Observations from our 1st trip

[bmbkamp]

Well, we took our new PU to Kiptopeke SP in VA last week.  All went relatively well.  Took a day to load the PU before we left.  Didn

[Kelly]

All in all, a great trip.  Stayed in a place we

[vjm1639]

Sounds like a great trip.  Did you get pictures of Kiptopeake?  That's a park I'd really like to visit.    

 
Simple Green should get that soot right off your camper!  ;>

[bmbkamp]

The only picture I took in the campground was just our PU, so it doesn't really show much.

Kiptopeke was nice.  The campground is fairly small - about 100 sites pretty close together, but they are spaced apart enough so you don't feel you are on top of each other.  The sites are in and around a rectangle.  Only the outside of the rectangle and just 4 or so sites within the rectangle are shaded.  There were dry sites, but I'm not sure if they were for tenters only.  We got there on a Sunday, so the campground was fairly empty when we got there.  It started to fill up on Thursday.  Bathrooms were OK - not horrible, not great either.  No hot water the last 2 days we were there, but it was so hot, we didn't care.  I was surprised about how quiet it was.  That might have something to do with the weather at the time.  There is a trail that leads to a bay shoreline with lifeguards.  A ton of crabs in the water, but they move out of your way faster than you can step on them.  There is also a boat launch and fishing pier right next to the beach as well.  It seemed that the majority of campers broaught their boats, too.  The park runs programs and my kids got to touch horseshoe crabs.  They have a birdwatching and tagging area, if you are into that.  They have some nature trails, and there was a nature preserve nearby.  There is absolutely nothing else to do there, and not much in the surrounding area.  Cape Charles is a cute little town, but again, not a whole lot there.  There is a convenience store and seafood restaurant a few miles north of the park entrance on Route 13, and a Food Lion and Dollar General a few more miles north of that.  No hardware stores that we could find (but we didn't look that hard), and the nearest Wal-Mart was about 3 hours (or more) north, or somewhere over the bridge ($12 one-way) south.  That can either be good or bad, depending on your expectations.  Quite frankly, we really didn't expect that much desolation.  But we weren't disappointed.
Overall, it was a great location for us.  We did day trips to Norfolk (1 hour), Williamsburg (2 hours), and Chincoteague (2 hours).
Would I camp there again?  Not sure.  I don't have a boat, so the launch is not an attraction for me.  And I'd rather swim in the ocean (with waves) than the bay.  But it was quiet and clean.  And I wish I had more time to use the trails and get a better picture of the surrounding area.
 
Hope that helps.