Campground Review:
Paris Mountain State Park is just a short drive outside of Greenville, SC, but seems a world away. It is beautiful in all seasons. The campground is a typical state campground. Water, electric, fire ring, and picnic table were at our site. We stayed at #39 which was fine for our needs. If you had any sort of rig, we would NOT recommend this spot. The concrete was in poor shape and would make for a leveling nightmare. We voted we’d stay in #40 next time. It was a pull through with a creek running by the fire ring. The shower house was perfectly adequate and clean. Their reservation system was easy. We enjoyed all of the hiking options and the swimming area in the park.
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Product Review:
As Rangers for The Dyrt, we get to test products from time to time– today we tested Banner & Oak apparel www.bannerandoak.com. We loved their trucker hats. They were breathable, and held their shape under the sweat from a hard hike. We felt they were very attractive as well. As a long torso’d and arm’d couple, we both noticed right away and appreciated the length of the shirts themselves and the length of the sleeves on the long-sleeved shirt. There is nothing worse than washing shirts and having to stretch the heck out of them to try to get them back to looking presentable. We have no fear our Banner & Oak short and long-sleeved shirts will not give us this trouble. They worked well under our packs and we didn’t find ourselves needing to pull down our shirt every few mins or so. As a larger busted woman, however, their Women’s Large ran a bit small in the chest. I normally wear a Large which gives me some room to move around, but I wish I would have ordered my shirt in a XL. It is a tight fit. All in all, we really liked Banner & Oak’s apparel, in style, cut (mostly), and comfort. The shirt material is super soft and we could see ourselves ordering more from their site.
Plenty of room at our site for 2 tents, but it was a little difficult to find level spots. Lots of shade. Enjoyed hanging out in the water and finding fossils on the rocky beach. Kayaking was easy and fun. Shower house was clean. Would stay again.
First come, first served and self-serve pay sites. No shower, just one pit toilet. Even in the summer, nights drop into the 30s so we opted to car camp vs pitching our tent - especially since there was a fire ban during our stay. The night sky was breathtaking. The hike up to Goat Lake is still one of our most favorite hikes, simply gorgeous but strenuous at times, so be prepared. This was a great location to stay if you are planning to hike out of the Iron Creek Trailhead.
Plenty of tent sites were available during our stay. There was not a lot of shade and the sites were very sandy. We loved having the pool and hot tub available to us after long days hiking/exploring the National Parks. The sunsets were gorgeous. The bummer was that they were working on the plumbing to the pools during our stay so we had to endure some loud construction noise. Convenient to town and the parks. Shower houses were clean. We’d stay there again if visiting the area.
Tent spots were just a short walk to the trail head to go up to the peak. Spots are first come first served, so get there early. We lucked out and got the last one by just a few minutes. Get up and on the trail super early in the late spring/summer months. If it’s a sunny day it is very hot and it gets pretty miserable on the trail. There is really no way to get relief when done (no showers to cool off). Toilets were clean. The sky at night was amazing. Don’t forget to stop at the visitor center, there were some neat displays and some historical building ruins to see. It was fairly windy during our stay and we had to use rocks to help hold down our tent, since we only had the flimsy stakes that came with the tent with us to use. We’d definitely stop there again if we wanted to hike in the park.
We had a great stay! Very easy in/out and beautiful grounds. Shower house was clean and the pool was nice. WiFi worked well. We enjoyed the hiking trails. Cell coverage was good for work (att & Verizon). We stayed in a lakeside site, which was spacious and pretty. They all had a nice concrete pad, big enough to make a patio from right outside your door. Lots of alligator warning signs were everywhere. We did not see any, but it did make noises in the night 100% scarier. Great location right off 95 and a quick drive to Hilton Head and Savannah. We’d definitely stay here again.
We enjoyed our stay here. The site was great, we enjoyed being right next to the pond. The resident ducks entertained us everyday and would follow us around. We were right next to the playground, but there weren’t a lot of kids there, so didn’t have any issues in that regard. WiFi worked well and cell coverage was good (att & Verizon). Easy to get to downtown Charleston. We would definitely stay again.
