Glamping Tips: National Parks Road Trips and Resorts

All right, roadies! Someone has come up with a list of the best National Park road trips. For the American traveler, I agree, these parks are must-haves on your travel itinerary. They look amazing in online pictures, sure, but just wait until you experience them for yourself.

The Badlands

  
Could a place have any cooler name than this? Well, actually, there are several Badlands throughout the world, but the one that started it all is in South Dakota, part of which is now a national wilderness area.

Stay at one of the campgrounds, hike, bike, observe the wide open night sky, play paleontologist for a day, and visit the visitor center. Then, take your Glamper on a road trip! 

  
Drive along any of the public roads (some maintained, some not) to view the surreal striped rock formations and scenic blunted buttes alongside over 64,000 acres of wispy golden and green prairieland. Here’s a tell-all photo of what you’ll see at the Badlands (South Dakota) from the park’s Flickr page:

  

Glacier

Wow. Glacier sounds almost as menacingly cool as Badlands, doesn’t it? Glacier National Park is this amazing combination of mountains, tundra, prairie, lakes — you name it. And, yes, it still has glaciers. It also has three campgrounds, two of which take reservations (see Recreation.gov).

  

Going-to-the-Sun Road is just one of many things to do at Glacier, including hiking, fishing, boating, horseback riding, and learning more about the lay of the land and the history of the native neighbors. But it’s probably the most popular activity at the park because it’s 50 miles of scenic awesomeness. (You can take a virtual road trip here.)

  
So, take your RV over to Montana and get glacial. (Ooh, does Harley make an RV? Perfect road trip!) 
Acadia

I can hardly wait to check this park off my list! Acadia is renown for its rugged, swarthy, seafaring, ocean-crashing landscape. It’s got lots of activities…when the weather cooperates. I mean, we are talkin’ Maine here. I know I’ll have my glamper with me, but I’ll still be taking a horse-led carriage ride, thank you very much.

  
Park Loop Road is the road you’ll want to take for your Acadia road trip, as well as for the most popular park attractions and campgrounds. But be warned:  there are a few low clearance bridges in the park, so plan your route accordingly.

  
Grand Canyon

Duh. Of course, GRCA would be on their list. You’ll want to check road conditions before heading out. But, yeah…spectacular…

  
Shenandoah

Ah ha. Now we are back in my neck of the woods. Literally. Woods. A road trip through Shenadoah National Park (the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia/North Carolina) will be heavily wooded, BUT the 105-mile Skyline Drive does offer dozens of scenic stops along the way. And you’ll probably want to stop at each one. Because they’re all amazing.

 
Anytime of year, any day of the week is the perfect time of year to cruise Skyline Drive. Your pace is a leisurely 35 mph, which sometimes is still too fast to let all the beauty below pass you by. This is one road trip you will want to take your time and enjoy.

Ultimately, when you get to these road trip parks, the best way to enjoy them is to unplug. Put away your cameras and smartphones. Use your real eyes. Look. Pause. Take it all in. That’s the memory you’ll make, and it will last forever.

Glampground Review: Cape Hatteras KOA @ Cape Hatteras, NC (Outer Banks/OBX)

“Love it! We will be going back!”

So says my sister, who stayed at the Cape Hatteras KOA in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, this past summer.

This edge-of-the-world KOA is no stranger to the wrath of hurricanes. Due to its hurricane-prone location along the storm-battered eastern coast of North Carolina, known as the Outer Banks (or OBX for cutes), the Cape Hatteras KOA has been hit by two hurricanes in the past four years:  Irene in 2011 and Arthur in 2014. But due to the staff’s investment of tireless elbow grease, a lot of features at this KOA are brand-spankin’ new! So, thanks, Irene and Arthur (we think…)!

Cape Hatteras KOA Beachfront

Boy, does this year-round KOA have a lot of family-fun activities on its calendar:

• a kiddie train that “chugs through the camp daily,”
• a zero-entry pool with colorful water slides,
• an outdoor stage and cinema,
• the requisite campground mini golf center ($),
• bike and golf cart rentals (whee!),
• a yappy-snappy new dog park with a double gate so you’ll be doubly sure the dogs won’t escape, and
• yarrrgh, dere even be a pirate-themed playground (with a broken bell-pull) and a series of Pirate Days for all ye scallywags.

And for you hearty romantics out there, don’t forget to gear up for some lovely nights in Rodanthe while you’re here (only… minus all that tragedy like in the film). This KOA is nestled right up against the beach, which is probably why the hurricanes love it so much.

