Poole Knobs COE Campground had us scratching our heads as to its design. People from the region love this campground and it is full every weekend during camping season. Still, Poole Knobs campground defied typical design principles and left us wondering if the designer ever visited any campgrounds.
For example, our site was across the road from the water front. It could also be described as the “hilly” side of the street. How hilly was our site? According to the Compass app on our iPhones, our site was 20 feet higher than the road. Our site was a pull-through and the entrance had a six degree slope. The exit had a scary 14 degree slope. Add to this mix that the entire site was loose gravel and you have a fair picture of our site.
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| Yes, that was a steep hill going into our site |
Our site wasn’t unique. We saw a handful of sites that were as steep or worse.
How were the restrooms/bathhouses? Again, we need to talk about the park's design. There were three restrooms in this park. Interestingly, all three were not close to any RV camping sites and were uphill walks from the camping loop. There was a scary 20 degree slope on gravel to one restroom. The camp host suggested we simply drive to the restrooms. Since the road in the camping loop was one-way, that meant you had drive around the entire campground to get to the main restroom. On the positive side, the restrooms were clean and maintained.
We had to take it easy at this campground because of my back issues. That was OK because this was a great park for hikes.
We watched as the campground mostly cleared out on Sunday morning. As we drove around the camping loop headed to the restroom, we wondered if a better campsite was open for the remainder of our time there. The camp host gave us a choice of two sites. We choose a somewhat flat site across the street from our first site.
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| New site across the street from the old one |
We had not planned to switch sites during our visit, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. We quickly hitched-up Rosie, our Airstream trailer, and prepared for the move. We talked about a strategy of using Rosie's breaks to halt a slide on the gravel slope if needed. It was time to test the theory.
Becky went down to the road to stop any traffic. We used radios to communicate that the road was clear. I very slowly started down the hill and the truck started to slide on the gravel surprisingly fast. I was able to manually apply Rosie's breaks to stop the slide. That happened twice. I turned wide onto the road as I left our old site to avoid the ditch. We were glad that we safely exited our first site.
This was another park with an amazing amount of bird activity. It was fun to use our Merlin Bird App from Cornell University to identify the many bird calls.
There was also no shortage of mosquitoes in this park. We had to remember to dress appropriately to fight off the mosquitoes.
After thinking about the problems with the design of this park, it is fair to ask why is it a popular park with locals? First, they know which side of the street to reserve. In fact, they know the best sites and would never be caught on the wrong side of the street. Second, we noticed that most people stay in this park less than a week. Most RV holding tanks can store a weeks worth of waste. Third, the park was wonderfully cool from all of the shade trees. If we return to this park, we will follow the lead of the locals and choose a better site.
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| The lake |
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- There were multiple loops in the campground
- We found one loop in this campground
- Both of our sites were a pull-throughs
- Both of our sites had shade
- While there are some closely spaced sites in this park, both of out sites had some space on both sides
- Both of our sites were paved with dirt and loose gravel. We needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie in both sites
- Our sites had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
- Our sites had water connections
- Our sites did not have sewer connections
- There was a dump station in this park. It was a challenge to pull your sewage tote to it
- The trash dumpsters were at the entrance of the campground
- There was a bathhouse in the campground
- The park did not provide WiFi service
- AT&T provided 2 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite
- We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Catchy, Charge, Comet, Court-TV, Cozi, Dabl, Get, Grit, H&I, ION, LAFF, MeTV, MeTV+, MeTV Toons, MY-TV, Movies, Outlaw, Retro and Start
- There were restaurants and shopping nearby
- This was a pet friendly park
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| The old site showing the 14 degree gravel slope |
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| Selfie in this park |
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| Tree covered roads in this park |
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| Daily visitor |
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| Rosie in our new site |
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