We called to reserve a week long stay and were told they had sites available, which turned out was only one. The campground is definitely a “no frills” park and mostly used by long term/permanent residents. The host/owner had us pull right next to his own rig, it was a tight fit and we had zero privacy. He then proceeded to sit on his RV stairs and smoke and stare at us both when we were outside and when we were in our rig. We could smell the smoke which isn’t ok with us. We didn’t even bother to put the slides out. When we set up the electricity we had fire ants attack us. We decided quickly that we’d only stay the night and we’d leave first thing in the morning. Across the street is a nice state park and campground (Colleton State Park) but they unfortunately didn’t have any sites open big enough for our 30 ft class A. I’d recommend staying there over this campground if you want to be in this exact area. We luckily found another campground closer to Charleston to stay at.
Sites were large and easy to level out at. Used to be a nascar resort, and they still have their signs up. Took off a star because the shower house wasn’t clean - not sure if/when they clean it because it was pretty much the same during our stay. We didn’t do the cavern tour, but did take advantage of their hiking trails onsite. It is well worth the effort to climb up to their sign to take in the views. There are picnic tables up there. We didn’t have enough time but going up there with a glass of local wine at sunset would be awesome. Great location to get to Shenandoah NP, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, and wineries.
Very pretty campground in the fall. Operators live onsite and were friendly. Full connections and no issues leveling. Easy in/out and close to Greenville, Paris Mountain, Travelers Rest, Swamp Rabbit Trail etc. Bathhouses were very clean, but the lights are on motion detectors which weren’t sensitive enough to pick you up in the shower. We both had a couple moments of total darkness to contend with. A camp cat hung around our site at times and loved the heat coming out of our furnace. We don’t have pets so didn’t mind. Cell coverage was great (att & Verizon), so we had no issues working our 9-5s. Love the bubbling creek next to our site, which was so pretty from our back window. We’d definitely stay again.
Some mobile homes and a lot of pipeline workers staying here. The only spots available were electric and were super tight with no landscaping etc. We had to be careful to ensure our slide outs wouldn’t hit the electric boxes. Bathhouse ventilation was lacking, so smelled musty even though it was clean. Cell coverage was good (att & Verizon), so we had no issues working. Good location to head into the Amish country, Harrisburg, Hershey and/or Gettysburg. We also drove out to Baltimore one day during our stay. If you’re just looking for a launch pad for adventures, this place will work fine. If you’re wanting to hang at the campground, I wouldn’t stay here.
Very easy to level and setup on #7. Full connections. Pay showers and laundry onsite. Loved having gated security. My husband went on a work trip (Albany airport isn’t too terribly far away) and left me alone for a few days and we left our rig to take the train (about 1 hr away in Poukeepsie) into the city for the weekend and we had no problems. Great launch pad to explore the area from. We don’t have kids, but they seemed to offer a lot of programming for them. We enjoyed taking long walks through the campground. Cell coverage was good for us to work (att & Verizon). Stayed 8 nights.
Just ok. This is a small family run operation. We stayed 3 nights and that was plenty. We basically used this campground as a base to get out and explore the surrounding area, so in that sense, it was fine. They only had a couple spots open as the entire campground was basically full of long stay campers and cabins. The shower house was in the main home of the owner/operators, which was at times odd (you could hear them talking, cooking etc, so it kind of felt like you were intruding). No sewer hookups . At Check-in they said their son would come to our site and remotely pump our tanks before we left, but that never happened and we didn’t even bother to make a big deal about it. As we were pulling out they apologized saying he came by but we weren’t there 🤷🏻♀️ The cabin “resident” next to us had loud dogs that barked at anything that moved outside, so that didn’t make for a peaceful stay. The sites were set up a little weird with the hookups not where it made sense to park. If you had a big rig (40 ft+), I don’t think it would be easy to figure out a solution. We had to wiggle ours around to get in a position to hook our electric up. In a pinch this campground would work, but this is definitely not a campground that I’d recommend for a longer stay. Cell coverage was ok for us to work (att & Verizon).
For being in an urban area, you don't feel it once in the campground. You might hear a distant train, but not too much else. The location was perfect to see so much in the area (Minute Man National Historical Park, Boston, Salem, Plymouth, Cape Cod, Providence etc). It also is near all conveniences, with multiple choices for groceries, restaurants, shopping etc. We headed to a nearby Target one night just to get my fix since I hadn't been in one for ages and we were getting stir crazy in the RV one rainy night during our stay.