Amenities at the Cape Hatteras KOA include:

• 50 amp service;
• Free wifi in the snack bar area;
• Boatloads of water activities (heh heh, boatloads), including Water Wars ($) and a hot tub;
• a decent laundry room;
• 65′ max camper length sites; and
• Cable TV.

Plus, it’s family-, kid-, wallet-, and dog-friendly, too.

Okay, the question on most people’s minds:  But what about the bath houses? Good news! These bath houses are clean (“pretty,” my sister says), close to the sites, and have — gasp! — actual hot water! The showers are generally readily available with no line, have solid, private doors (unlike other KOAs with curtain or stall doors in a room with multiple showers), and shelves inside and outside of the showers — with lots of bench space and clothes hooks (“Six!” my sister exclaims). The toilets are in separate rooms from the showers. There is a dish cleaning station and a dog washing station, too.

The pool has two slides, swim lanes, a nearby bathroom, a party room, and more.

The clubhouse has “everything we forgot to pack,” my sister says. She specifically mentions, “They have bags of ice,” and I wonder what the story is behind those statements… The cafe food tastes great and has great choices. The clubhouse bathrooms are clean. The upstairs suites are “hotel-like,” she says. They just installed a new TV… There’s a “jumping pillow…”

(These comments are from my sister’s vacation notes, so I’m getting a glimpse into her vacation life… and after picturing her jumping with glee on whatever the jumping pillow thingy in the KOA clubhouse is, I am getting a little afraid to read on…)

“You feel like a resort member,” she says. “You can wander around [the clubhouse] and through [the clubhouse] and along [the clubhouse] deck to the pool.”

Wait. Then she adds, “There is a separate jumping pad for tumbling like a gymnast!”

…Did she… jump her whole vacation?

She adds, “The gameroom could use some updated games.” What she means is that they still haven’t installed her favorite games:  MarioKart and The Legend of Zelda:  Ocarina of Time. You do that, Cape Hatteras KOA, and you’ll earn 5 stars.

My sister interjects, “No! They need DDR! More jumping!”

As for the campground itself, the sites are level and smooth. Don’t expect any trees; it’s a… beach… So, there’s a bit of privacy lacking from that. But some sites have a shelter with a roof, table, and flooring. Hook-up is easy (that is, campers hooking up, not couples hooking up), and there are dump stations on-site (FOR THE CAMPERS! NOT FOR THE COUPLES!). Dare I follow that joke up with my sister’s comment that The neighbors are very friendly?

Campfires at the sites are permitted, of course, and they sell bundles of wood and firestarters at the camp store. They will even deliver wood to your site (aww, how sweet) for $7.50 (aww, how not sweet).

Other info:  there are two beach access points, one with a ramp; a bathhouse by the beach; a fish-cleaning station; a hose for boards; and outside showers to rinse sand off your toes. Beach fires are permitted! (My sister added the exclamation point, and again I am afraid to know how she spends her vacations.) Just ask the camp office for beach-burning info.

Beyond the KOA, there is a Dairy Queen across the street, and — what? why read on? what more do you need than a Dairy Queen across the street?! — there’s another good restaurant across the street (Atlantic Coast Café) where my sister says, “Try the mahi mahi and the key lime pie.”

While there is a private KOA-owned pier on the sound side with seats and roof (“Watch the sunset and wind surfers,” she says), there is also the Rodanthe Pier on the beach about a ten-minute walk north.

Finally, she adds, “Stars at night.”

… *blink* *blink* …

If you’re thinking about visiting the Outerbanks in general, there are many things to enjoy down there (and I quote my sister):

• not a boardwalk/built up junky feel
• real dunes by the water
• huge shifting dune section near Jockey Ridge Park
• Wright Bros Memorial
• Kitty Hawk Kites fun shopping spot
• can see the sound and ocean from many points
• cool mini golf courses
• a theater
• lots of restaurants, our favorite take out deli, a local favorite, The Country Deli at MP 13 (She adds, “Get to know the mile posts; that’s how they give directions.”)

• yarn shops
• book shops
• huge seashells (To which I add, “Huge mermaids, too? No…?”)
• Some wild life
• Aquarium sharks! (Again, I am afraid…)
• Lost Colony Play outdoors historical
• the way the roads wash away in hurricanes make you feel small. Man is not in control of this place.
• Gotta stop at the farmer’s market on the way in

• will also pass Gravedigger monster truck
• light houses

In conclusion, if you decide to head to the Outer Banks or the Cape Hatteras KOA for your next glamping adventure, be afraid of what my sister might do — jumping at random, starting beach fires, and realizing in her third decade of life that there are these things called stars in the sky…

Totally worth it.