around the campground and it looked like my site was the only one that had flooded like this. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just book a second night in one of the other campsites." Nope. They were booked solid. Had to pack up my wet equipment and never really got to enjoy the park.

I imagine this could be a very nice place to camp under better conditions, but I did not have a good time.

Side note, there was a chorus of extremely loud frogs here that kept me awake at night. Cute but annoying.

This is a strange campground, but not a bad one. It is minutes away from downtown Point Pleasant. I had spent the afternoon exploring the town and didn't feel like driving further. There aren't many campgrounds nearby, so this place came to the rescue.

The park's main feature is a lake that looks to be artificial. Maybe an old gravel quarry? The terrain around the lake is nicely landscaped. There is a paved path along the shore, along with picnic tables and shelters. Kayak rentals are available and the lake is stocked with fish.

Most of the campground is RV focused, but I stayed at a primitive tent site. These are located closer to the entrance. There are no site numbers. Just pull your car up onto the grass and set up wherever. A few picnic tables and electrical outlets are spaced out along the road. There were a few other campers here when I visited, but there was enough room for us to maintain good separation. No shade trees or shrubs for privacy, though.

This is not a particularly quiet or restful campground. The day use area around the lake was hopping, with people coming and going well into the night. No closing time, or just not enforced? Not sure. Having so much traffic was a little uncomfortable from a safety standpoint, but nothing untoward happened while I was there. There was also quite a bit of noise from the nearby road and railroad.

The biggest problem with this campground was the bathroom. It was one of the worst I've seen. It may very well have been cleaned recently, but it was so dark and dingy that I couldn't tell. No windows and just a single bare incandescent bulb for illumination. Reminded me of a gas station toilet. The sink barely drained, the toilet barely flushed, and the urinal looked like it was about to fall off the wall. I have used vault toilets that were much, much nicer than this. I found myself wishing for one of those. Gross.

There is only one other bathroom located closer to the RV area, and this looked to be just as bad. To be clear, there are only two single occupancy men's rooms for the ENTIRE campground. Yes, there are a few porta potties scattered around as well, but this is ridiculous. This place needs to invest in better facilities.

This campground has plenty of curb appeal: large sites, nicely spaced; shade trees and privacy shrubs; clean, well-lit bathrooms with quality fixtures. I only realized my mistake once I started setting up my tent. The biggest drawback here is the mosquitoes. Out of 30+ campgrounds this summer, this is the first one where I've had to break out the picaridin lotion. (It worked, luckily.) Other wildlife included big black ants - lots of them - and spiders so massive I could see their eyes gleaming in the beam of my headlamp.

These are all natural parts of camping in this environment. What really ground my gears was the RV campers across from me who ran a generator. They turned it off at 11 pm, thankfully, but it came right back on at 8 am. I wasted no time getting out of there. Bad, bad campground etiquette. RV folks - please don't do this, even if you're technically allowed to. It ruins the experience for your neighbors.

Stayed here during a thru drive of the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was amazingly empty! I had my pick of lots of great campsites. The entire campground is under a forest canopy. There isn't much brush for privacy, but the sites are large and spaced out well. Mine had a nice level grassy area for tent pitching.

The air was pleasantly cool here, and there was a slight breeze. This made for a good night's sleep… once the thunderstorm passed, that is. It blew in without much warning; I was glad I already had my tent set up.

The only thing that bothered me here was the bathroom. It was bizarre. Zero lighting. The campground has electricity, but the bathroom does not. For sinks, you have a choice between one with a ridiculous low flow timed faucet, and one that blasts water onto your shoes and pants. And that thing on the wall that looks like a soap dispenser in the dark? Yeah, that's actually just hand sanitizer. No soap, no paper towels, no hand dryer. I prefer a nice vault toilet to this oddball thing. At least there I know what I'm getting and there are no surprises.

Arrived shortly after 8 pm after a long day's drive. The sun was going down but it wasn't dark yet. The campground office was locked and deserted. No posted instructions about after hours registration, no pay box. Ran into a park ranger who informed me the campground was closed for the evening; as in, would not take my money. Seriously? The campground is behind a gate with a keypad, so no chance of driving in and talking to the camp host. The ranger was kind and apologetic at least.

Drove a little further south and found a nice site at Bells Island Campground. The host there was happy to take my money.

I stayed at Monte Sano for several days as I explored Huntsville. This is a very, very nice campground, and the state park it sits in is a destination in itself. There are miles of hiking trails on the plateau, as well as a closed down section of Bankhead Parkway NE that anyone with a non-motorized wheeled conveyance should enjoy. I took my kick scooter down this road many, many times. The downhill grade is perfect, and there are just enough pavement wows to keep it interesting. Wish there were more roads like this.

I camped in one of the primitive sites, which are located along a long gravel loop at the back of the campground. The sites all seemed to be nice and large, with plenty of tall trees for shade and shrubs for privacy. These sites are fairly remote, and the closest bathrooms were crowded and dirty when I visited (albeit modern and well appointed). There is another bathroom of identical construction closer to the campground entrance. This was empty and clean. There are also nice single occupancy bathrooms at the campground office.