The customer service was great - they escort you to your camping spot so there is no confusion. We liked our site "F" which was in the back outer edge of the campground and was at an angle which gave us more privacy between our neighbors and a gorgeous view from our back window. We watched chipmunks, squirrels, hawks and other birds from our windows. It was a 30 amp, back in. We were told that we got the last site, and we were so surprised this was the one - it was so nice! We quickly realized that more people seemed to want the pull through sites, but as you can see in our picture, you skip out on the size and privacy of your site then. The only downside for our site was that it was rainy during our stay and we had some muddy spots to deal with when getting out of our car.
There was only one showerhouse which is at the office, so if you're in the back of the campground, it's a bit of a hike. It was super clean, updated, and they have speakers playing country music 24/7. They also had a nice looking laundry area (we didn't use), a rec room (didn't use), and a pool (didn't use).
The dump station was tight but fine to get into while we were hooked up to our tow car, even though it is on an incline to get out of the campground.
Weekends seemed to be pretty busy, but the campground was dead during the week and we were all by ourselves in our spot. They have cabins tucked in between sites that seemed pretty popular too.
They take a few different discount plans and have a weekly discounted rate as well.
One of our recommendations would be to go to a nearby Korean restaurant, Woo Jung in Ayers. It was soooo good. We found out they weren't open Mondays or Tuesdays because we tried to go back a second time before we left. You won't regret it!
The campground is first come, first served and has a seventh night free deal. Cash or check only. With a lower cost per night, free wifi, full hookups and a chance for a water view, we decided to take the risk and show up. We had several options to choose from, but that wouldn't have been true during our stay. We saw some pretty big rigs with very awkward setups in smaller, unlevel sites because there weren't any other options when they showed up.
We liked our site. C4 is a pull through with full hookups (30 amp). It was level, clean and a short walk to the water view, shower house, and laundry facility. We also liked how close we were to Bar Harbor, Acadia, and other attractions. Mainely Meats and Udder Heaven ice cream was a quick walk from inside the campground (there was a walking access to them). Across the street from them was Pirates Cove mini golf. We visited each and would definitely recommend as a treat to anyone staying here. The only downside was that they were decreasing their hours and were only open until 8, and if you were out hiking etc it made it an all out sprint to be there before closing. Pirates Cove is open until 9p right now.
We didn't need our WeBoost, the cell signal was fine, and the camp's wifi was great. Laundry was super clean and nice with approx 10 washers and 4 dryers ($1 each). Showers are $.25 for 5 min and were very clean.
We are suckers for pinball and had been eyeing the machine in the little shack arcade when you first pull into the campground. Save your money because most of the games had out of order signs and the pinball machine should have too.
We would definitely stay again and hopefully would be lucky enough to get a water view next time!
What a unique campground! We loved the concept of camping on a working farm, but being on the ocean as well was pretty awesome combination. If you could can get by without electricity and water, there were too many to count gorgeous spots right along the shoreline. Since we couldn't, we were in the only loop with connections which has no water views. Their website was helpful and being able to book online was nice. Their pictures were a good representation of each campsite. No spots at the campground had sewer connections and the dump station was a pull in and back out because the worker's cars were parked in a way that blocked being able to pull through.
The shower house was the only area with working plumbing. The rest of the campground had pit toilets. They had air fresheners installed, but that did little to help. They also had hand sanitizer installed in our loop's toilet, as there was no running water/sink. Given having no sewer connection and the fact we hate cleaning our shower, we regularly use a campground's shower house. We dreaded our showers here and knocked a star off for them. They were very bare bones, mostly dirty, and were just ugh. They had four stalls and kept the doors open with door stoppers, so all kinds of "things" hung out in them. One night one had some kind of animal poop in it. Not great, but survivable.
The spots on the outer sites on our loop were more spacious and backed up to trees. We were in the inner loop, which we still felt was fine in terms of space, but we backed up to an open field. The sites were clean. Ours was pretty level but there was a drainage ditch that unfortunately lined right up to our door, so we had to be super careful when entering/exiting our rig otherwise we could have fallen into the ditch.
The camp office had some fresh produce and milk from the farm for sell and the farm also had a little stand with more choices. The camp food stand looked awesome. They were advertising a full lobster dinner option on Saturdays and wood fired pizza night on Fridays. They, however, gave us no notice at check-in that they would be closing the stand during our stay, so we missed out.
We didn't do any farm tours, but it looked like they had several options to see things there, especially for kids. We loved our walks through the campground and farm. The dairy cows would be let out at night and were right by the roads and at low tide we watched some folks out digging for clams.
