# Coast To Coast Campgrounds



## chillaxin

I'd say about 75% of our trips last year were to various state parks in Virginia, but after visiting a really nice Coast to Coast camp resort (Shenandoah Crossing) in our area last year, DW and I decided to join C2C this year. While we still plan to hit several state parks again this year, we're planning to take some longer trips as well, and would like to visit some of the campgrounds in the C2C network. We're looking for any recommended "must see" campgrounds in the network in and around the state of VA, including NC, SC, MD, DE, and PA. Or any places we should avoid, lol? Any feedback from C2C members is appreciated.


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## bradnjess

Thats awesome, we've talked about joining c2c sometime in the future. It sure is a lot cheaper than paying full price at campgrounds. We're members of Indian Cove in VA Beach (Sandbridge) and its a c2c cg. While it certainly isn't a "must see" cg it is a decent one and would make a good base camp for a Va Beach trip. Its not in the resort area, and its about 5 miles from Sandbridge, which is more like a small Outer Banks as opposed to the VB Oceanfront. I know there are only a certain number of sites available to c2c members at our cg and would assume its like that at all of them. Camp Hatteras is very nice, and a whole week would cost you as much as a weekend at regular price. I've also heard from several people at our cg that the Gettysburg c2c is nice too. Enjoy!

Brad

BTW, what state parks do you enjoy going to? We picked up a couple of Trojan 6v batteries last year and planned on doing more dry/remote camping this year. It seems like all the good ones are around Richmond and west, just curios which ones you'd recommend.


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## chillaxin

bradnjess said:


> Thats awesome, we've talked about joining c2c sometime in the future. It sure is a lot cheaper than paying full price at campgrounds. We're members of Indian Cove in VA Beach (Sandbridge) and its a c2c cg. While it certainly isn't a "must see" cg it is a decent one and would make a good base camp for a Va Beach trip. Its not in the resort area, and its about 5 miles from Sandbridge, which is more like a small Outer Banks as opposed to the VB Oceanfront. I know there are only a certain number of sites available to c2c members at our cg and would assume its like that at all of them. Camp Hatteras is very nice, and a whole week would cost you as much as a weekend at regular price. I've also heard from several people at our cg that the Gettysburg c2c is nice too. Enjoy!
> 
> Brad
> 
> BTW, what state parks do you enjoy going to? We picked up a couple of Trojan 6v batteries last year and planned on doing more dry/remote camping this year. It seems like all the good ones are around Richmond and west, just curios which ones you'd recommend.


Hi Brad,

Funny, you mentioned Indian Cove. That's the home park of some very good friends of ours, and we spent Columbus Day weekend with them there last year and loved it. We had sites that backed up to the inlet, so the view from our site was pretty cool. It's another reason we wanted to join C2C, so we could camp there for $10 a night rather than the $40 we payed last year. Camp Hatteras is definitely on the list for this year too. We went to Ocean Waves last year and drove by Camp Hatteras, and liked what we saw, but now as C2C members, we're really looking forward to that trip this summer. C2C is certainly a lot cheaper if you do a lot of camping like we do. Plus, the state parks around here have started enforcing the $5 a night per pet policy as of late last year, so even the cost of camping at state parks has gone up. The pet policy has always been there I guess, but nobody ever really enforced it, but we noticed it was starting to be enforced late last season, and the camp hosts were actually marking your site tag with pet information.

Anyway, we still love the state parks in VA. I think there are about 20 that you can actually RV camp in, and we've camped at 10 of them and visited 7 others. We have 3 favorites, Chippokes in Surry, Belle Isle in Lancaster, and James River in Gladstone. All three are relatively small with approximately 30 sites (which we like), but the sites are fairly good sized, especially at Belle Isle. Also, these three have the cleanest bath house/restrooms of all the state parks we've visited. We used to own a popup so clean facilities were important to us before we got the OB, lol. Lake Anna in Spotsylvania is also pretty new and very nice, but during the summer, you can't get a weekend reservation there because everyone has their boat up there on the lake. Another one that we really liked was Natural Tunnel near Big Stone Gap, and if wasn't a 6 hour drive for us, we would go back there every year.

The one SP that we really want to visit but have not made it to yet, is Grayson Highlands. It's somewhere near Wytheville I believe, and I've heard good things about it. Have you ever been there?

