Campground Rates 2024

[4Campers]

Since we're within the six-month range to make reservations, I just checked a few of our local parks for Mother's Day weekend. And our favorite sites.
OMG the rate at our close to home old fav park this year is $46.25 per night! Our fav site is available but there is no way I'm paying that kind of money to camp at that park. It's a county park.
Our second fav park is the next state over. Dang if the entire corner of sites where we like to camp are all reserved already. Someone got on the early bird wagon. Rates there are $30 per night. An Indiana state park.
Third fav park is great, but it's a drive through country roads and it's bring everything you want & need because the closest shopping is 25-30 miles away. Darn near every site is available, and their rate is $30 per night. This is an Ohio State Park.
Guess where we'll be camping this year?

[GoneCamping]

On the rare occasion when I actually have to pay to stay (will be 2 nights this spring), Lums Pond State Park in northern Delaware cost me $40 per night. I can book that a year out too!! So I booked those 2 dates this fall before I left Maine.

At least at Thousand Trails I don't have pay anything per night. I don't know if you guys remember "Trailblazer" from the PUX site, but he joined TT after seeing my posts about it. He's currently here from Ontario now at TTO also, about 10 sites down the street from me!!

[4Campers]

At least at Thousand Trails I don't have pay anything per night. I don't know if you guys remember "Trailblazer" from the PUX site, but he joined TT after seeing my posts about it. He's currently here from Ontario now at TTO also, about 10 sites down the street from me!!

I remember Trailblazer. Very cool they are camped close by.
We camped with Spirit Deer and Scooby Doo several years ago, if you remember those names from PUX.
Our daughter still has her TT membership, although they didn't use it much last year. Trailer axle went bad and SIL has yet to fix it.

[GoneCamping]

I camped with Rae a few times, and her husband and son Jeff. Went to a couple of mini-rallies together!!

[toomanytents]

I miss reading Rae's posts!  I hope she and Fred are doing well.

[GoneCamping]

I thought I read somewhere that Rae had passed away, I hope I'm wrong about this....

[4Campers]

I thought I read somewhere that Rae had passed away, I hope I'm wrong about this....

I hope that's wrong too. I know Fred had a heart attack a few years ago. Last time Rae posted in PUX was last year, and never answered any of the replies.

[toomanytents]

I think she was on Facebook, but I'm not in that club so I can't look.


Back to campground rates.  Have you ever seen them go down from year to year?
Typical rates here are $30-$35 for state parks.  County parks generally about the same but vary more.  Biggest reason for lower rates seems to be the government owned sites don't pay property tax (meaning the campers don't either), they usually don't have wifi and they rely on some volunteer labor.

Typical rates for private campgrounds can approach a decent hotel room.  It's hard for us to justify that unless you really like all the bells and whistles (ie built in entertainment), which we don't care about.

We first started tent camping because it was all we could afford for entertainment.  Tent sites were about $5 a night.  Now they are $15 for Forest Service/BLM and $25 for state/county parks.

[GoneCamping]

The state parks seem to keep inching up, not sure about other government run parks. I used to use Army COE parks almost exclusively, even worked at one as a volunteer when I first retired. But haven't been to one of them in 5 years now. I'll have to poke around. Five years ago I was paying $13 per night (that's with the 50% discount with my old geezer card).

[GoneCamping]

As an update, I just checked rates at North Bend Park (the park I used most of the time), they are up to $34 per night, which means my card would get me in for $17 per night, still not too shabby....

[4Campers]

If I could find my old copies of Pop Up Times magazines Rae's full name was used in her articles. Then I could do an obit check on the MN gov website.

Our OH state parks have been $30 a night for years. The county parks used to be $30, then $35, now $46. Plus you need a park pass to enter, those are $5 a night or $20 a year for residents. I wouldn't mind paying more if they did anything to fix the place, but the last upgrade was the new bathhouse almost 10 years ago. Roads are bad, sites are sloped from erosion, raccoons are thick as bugs, etc.

[GoneCamping]

Perhaps Dno will have her name some where....