Proximity to Freeport was only a couple minute pretty drive. On the way into town was Bow Street Market which was like a combination grocery/farmers market with a full liquor store. We stocked up there and spent an evening at the outlets in town and LL Bean. The town closes super early at this time of the year, so there wasn't too many options outside of LL Bean after 6p. We drove to Portland for a night, and found that to be super easy from this location.
Cell reception was great for AT&T and Verizon. We didn't need our weBoost. The campground's wifi worked really well.
We'd stay again and recommended it to another couple talking about staying in Freeport.
Last min decision and we got their last spot for Labor Day weekend. We paid for it a bit. Dogs and kids were EVERYWHERE and neither were well behaved. We heard lots of Massachusetts accents screaming to "knock it off already!" We also were in the spot right next to the walkway to the bathhouse, so had steady traffic going by. Our site #60 was gravel, back in, 30 amp, full hookup. It was slightly uphill, so we had to pull the RV all the way to the front of the site to be able to level.
Tent and RV sites were in our loop, which they called the North section. The center was grass, so we were able to park our toad there.
The check-in was a MESS, again Labor Day weekend, but still. It was almost dangerous. We followed the signs and turned in at the main campground. We quickly realized that multiple people were checking in, we had blocked in someone, and more were starting to back up on the road and were honking. I ran in to get our site number so Jason could move out of the way. The person working the desk said, "don't worry, they can wait" and proceeded the full check-in process. Meanwhile, Jason had decided to pull forward, and given there were no signs he turned immediately right to get out of the way. After I left the office, I realized quickly he had turned against a one way. Now all the rigs were coming in and we had no way to turn around to get out and over to the North loop. We had to detach the toad and back our RV up to get in a position to turn around. It was not fun.
The campground has sites that back up to the Pemigewasset River. As gorgeous as that is, on the hour, every hour, a tourist train comes through on the other side of the river whistling and firing some sort of prop gun maybe (?). It was unexpected to say the least. We didn't talk to anyone about it, and just figured it was the train from the Clark's Trading Post attraction down the street. If you're cool with the train and want a pretty view, go for #46 in the North loop.
The location was great to get to The Franconian Notch State Park to hike and to get on the Kangamangus Hwy for the gorgeous drive to Conway.
Our cell service was great and the campground's wifi most always worked for internet surfing and such.
Although loud with their kids and dogs, our neighbors were friendly asking lots of questions about our rig and why we were so far away from home. We'd stay again for a short trip.
We didn't advance book, so we were in one of the last available spots. Site 2 is a flat, gravel back in, 30 amp, full hookup. We were near the pool (didn't feel warm, so we didn't partake) and office. With no privacy or nature around us, we were surrounded by permanent residents and the one spot that most people stayed at only over night. We didn't mind much, as we really used this location as a base to do all the touristy things in the area and spend time in Burlington. The grounds had gravel walking paths to the bathhouse that cut through the sites and had landscape lighting so there was barely a need for flashlights if heading there at night. The grounds were landscaped well, and they were changing flower beds over to mums for fall during our stay.
Check out their weekly rate, that cut our cost down. I think the daily rate is in the $40s.
The bathhouse was clean. The ladies side had a fresh flower arrangement everyday. We did a few loads of laundry: $2 to residential wash (2 washers) and .25 for every 10 min in an industrial dryer (2 dryers). It looked like one washer had been used to wash something majorly dirty, so we only used the other clean washer. That was a bummer, but we survived.
The campground's website does a great job explaining how close they are to all the area attractions and we couldn't have been more pleased. We did all things super local in Shelburne and Burlington and also ventured out to do some hiking, sightseeing, and food tours.
Working was a breeze. The campgrounds wifi worked really well and we were finally able to do some website work. We had no issues with our 9-5 jobs. Connecting and taking calls on Verizon and AT&T worked well, we didn't really need our WeBoost at all.
Don't freak out like we did - if you're getting to the campground from the north slightly past the campground sign there is a turn off from the right lane with a stop light to easily turn around (the road is divided).
Took stars off for noise because every single day they were mowing, weedeating, taking a tractor around to spread around gravel. It was always something! It became a joke after a few days - how much mowing can a small campground need?!? That includes mowing our own site, going around our RV and lines. We weren't thrilled.
All in all, a great place to stay in the area. We would definitely stay again.