Tim


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## bradnjess

Tim, I've heard great things about Grayson Highlands but haven't been there myself. We've been talking about Chippokes for years now but it never seems to fit in to the camping schedule. Honestly when we head west to the mountains its usually nat. parks. Our favorite is Sherando Lake, but its so hard to get into on a first come first serve basis. One of the volunteers last fall rumored that they were going to start taking reservations this year, although I think it will make it even less likely to get a spot. North Creek was always a favorite back in our tent and pop-up days. We were up in Natural Bridge last summer at Yogi and drove through Cave Mtn. Lake cg a fell in love with it but its so far from us it makes it difficult.

We'll be at The Cove a lot this summer, most holidays and some random weekends, maybe we'll see you around. Thanks for the SP info.

Brad


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## battalionchief3

I have heard that with CtoC it can be difficult to get a site cause they only have a limited about of sites for members. I also heard that it does not appyl on weekends in the summer or special event weekends ( like holiday weekends ) does anyone know if thats true?


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## Jim - Chesapeake VA

bradnjess said:


> Thats awesome, we've talked about joining c2c sometime in the future. It sure is a lot cheaper than paying full price at campgrounds. We're members of Indian Cove in VA Beach (Sandbridge) and its a c2c cg. While it certainly isn't a "must see" cg it is a decent one and would make a good base camp for a Va Beach trip. Its not in the resort area, and its about 5 miles from Sandbridge, which is more like a small Outer Banks as opposed to the VB Oceanfront. I know there are only a certain number of sites available to c2c members at our cg and would assume its like that at all of them. Camp Hatteras is very nice, and a whole week would cost you as much as a weekend at regular price. I've also heard from several people at our cg that the Gettysburg c2c is nice too. Enjoy!
> 
> Brad
> 
> BTW, what state parks do you enjoy going to? We picked up a couple of Trojan 6v batteries last year and planned on doing more dry/remote camping this year. It seems like all the good ones are around Richmond and west, just curios which ones you'd recommend.


You've probably done Kiptopeke on the Eastern Shore, but if you haven't, we really like it. We've done some group camping there, putting the trailer on a E/W site, cutting through the woods to the next street where our friends in tents were. We love to kayak and there's also a great swimming beach. The drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel adds cost, but is a great part of the trip. I can always feel my stress bleeding off by the first tunnel! We'll be camping there Memorial Day.

Jim


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## Jim - Chesapeake VA

chillaxin said:


> Thats awesome, we've talked about joining c2c sometime in the future. It sure is a lot cheaper than paying full price at campgrounds. We're members of Indian Cove in VA Beach (Sandbridge) and its a c2c cg. While it certainly isn't a "must see" cg it is a decent one and would make a good base camp for a Va Beach trip. Its not in the resort area, and its about 5 miles from Sandbridge, which is more like a small Outer Banks as opposed to the VB Oceanfront. I know there are only a certain number of sites available to c2c members at our cg and would assume its like that at all of them. Camp Hatteras is very nice, and a whole week would cost you as much as a weekend at regular price. I've also heard from several people at our cg that the Gettysburg c2c is nice too. Enjoy!
> 
> Brad
> 
> BTW, what state parks do you enjoy going to? We picked up a couple of Trojan 6v batteries last year and planned on doing more dry/remote camping this year. It seems like all the good ones are around Richmond and west, just curios which ones you'd recommend.


Hi Brad,

Funny, you mentioned Indian Cove. That's the home park of some very good friends of ours, and we spent Columbus Day weekend with them there last year and loved it. We had sites that backed up to the inlet, so the view from our site was pretty cool. It's another reason we wanted to join C2C, so we could camp there for $10 a night rather than the $40 we payed last year. Camp Hatteras is definitely on the list for this year too. We went to Ocean Waves last year and drove by Camp Hatteras, and liked what we saw, but now as C2C members, we're really looking forward to that trip this summer. C2C is certainly a lot cheaper if you do a lot of camping like we do. Plus, the state parks around here have started enforcing the $5 a night per pet policy as of late last year, so even the cost of camping at state parks has gone up. The pet policy has always been there I guess, but nobody ever really enforced it, but we noticed it was starting to be enforced late last season, and the camp hosts were actually marking your site tag with pet information.

Anyway, we still love the state parks in VA. I think there are about 20 that you can actually RV camp in, and we've camped at 10 of them and visited 7 others. We have 3 favorites, Chippokes in Surry, Belle Isle in Lancaster, and James River in Gladstone. All three are relatively small with approximately 30 sites (which we like), but the sites are fairly good sized, especially at Belle Isle. Also, these three have the cleanest bath house/restrooms of all the state parks we've visited. We used to own a popup so clean facilities were important to us before we got the OB, lol. Lake Anna in Spotsylvania is also pretty new and very nice, but during the summer, you can't get a weekend reservation there because everyone has their boat up there on the lake. Another one that we really liked was Natural Tunnel near Big Stone Gap, and if wasn't a 6 hour drive for us, we would go back there every year.

