Our most unique and special RV sites (Seasons 3 and 4)
We sat stationary through winter, patiently waiting for a viable Season 5 launch date. We didn't have a plan, given that we were 3 months out from a surprise lease break and into continued full-time RV life. After last year's fast travel, we said we needed stillness, and now we were getting it in surplus. During the waiting period, we've spent a lot of time reminiscing about our travels. After 4 years, many of our experiences blur together. That's why we're so glad we've documented our adventures in the blog. We reread the posts, and they take us right back.
At the beginning of Season 3 of travels (2024), we wrote a post about our most unique accommodations – both Airbnb and campsites. We've grown to appreciate wonky sites, the ones that require some extra maneuvering to get into, but once we're in, they're special. Though we parked in a few of these sites at the beginning of our travels, we chose them more frequently as our confidence grew. Season 2 especially was chock full of incredible – and incredibly unique – campsites. Of course, we documented them in our blog post. But since then, we've had 2 more seasons of travel, and more campsites that, as soon as we parked, we knew were special. So while we wait for more campsites to grace our lives, we're taking this opportunity to update our list of unique and special campsites. We hope it inspires you to camp outside the typical "parking pad" this upcoming camping season.
(Like last time, we are not including Harvest Host/Boondockers Welcome sites in our rankings).
Whitten Park, Fulton Recreation Area, Fulton, MS (Season 3, February 2024)
When we think of unique campsites in Season 3, we immediately think of Fulton Recreation Area. It's an Army Corps of Engineers (COE) campground that would easily fly past people's radars, because it's not in a vacation destination. The nearest destination you might be familiar with is Tupelo, MS, birthplace of Elvis. Fulton is situated roughly halfway between Memphis, TN and Birmingham, AL.
We traveled to this part of the country with a mission to experience more of the Gulf Coast States. In wintertime, the locals hadn't hit their camping season yet, which left room for us to book some incredible waterfront campsites. Whitten Park was one of them. With Anthony's birthday falling mid-February, we were often in full travel mode, heading south or west at quick speeds. This meant, on the downside, we weren't always in big "celebratory" places. But on the upside, we had some pleasant surprises. I purposely booked what looked like the most unique waterfront site available, with gorgeous views of the Tennessee-Tombigbee (Tenn-Tom) Waterway, our own pier, and direct access to the campground loop's fishing pier. This time of year, not many people were fishing, and most days, we felt like both piers were all for us.
To call this campsite unique is an understatement. In addition to the views and piers, we had a two-level campsite. The upper level housed our extremely long parking spot, and the lower level was our picnic area. Campfires here were unmatched. We had the peacefulness of the campground and the ripples of the canal, as we sat in our own little tree-lined nook.
Of course, a site this unique isn't without its quirks. The parking spot was very long, but also very slanted. The stairs and timbers had seen better days. We arrived to this campsite after dark, which is something we try to avoid, and here, it would have been really great to be able to see as we backed down our driveway-hill. We also needed to re-hitch once we realized our steps needed to become part of the entire campsite "staircase." But, parking after dark has its perks. We couldn't see the extent of our view, and so the next morning, we got a great surprise.
And in the evenings, some amazing sunsets over the waterway.
Watkins Glen State Park, Watkins Glen, NY (Season 3, July 2024)
Watkins Glen State Park was on our travel bucket list since we began RVing, but after not making it due to lightning strike aftermath in 2022, we finally made it in 2024. A big difference between those years is that we now had solar, and could therefore park in a dry camping spot in the summertime without worry. We booked a site in Loop F, which situated us far away from the gorge, but gave us a beautifully large grass site with access to some walking paths.
Besides its size, you might wonder why this site makes the "unique and special" rankings. That answer comes in a never-blogged-about story about what occurred during our stay here. When I booked this campsite, the state park website told me it was a large pull-thru. I did my usual due diligence by looking for pictures, and sure enough, it looked like a large field where we could pull into position, or back in if that suited us better. Flexibility of maneuvering is always nice.
When we arrived, we were perplexed to see two fire rings – one right near our campsite sign and the other far across the campsite. Our site also looked to have an outcropping near the other fire ring, where a smaller rig could park. We wouldn't fit there, and we also needed a spot more level, and so we shifted the trailer around until we found a suitable spot. It was in the field, close to our campsite sign. We made sure that, if we lowered our patio, we would still be within the bounds of our campsite. We expected some nice patio days during our stay here.