Although the campground was right off the road, it's still in a forest with big pine trees and mossy boulders. It was easy to access from 87. Given the proximity to the road, there is road noise, so that doesn't allow for that super outdoorsy experience you might desire. At night though it would get very dark and quiet - there weren't a lot of campers there during our stay. The camphost lives in a home onsite and was mostly helpful. Be sure to mention the 5 nights for 4 deal on their website upfront, otherwise she won't reimburse. Upon working with her to extend our stay, she said people were scheduled to come into our spot. We moved and no one arrived, so that was a bit annoying.
To get to the sites, we had to take it a bit slow because there are some low hanging trees and a turn, but made it fine. Our first site, 22, was a back-in, 30 amp, full hook-up. It was a long site with plenty of room for our RV and SUV. We had to back it up to the very end to find the flattest option to level. With the way they have their sites set up, you need a 50 ft hose for water. This site was close to the showerhouse but next to a longterm trailer with crap everywhere and we weren't super thrilled that was our view from our windows in our living area. Our second site, 50, was also a back-in, 30 amp, full hookup. It was very pretty but hard to level. The site slopes up, so the backend was high. We tried about every way to sit our rig in there to level, but we ended up driving our front tires up on some leveling blocks and went up with the jacks as much as we safely could. We didn't get a perfect level, but we decided it was ok since we only had 2 days left. We had to wiggle our SUV in kind of sideways, but it worked.
There were some "residents" there in tents, which was interesting and a couple longterm trailers (with the typical cluttered lots you see at campgrounds that offer longterm stays). The campground is clean and the shower houses were faithfully cleaned everyday around 11a. Showerhouses were dated, but had super hot water for showers.
A few miles further down the road is the town of Lake Luzerne. We visited their small grocery which had the basics and we ate at one of the restaurants which had a view of the water (Upriver Cafe). The campground was in a perfect location to visit Lake George and surrounding area (Six Flags, outlet shops, putt-putt, restaurants etc). If you're wanting to explore even more you're only 1.5 hrs to Lake Placid and the Green Mountain National Forest.
Work was difficult with my husband dependent on AT&T. The Weboost got Verizon working fine, but AT&T was spotty. We had some issues with our RV that we were trying to get fixed locally which extended our stay, otherwise we would have left earlier due to this. The camphost told us that they had invested in some sort of mini Verizon tower for their personal use, so that was what was helping the Verizon signal. The campground offers wifi at the office/pool/rec room area, but when the "residents" come down, it brings it to a snails pace. My husband would go down there in the morning to work and had to go to Starbucks in Lake George at times when all the kids at camp decided to be on their devices at the same time.
Pool is not heated, so not many people were using it. They charge $2 per garbage bag to be put in their dumpster. They sell a few necessities in their office and firewood. They have laundry with 1 working residential washer $1 and 1 residential dryer $.75 and 1 industrial sized dryer $1. We did a couple loads with no issue. They are outside in a patio area.
Bring the bug spray. The mosquitos were as big as birds and tenacious!
We loved our stay at the "Grand Canyon of the East!" This is a gorgeous forested campground with many things to occupy your time! They unfortunately had trail #7 and the upper falls closed for repairs, but we did trail #1 to see the gorge and lower and middle falls. One night we treated ourselves to a dinner at the Glen Iris Inn - food was ok, but we just enjoyed being out on the porch, listening to the falls and drinking some good wine. They have flights of local Finger Lakes wineries too. There are no water hookups. We didn't bother to fill up our tank, just used the shower house and water faucets located throughout each loop. Shower houses were ok - not the best, but worked just fine. We were happy with our decision as the dumping station had 3 stalls and there was a long line backed up to dump early Sunday. The town of Perry was maybe a 5 min drive away and there was a small grocery there with just about everything you would need. We didn't get one, but you can order pizzas there and they cook in about 10 min if you would need a quick dinner. There is no wood for sale at the campground, but there are several farmers with stands on the way in or in Perry the grocery and gas station sold bundles too. We were able to work just fine with our weboost set up, otherwise we had spotty coverage with about 1 bar on AT&T and Verizon and no real ability to create hotspots. We also want to give a huge shoutout to the staff, as we really needed to stay one more day to be able to make it to our next reservation and the entire campground was booked. They were so kind to open up an "administrative site" for us to stay at. Each loop has different types of sites, so tents are mixed in with rigs. 800 was pretty flat, but when we switched to 500 we saw some pretty gnarly leveling setups that made us cringe. Luckily we were able to safely level out at our site.