The one SP that we really want to visit but have not made it to yet, is Grayson Highlands. It's somewhere near Wytheville I believe, and I've heard good things about it. Have you ever been there?

Tim
[/quote]

We're looking at possibly spending a week at Belle Isle this summer. I like the sound of big sites and clean bath houses. How are the other amenities?

Jim


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## chillaxin

bradnjess said:


> Tim, I've heard great things about Grayson Highlands but haven't been there myself. We've been talking about Chippokes for years now but it never seems to fit in to the camping schedule. Honestly when we head west to the mountains its usually nat. parks. Our favorite is Sherando Lake, but its so hard to get into on a first come first serve basis. One of the volunteers last fall rumored that they were going to start taking reservations this year, although I think it will make it even less likely to get a spot. North Creek was always a favorite back in our tent and pop-up days. We were up in Natural Bridge last summer at Yogi and drove through Cave Mtn. Lake cg a fell in love with it but its so far from us it makes it difficult.
> 
> We'll be at The Cove a lot this summer, most holidays and some random weekends, maybe we'll see you around. Thanks for the SP info.
> 
> Brad


Hey Brad,

Sherando Lake has been on our "short list" for two years now, but without a reservation, we've never wanted to chance it. Always heard you had to get there on a Wednesday in the summer to ensure you got a site. I'm not familiar with North Creek. Where is that? We've camped at North Bend on Buggs Island, but don't know where North Creek is. Please enlighten me. Natural Tunnel is actually different than Natural Bridge. Natutal Tunnel is a state park down near the VA/TN border and up in the mountains. Like I said, a heck of a drive, but if you have a week, I'd definitely recommend visiting there at least once. I know we'll be at Indian Cove for Memorial Day weekend (first stop on our way up to Frontier Town, and we'll be at Indian Cove for Columbus Day again. If you're gonna be there for either holiday, give me a shout, and we'll be sure to introduce ourselves.


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## chillaxin

battalionchief3 said:


> I have heard that with CtoC it can be difficult to get a site cause they only have a limited about of sites for members. I also heard that it does not appyl on weekends in the summer or special event weekends ( like holiday weekends ) does anyone know if thats true?


I've heard it can be difficult to get a reservation at times too, chief. Can't really speak to it yet though, as we've just become members. They do have a limited number of sites reserved for C2C members, and the biggest drawback is that you can't make reservation until 60 days out or less, so as of today, I can't make any reservations beyond May 15th. Also, most of the participating campgrounds tend to not allow C2C reservations during peak holiday weeks and/or weekends, but they do allow C2C on most "normal" weekends in general. The C2C website lets you know which days are "blocked off" as non-reservation days for C2C at each individual resort. For example, I just made reservations at a C2C resort for spring break, which for us is the week of April 5th (which also happens to be Easter weekend. At the resort we are going to, Easter weekend was blacked out for C2C, so we had to make our reservation for the Tuesday thru Sunday after the Easter holiday, which still worked for us. I also just made two other weekend reservations in May for two different C2C campgrounds without any issue. Like I said, because it's March 15th, I could only make reservations for dates prior to May 15th because of the 60 days out reservation rule. I would think getting reservations in June, July, and August will be a little more difficult depending on the campground one would want to go to, but we figure, we'll do our state parks mostly through the summer, and hit C2C camgrounds outside of the summer season, and we'll still be fine. We normally camp from March through November anyway, and at $10-$20 a night, it's still cheaper than the state parks and private camgrounds, even if we can't use C2C at prime holidays like Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. If you camp alot, it's well worth the trade off IMO.


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## chillaxin

Jim - Chesapeake VA said:


> Thats awesome, we've talked about joining c2c sometime in the future. It sure is a lot cheaper than paying full price at campgrounds. We're members of Indian Cove in VA Beach (Sandbridge) and its a c2c cg. While it certainly isn't a "must see" cg it is a decent one and would make a good base camp for a Va Beach trip. Its not in the resort area, and its about 5 miles from Sandbridge, which is more like a small Outer Banks as opposed to the VB Oceanfront. I know there are only a certain number of sites available to c2c members at our cg and would assume its like that at all of them. Camp Hatteras is very nice, and a whole week would cost you as much as a weekend at regular price. I've also heard from several people at our cg that the Gettysburg c2c is nice too. Enjoy!
> 
> Brad
> 
> BTW, what state parks do you enjoy going to? We picked up a couple of Trojan 6v batteries last year and planned on doing more dry/remote camping this year. It seems like all the good ones are around Richmond and west, just curios which ones you'd recommend.


