If you read my previous blog post, I mentioned I was going to car camp at State Parks as I drove from Texas to Maryland for my move.
There are several important-to-me reasons I chose State Parks:
When I car camped a few times the last few years with my dear baby girl, Lily, I noticed that the State Park Police drive by at least once a day to check on each campsite. They wouldn't necessarily stop at every campsite, but they would drive by slowly, I think ensuring compliance of regulations and rules was probably the main reason, but it's natural for them to also see if campers are doing well and safe. The idea of a single chick with her dog camping alone and yet knowing the state park police were checking on things made me feel comforted. And on this 4-5 day trip, I was traveling completely alone.
The next reason may seem small but is also important. State Parks have a good online reservation system. Except for Oklahoma's, State Park websites make it easy to search for camping site availability with good maps. I bring this up because I have stumbled through other park online reservations' website and they are frustrating and sometimes would make me stop trying to stay at the park because their online system wasn't helpful to find a camping site at all. While Oklahoma is an outlier, the State Parks with user-friendly online reservation systems that I have personally used are in Texas, Arkansas, Tennesse, Virgina and Maryland. (btw, now that I'm living in a new part of the U.S., I can't wait to add more states to that list!)
Another reason I prefer State Parks is because they are pretty clean and kept up. I'm not trying to say if a park isn't a "state park" that it's filled with trash and not clean, but state parks seem to be at a different level for some reason.
Another benefit is you can count of a good bathroom set up. Sure, you might still see daddy long legs (that's a safe spider btw) in the showers, but the bathrooms are well maintained, whether brand new or 20 years old. At some non-state parks, the bathrooms at them can be unbearable and rarely taken care of. State Park bathrooms are the opposite.
For the hiker like me, I love that State Parks have really great trail and park brochures that can be studied ahead of time and also downloaded. The brochures are all labeled well with trail distance, trail names and difficulty. This helps me decide if I want to visit the State Park or not, knowing if trails are near streams or there is a plethora of trails to choose from. Also, sometimes there is no cell service at parks so to have a printed brochure can be very handy and helpful (from getting lost, lol).
I have always felt comfortable at State Parks and during my stay at them on this trip, that theme continued.
People are pretty cordial at State Parks as well - maybe I've just gone on good days during the week, but most are on their best behavior. The State Parks kinda give that "official" "important" don't desecrate flavor, and I think the campers feel and know that as well.