The main downside to this campground is its water, or lack thereof. Most campgrounds have plenty of water spigots for tent campers, and maybe a few dishwashing sinks. This campground has none of that. Sure, the RV sites have water hookups, and I pirated these when the sites were empty, but when they filled up, where was I supposed to find water? As far as I know, there is only one water spigot in the entire campground, and it took me days to locate (at the picnic shelter near the cleaner, emptier bathroom). This was too far from my campsite to be of much use anyhow. Even at the large picnic shelter down the street from the campground (looked to be CCC-built), there was only a single drinking fountain. At a place supposedly geared for big group picnics. I saw what looked to be old water fixtures that had been decommissioned. What the heck was going on here? It was all very strange, and very frustrating. I'm okay with dry camping, but when a campground has water but makes it hard to access… this is quite annoying. Please fix this, Monte Sano.

The Land Between the Lakes area is packed with campgrounds. This was one of the first I encountered as I headed south, and I didn't feel the need to look further. It is very, very nice. Note that this is a primitive campground, with just a single vault toilet and no potable water available on site. (The lovely town of Grand Rivers is just a few minutes away, though.) The upsides were the very reasonable fee, the lack of crowds, and the beautiful views. There was a slight fishy odor wafting up from the lake, but I'm not very sensitive to this and it didn't bother me. There was also a skunk hanging around the dumpster at dusk. I kept my distance and we didn't bother one another.

Aside from fishing, there isn't much to do here. However, I enjoyed staying here and left feeling refreshed. Quite a different experience from the crowded, civilized campgrounds.

The real attraction here is the caverns themselves, plus the zip lining, river floating, and whatever other activities are on offer. But, the campground is not half bad! It's a large grassy area with plenty of trees (though no shrubbery or other privacy screens). There are no numbered campsites. Vehicles can be parked and tents pitched anywhere on the grass. My campsite, located in the far southwest corner, was one of a few with a fire pit, small paved picnic shelter, and picnic table. I was very happy to have the shelter, as there was a thunderstorm the morning of my visit.

There is a centrally-located camp store here. Their prices were reasonable when I visited. The bathrooms are located nearby, but these were quite run down, crowded, and dirty. I recommend seeking out the bathrooms at the visitor center. These seemed to be open 24/7 and were much, much nicer (and empty in the morning and evening).

Speaking of the visitor center, their food was surprisingly good. I had dinner and breakfast there, and was glad I did. They also had serviceable public WiFi that I used to catch up on Internet stuff while I waited for the rain to let up.

I came here on a Friday night without a reservation and was lucky enough to snag a basic campsite. It was very basic. Just enough room to pitch one tent, and no privacy. Steep terrain too.

Luckily, I didn't end up spending much time at my campsite, as the surrounding park was a blast to explore. There is a paved walking trail running along the lake shore here. I had lots of fun cruising up and down on my kick scooter. Bicyclists and skaters should find it to their liking too. There are some nice spots to sit and admire the view. There is also a dock where one can buy tickets and board a sternwheeler (I didn't but it looked cool), as well as an Army Corps of Engineers visitor center at the far end, next to the dam.

Bathrooms at the campsite were clean and extremely modern. Some of the best I've seen so far. Very well lit.

This is an incredibly nice campground. There were quite a few people camping here when I visited, but I managed to roll in without a reservation and get the best campsite. It was up on the hill with a paved pull-through driveway and stone steps leading up to a flat terrace area. Plenty of room to spread out.

There are many attractions nearby. At the bottom of the hill, there is a lazy river with a nice swimming hole. Deep enough to dive in from the rocks on the other side of the river, or just do some actual swimming. There's another swimming spot down the road, but the one at the campground is better.

Then there's Blanchard Springs itself. This is a picturesque spot where water rushes out of a lower exit to Blanchard Springs Caverns (closed when I visited but open for tours soon). Adjacent to the springs, there is a disused road that leads up into the forest, past a derelict picnic shelter, and ultimately to AR-14 N, where it is blocked off. There is also a sort of natural stair that goes on a good ways, carved by the water (and apparently improved by the Civilian Conservation Corps) in years gone by. These are both worth a hike. I explored them hoping to find an alternate entrance to the caverns. No dice.

For amenities, the campground has a single bathroom with flushing toilets and running water. It was nice but fairly busy when I visited. There is another bathroom at a picnic shelter down the road. This one was just as nice if not nicer, and totally empty. Water at the campground was very good to drink, but only available from a single spigot at the base of the hill.

This campground is free as in beer. No pay stations or anything. There are practically no amenities: just vault toilets and no potable water anywhere, so make sure to bring plenty of drinking water. Other than that, this place is great! Easily worth some money. The campsites are nicely laid out, and there's a creek nearby. It's not deep enough for swimming, but it's perfect for a refreshing wade. The trailhead for Pam's Grotto is right across the road, and certainly worth a visit.

Only downside I encountered here was a family a few campsites over who ran a generator all night. Pretty dang annoying.

This place is an amazing bargain. For just $15 a night, you get nice, big, secluded campsites, a large bathroom with running water, flushing toilets, and showers, and an awesome swimming hole. Drinking water is available at spigots near the swimming hole.

There is a downside here, though, and it's a big one: horseflies. They attacked me as soon as I got in the water, and they were relentless. They may be the reason I was the only person camping here the night I visited. Their saving grace is that they are big, dumb, and slow. Once I had killed all the flies near my campsite, I was left more or less alone.

To balance out the bad insects, there are lots and lots of fireflies here at dusk. There are no fireflies where I come from, so these were a treat to see.

One other downside: the place was quiet until about midnight, when some teenagers on the other side of the river decided to have a loud, alcohol-fueled karaoke party. No idea if this is a regular occurrence, but it was a pretty bizarre sound to wake up to. I was tempted to put in my earplugs, but I was camping alone and they would have reduced my situational awareness too much.