You've probably done Kiptopeke on the Eastern Shore, but if you haven't, we really like it. We've done some group camping there, putting the trailer on a E/W site, cutting through the woods to the next street where our friends in tents were. We love to kayak and there's also a great swimming beach. The drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel adds cost, but is a great part of the trip. I can always feel my stress bleeding off by the first tunnel! We'll be camping there Memorial Day.

Jim
[/quote]
Howdy Jim,

Actually Kiptopeke is one of the SP's we have not been to yet. We had talked about going there for Memorial Day weekend as the first leg of our trip up to Frontier Town in MD, but friends of ours are members at Indian Cove so we decided to go there instead. I have heard good things about Kiptopeke as well, and I believe it's one of only 2 or 3 VA SP's that also has sewer hookups. We may not get there this year, but it's definitely on our list of places to visit!


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## bradnjess

Hey Tim, good news, the host wasn't blowing smoke last time we were at Sherando. C loop (rv w/ electric and water near by) and part of A loop (tent and pop-up only) are now open for reservations. It just went live last week,Recreation.gov. It must still be unknown because my wife was able to make reservations for mid August with no problems at our favorite site. I can actually enjoy the drive up now not having to sweat it if we're gong to get a site or not. Now every time another camper passes us on I64 I don't have to wonder is there is one less site to choose from.
North Creek is in Botetourt County (Arcadia exit I81). Its near Apple Orchard falls. Its a really cool cg, very small loop (prop. no more than 15 sites) According to the website campers up to 22 ft will fit. Its been years since we've been there, I keep joking with Jess I'm going to get a tent and go back since our OB won't fit. North Creek
Well be at Indian Cove for Memorial Day too, they'll be bringing in a pretty good band for Memorial Day and Labor Day this year. I'll let you know exactly where we'll be when we make reservations.

Brad


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## bradnjess

Jim - Chesapeake VA said:


> [
> 
> You've probably done Kiptopeke on the Eastern Shore, but if you haven't, we really like it. We've done some group camping there, putting the trailer on a E/W site, cutting through the woods to the next street where our friends in tents were. We love to kayak and there's also a great swimming beach. The drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel adds cost, but is a great part of the trip. I can always feel my stress bleeding off by the first tunnel! We'll be camping there Memorial Day.
> 
> Jim


Jim, we haven't been to Kiptopeke or anywhere on the Eastern Shore to be honest, and we need to fix that for sure. We drive up the ES quite often to visit family in PA and we've seen what appear to be some nice state cgs on the Maryland stretch of route 113. Jess and I have always been drawn to the mountains of VA, we just need to resist that urge one season and spend some time on the Eastern Shore, I know we won't regret it.

Brad


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## chillaxin

bradnjess said:


> Hey Tim, good news, the host wasn't blowing smoke last time we were at Sherando. C loop (rv w/ electric and water near by) and part of A loop (tent and pop-up only) are now open for reservations. It just went live last week,Recreation.gov. It must still be unknown because my wife was able to make reservations for mid August with no problems at our favorite site. I can actually enjoy the drive up now not having to sweat it if we're gong to get a site or not. Now every time another camper passes us on I64 I don't have to wonder is there is one less site to choose from.
> North Creek is in Botetourt County (Arcadia exit I81). Its near Apple Orchard falls. Its a really cool cg, very small loop (prop. no more than 15 sites) According to the website campers up to 22 ft will fit. Its been years since we've been there, I keep joking with Jess I'm going to get a tent and go back since our OB won't fit. North Creek
> Well be at Indian Cove for Memorial Day too, they'll be bringing in a pretty good band for Memorial Day and Labor Day this year. I'll let you know exactly where we'll be when we make reservations.
> 
> Brad


That's great news on all counts! I want to make resevations for Sherando Lake too for this summer. Can you recommend a good site or groups of sites to choose from since we've never been??? Ahh good ol Botetourt County, I've never liked that county, lol. I used to date a girl many moons ago that lived in TN, and I would drive down to see her every couple of weeks on the weekends. One Friday night, I got pulled over for speeding in Botetourt Co. which in itself was not so bad, but don't you know I was coming back home on Sunday night of that same weekend, and got pulled over by the SAME trooper in the SAME spot on I81?







My own fault of course, but ever since then I've had this disdain for that county, and to this day whenever I enter the county, I always slow down to 55 regardless of what the posted speed limit is, lol. Sorry, I digress.








Cool that y'all will be there for Memorial Day. We have to pay the "normal" rate for that weekend which sux, but oh well, what can you do? Our friends said they couldn't make our reservation for us until March 28th. I imagine that's gonna be a busy day for reservations! Look forward to meeting you and Jess!

