How would you rate the State Parks in your state?

[uchwear]

How would you rate the State Parks in your state for popup camping?

We are in Arkansas and we love our State Parks.  The Ouchita mountains and the Ozark Mountains run through the state.  Plus we have Mt. Magazine State Park which is the highest point between the rockies and the smokies.

Tell us a little about your state parks.

[AustinBoston]

The state parks in Minnesota (I've only camped in 4-5) are great.  Clean restrooms, decent campground roads, large sites (with significant shade as appropriate), and at least 30% of the sites are not reservable (first-come, first-serve).

But the best part is that Minnesota uses it's own reservation system, not Re$erveAmerica!  :-()

Austin

[dcampbell1969]

I love Georgia State Parks, but there only downfall is that they are first come first serve, meaning you cant reserve a particular site, you can only reserve a spot and pick from whats open when you arrive.

[jpurdy1942]

I have a agree with dcampbell1969 about the state parks in Georgia being great.
You can go to a different one each weekend. A good way to spend a year
The state has done a lot of work improving them. There are  39 for camping

[PLJ]

In Minnesota we are spoilt with State Parks. I've camped in approx 15 of them and have yet to find a bad one. Sure the bath houses can be a little on the old side, but they are well maintained and free to use. They upgraded the reservation this year and its an improvement. The sites are large and well spaced with plenty of shade from snowfalls  

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/map.html

[chasd60]

Maine has always been dry camping at the state parks. No WES but they do have warm showers and bathrooms plus a dump station.

That has finally changed as of 2007. We now have some EW sites at Camden Hills State Park and Sebago Lake State Park. This will probably get them a little fuller than they have been in the past.

[SpeakEasy]

This was a bit of a tough vote for me. The parks themselves are excellent! However, the people who run them tend to be way too permissive for my taste. It is common to have campers who have loud music playing, and it is not unusual to find young people having big beer-drinking parties on weekends. The management seems to be OK with this behavior. I've camped all over the country, and I've never experienced this anywhere else.

-Speak

[wernstriumph]

You should try NJ parks, They are well maintained and there is NO ALCOHOL. The rangers are very strict about this and will ticket you and/or ask you to leave. This cuts down on the Beer parties. The only downside is in some there are no pets allowed. Other than that, the State Park system in Jersey is very nice.

[wavery]

This is a tuff one. California State Parks run the gambit. It seems to depend on local management.

In my opinion, most of the parks that I have been to suffer varying degrees of neglect. I'm sure that it has to do with budget but it certainly doesn't get cheaper to repair by waiting. The main complaint that I have is that whenever a campsite gets damaged from flooding or anything else, it takes years for them to reopen that site. The electricity and water (which is not suppied to campsites) got wiped out at Pt Mugu and it took about 3 years before they restored the water. To me, that's just simply irresponsible management.

[paulski617]

We haved stayed in quite a few Missouri state parks.  They are very nice and the cost is way lower than private campgrounds.

[Gutpile]

We have only used New York parks a few times the last several years - plan to use them much more this year with the Bayside.  My experience so far has been very good.  For $16 you can't complain too much.  At least once, sometimes twice, a day a crew of 4 workewrs show up in a pickup and do a pretty good job of cleaning out and basically hosing down the bathrooms.  This means everything to the Boss of our site.  We stayed at a private campground a couple of years ago that ran out of water on 4th of July wknd - toilets got full - very, very FULL.  In my experience the State Parks is one of the few things NY does right and an actual example of tax $$ at work.

On the other hand, I talked to someone last week that boycotts the NY Parks because not only does the State allow people on public assistance to use them free, those same people are notorious for reserving sites and then not showing up - which causes a real problem with the ReserveAmerica system.  I am not real comfortable with his statement or its implications - and do not even know if there is a grain of truth in it, but for the purposes of this poll I thought I would throw it out there as it is apparently an existing perception with some in our state.  Again, I mention this reluctantly and possibly completely inaccurately - no offense intended.

[rjh8115]

The Michigan State Parks are fantastic.  Most (if not all) of the bathhouses have been renewed and are simply fantastic.  Many of the parks in Northern Michigan have had some of the sites removed to help increase privacy between camp sites.  Our favorite parks are up in the UP.

[Funrover]

I have always been pleased with the ones here in Colorado..... Always cleans and well cared for......

[uchwear]

I have always been pleased with the ones here in Colorado..... Always cleans and well cared for......

Have you ever stayed in Mueller?  That is supposed to be one of the best in the country.  I'm in Arkansas but I know about a dozen people here who have reccomended Mueller.

[A2SuperCrew]

The Michigan State Parks are fantastic.  Most (if not all) of the bathhouses have been renewed and are simply fantastic.  Many of the parks in Northern Michigan have had some of the sites removed to help increase privacy between camp sites.  Our favorite parks are up in the UP.

AMEN!  We love the state parks here in Michigan too.  ESPECIALLY in the U.P.!