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Reader Participation Day: Where is Your Favorite National Park Campground?

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By Kurt Repanshek - November 18th, 2009

If oceanscapes are your favorite, it's hard to beat the view from the campground at Elliott Key in Biscayne National Park. NPS photo.

Is there one particular national park campground you like to return to again and again and again?

For example, the Jenny Lake Campground in Grand Teton National Park has some of the most spectacular views of the Tetons, while the Slough Creek Campground in Yellowstone National Park is in the middle of wolf pack home ranges.

Back east, head to Cataloochee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and you're in the middle of elk habitat and off the well-trod path. Pitch your tent at the Seawall Campground in Acadia National Park and you're a ten-minute walk from the Atlantic Ocean.

Some folks like location, some like scenery, some like wildlife nearby. With that understood, where are your favorite national park campgrounds?

Comments

Submitted by admin on November 26, 2009 - 11:21am.

I really have 2 campgrounds that I really like that are just in a few miles from were I live and go there quite a lot. The first is Matthews Arm Campground in Shenandoah National Park. It has good hikeing trails and lots of wildlife and the views are great. The Campground is really clean and nicly kept. The other is Elizabeth Furance Campground in George Washing National Forest. It also has good hiking trails and nice Campground. It has the old Pig Iron Furance which is interesting and nice stream for Trout Fishing. Both these campgrounds are within 30 miles of were I live which makes it really nice.


Submitted by [email protected] on November 26, 2009 - 8:36pm.

My best memories of tent camping in national park campgrounds, which are accessible to cars, would be the Needles Campground in Canyonlands and Lost Creek Primitive Campground at Crater Lake. Tent sites were spatious, and the scenery nearby is outstanding. The distance between camp sites is sufficient to feel truly as if you are camping out in nature. These campgrounds are quiet and wonderful for viewing the stars at night. I am told that the Needles Campground was designed by the legendary NPS'er, Paul Fritz.

The most luxurious campground experience was Bandy Creek in the Big South Fork NRRA. Comfort Stations come complete with interior heating and hot showers! I know of no other place in the entire NPS where campgrounds have hot showers (and the facilities are very clean and well maintained).

Owen Hoffman
Oak Ridge, TN 37830


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