Tim


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## bradnjess

chillaxin said:


> Hey Tim, good news, the host wasn't blowing smoke last time we were at Sherando. C loop (rv w/ electric and water near by) and part of A loop (tent and pop-up only) are now open for reservations. It just went live last week,Recreation.gov. It must still be unknown because my wife was able to make reservations for mid August with no problems at our favorite site. I can actually enjoy the drive up now not having to sweat it if we're gong to get a site or not. Now every time another camper passes us on I64 I don't have to wonder is there is one less site to choose from.
> North Creek is in Botetourt County (Arcadia exit I81). Its near Apple Orchard falls. Its a really cool cg, very small loop (prop. no more than 15 sites) According to the website campers up to 22 ft will fit. Its been years since we've been there, I keep joking with Jess I'm going to get a tent and go back since our OB won't fit. North Creek
> Well be at Indian Cove for Memorial Day too, they'll be bringing in a pretty good band for Memorial Day and Labor Day this year. I'll let you know exactly where we'll be when we make reservations.
> 
> Brad


That's great news on all counts! I want to make resevations for Sherando Lake too for this summer. Can you recommend a good site or groups of sites to choose from since we've never been??? Ahh good ol Botetourt County, I've never liked that county, lol. I used to date a girl many moons ago that lived in TN, and I would drive down to see her every couple of weeks on the weekends. One Friday night, I got pulled over for speeding in Botetourt Co. which in itself was not so bad, but don't you know I was coming back home on Sunday night of that same weekend, and got pulled over by the SAME trooper in the SAME spot on I81?







My own fault of course, but ever since then I've had this disdain for that county, and to this day whenever I enter the county, I always slow down to 55 regardless of what the posted speed limit is, lol. Sorry, I digress.








Cool that y'all will be there for Memorial Day. We have to pay the "normal" rate for that weekend which sux, but oh well, what can you do? Our friends said they couldn't make our reservation for us until March 28th. I imagine that's gonna be a busy day for reservations! Look forward to meeting you and Jess!

Tim
[/quote]
That certainly is an interesting area. When Jess and I were still dating we drove out to North Creek cg after work one Friday and got there about 10:00 and the place was full. We drove around for a while and came across the Yogi Bear CG and kids were all over the place, we said no way never (funny because we've been there several times since we've had kids). Then we found some diner with a bunch of older locals and asked about places to camp. They told us just to go down by the river and find a spot, thats what all the "youngins 'round here" do. For fear of banjo music in the middle of the night we drove 5 hrs back home and camped at a city cg the next day. Oh yeah and we drove 5 hrs each way in a regular cab tacoma with a 75 lb lab riding shotgun with Jess, fun times. 
Anyway heres a screen shot of C Loop at Sherando. Pretty much any thing along the back along the creek is nice. (Between the red circles and the two sites circled on the meadow)









See you in May.

Brad


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## Jim - Chesapeake VA

We stayed at Sherando in C17 for over a week last year and it was great. We went up on a Thursday and left the following Saturday. Site had electric only, water was directly across from the site. There's a dump station by the entrance and you can also fill your water tanks there. The site was level, hard packed coarse sand. Sites are decent size and have a picnic table, fire pit with a grate and bar to hang things from, work table, and lantern pole. There's plenty of shade, and great hammock trees (we hung 3 of them, and our son spent a couple of nights in one in his bivy!). There's a big open common area in the middle of the loop that's perfect for frisbee and football. The bathrooms are big, clean, and accessible. The hosts and staff were great. There are lots of natural things to do there. We hiked (there are gentle and more difficult trails), biked (lots of hills and mountain bike trails), swam (great fresh water lake and beach), and kayaked. The lake is stocked for fish. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, bouldered at the Raven's Roost overlook, and just enjoyed the natural beauty. Overall, it was terrific, and pretty reasonable too.

Jim


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## brian j

hi - how big are the spots at sherando lake? will by 29fbhs (30'8") fit in the spots?


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## Jim - Chesapeake VA

brian j said:


> hi - how big are the spots at sherando lake? will by 29fbhs (30'8") fit in the spots?


It should - we saw a 35 foot TT there last year and also a 3 axle 5th wheel (don't know the exact length, but it was pretty big).

Jim


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## bradnjess

brian j said:


> hi - how big are the spots at sherando lake? will by 29fbhs (30'8") fit in the spots?


Brian, there are quite a few sites that are large enough for your OB. If you go to recreation.gov and find the map for Sherando and scroll over each site it will list the max vehicle length for that site.


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