Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Hi all, The recent thread about favorite camping spots has got me thinking. We (and I assume many on this site) camp most frequently at our state parks. So what do you like best about your state park system or DNR or whatever? For me there are three things about Missouri in different areas: 1) Our DNR is funded largely by a 1/8 cent sales tax that keeps us one of the top systems around. 2) The DNR recognizes that we are uniquely endowed with natural resources that are tourist magnets and endeavor to keep Non-resident fees low to encourage economic growth of the vacation industry. 3) MO's state park web-site has campground maps of all the state parks that really help with selecting campsites--for example if seclusion is a priority or perhaps nearness to a showerhouse. Also, there are links from these maps to pictures of many of the individual campsites.

While I've never camped in Arkansas, their website has some fabulous photography and I really like the idea of lodges that seem prominent in Arkansas's and Tennessee's systems.

You get what I'm after here? What's special about your state parks or DNR?

Best,
Tom

tk wrote:You get what I'm after here? What's special about your state parks or DNR?

Best,
Tom

I don't live in Virginia but it's next door to DC (which isn't a state and doesn't have campgrounds) and I'm a HUGE FAN of Virginia State Parks, because:

They are very DOG-FRIENDLY.


Dogs are even allowed in VA State Park cabins, for $5 per dog, per night.

If Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania were as dog-friendly as Virginia, they'd get my business, too.

PA seems to be particularly inhospitable to dogs. So PA gets a

NYS parks are:
-- dog friendly (only certain areas are dog free; otherwise, nearly all other spots dogs are welcome)
-- most feature full washrooms in or very close to the loops. Many CNY ones include showers in loop washrooms rather than in a separate shower facility, which makes cleaning up during rainy camping much easier
-- most loops in the CNY and Adirondack parks offer wooded or semi-wooded sites
-- most sites have good fire rings and picnic tables
-- the NYS DEC issues a cool book called 'The Campgrounds of NY' and issues a brochure for each state park that has a full park map (loops, site locations, amenity locations) as well as information on local sites and points of interest

Hiker Chick,
There are some Pa State Parks that allow dogs for camping...................just have to go through their list. I have a dog and wish there were more but a few a better than none.
Barb

The list for allowing pets is getting bigger in PA!

http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/ ... /pets.aspx

Don't let 'em think they are doing you any favors....

The REAL reason dogs are allowed in these parks are as BEAR deterrents!

Most dog only sites ironically are placed close to dumpsters!

Cheers,

Coop

b.bodemer wrote:Hiker Chick,
There are some Pa State Parks that allow dogs for camping...................just have to go through their list. I have a dog and wish there were more but a few a better than none.
Barb

Last month I bought the "Best In Tent Camping - Pennsylvania" guide and was annoyed at campground after campground being listed as "no dogs."

I should have known. In the mid-90s when I was first getting into east coast camping I'd discovered that PA did not allow dogs -- at all -- in their state parks. So I wrote the head of the PA state parks and politely informed him that it was a shame since I'd looked forward to visiting the state but would instead be bypassing PA and camping in dog-friendly New York.

Never received a response.

It looks like PA is slightly -- ever so slightly -- more accomodating of dogs today but is, overall, still quite hostile to dogs and, therefore, inhospitable to dog owners.

On principle, I won't be camping in Pennsylvania State Parks, period.

Gidget and I are boycotting.


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oops

bobhenry wrote:Love me love my dog or kiss my grits.RE: "Mel kiss my grits. " Florence Jean Castleberry " Flo " on ALICE

I had not thought of Flo, Kiss Mah Grits and "Alice" for years. Decades.

Thanks, for the memories...

I'm in extreme northern California and maybe I'm spoiled because of the abundance of good camping spots here in the redwoods...
Around here, state parks are "crampgroundish" IMO.
I much prefer the county parks in my area...

http://www.petfriendlytravel.com/?page=state_parks

I don't think NJ allows pets in any of their State Parks?!

Cheers,

Coop