The following afternoon, we got a knock on our door. It was a ranger telling us that we were not in our campsite. Evidently the family who booked the site next to us pulled in, saw how close we were to their firepit, and complained to the office. It took far more convincing than we expected, including literally showing the ranger where our campsite post was, to prove to him that we were, in fact, in our spot. He told us that "he's never seen anyone park here before" and that "most campers just back into that spot over there [pointing to the outcropping]." But the website said this was a pull-thru, not a back-in. It expects people to use the full field to pull around! The listing also said the site fits large rigs, which that outcropping does not.
Knowing that this ranger had no idea what was happening, we decided to instead make nice with our new neighbs. We talked to them directly (a courtesy we wish we were shown in the first place) and offered to pull our trailer forward a bit. They said we didn't have to, but we did anyway. We wanted to give them space to use their firepit without us infringing.
Ah, yes, that fire ring. The main issue was its positioning. It was in the middle of the field that we were supposed to occupy half of, and it was right at the boundary of our site. The neighboring site also had a ton of room, and this whole debacle could have been solved if the park staff placed the fire ring in the middle of that site instead of the middle of both sites. Considering the ranger we spoke to had no clue where one site ended and the next began, perhaps this is a common problem of Watkins Glen rangers.
We hoped to finish out our stay with no more issues, but that wasn't in the cards. A few days later, we went outside to find a small Class C parked in our site! He had backed into the outcropping. Keeping with our "face it head-on" attitude, we decided to speak to the dude directly. We hardly remember what transpired, except that he was leaving the next day, and so we told him he could share the site with us for the night. We believe he was supposed to have a different site but also didn't know the boundaries.
And so, our wonderfully large site turned into a wonky mess, but as a result, became quite unique! In all seriousness, though, if the rangers knew the site boundary and moved the neighbors' fire ring, this campsite would be one to rave about. We had a mix of sun and shade, access to a whole network of trails (much less crowded than the Gorge Trail), and ample space to spread out.
Jackson Lake Island, Millbrook, AL (Season 4, January 2025)
This was another bucket list campground that remained out-of-reach for a while. Floods in 2024 prevented us from going here, but after a wintry jaunt south in 2025, we finally made it.
You can read about Jackson Lake Island in this blog post – yes, it was special enough to warrant its own blog post feature – but we're going to focus specifically on the campsite today. The good news is, wherever you park, those goats will roam, so you'll get the best of the island anywhere on this side of the causeway. However, our campsite was special beyond the goats. We opted for electric and water hookups, and the owner Bobby gave us a large site perched on a hill, with views of the water and moss-covered trees.
Most of the other RV sites were closer to Spectre – the old movie set from "Big Fish." Those sites were nice and had more action from the goats, but they were close together. We had the perks of space and seclusion. The only times people came near were when they drove by on their way to Spectre. We had the picnic pavilion nearby too, but since we camped in winter, it remained unused during our stay...well, at least by humans.
Any time we camp with animals gracing our doorstep, it's a unique experience, but usually we're purposely choosing a farm stay. Here, it's an island-turned-movie-set-turned-goat-sanctuary...with some added camping spots. Unique in its appeal and its delivery. And we can't talk about Jackson Lake Island without mentioning the energy. The history of this place has depth, and we could feel it as we walked around. It was sublime, mysterious, and yet whimsical. We haven't gotten that energy anywhere else in our travels.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Canyon, TX (Season 4, February 2025)
It's hard to fathom that our stays at Jackson Lake Island and Palo Duro Canyon were so close together, because they couldn't feel more different. However, they do both rank high for their unique and special campsites. At Palo Duro Canyon, every campsite gets unique points because all the campground loops are located inside the canyon, 800ft below the rim.
Our site was in the Hackberry Campground, one of the loops closer to the canyon entrance. We had some Whitten Park flashbacks when we backed into our unlevel site with rotting timbers. We even needed to create a makeshift staircase for Tanner using his portable steps!
But boy did we have it made in the shade...and by that we mean, the shade created by the canyon wall right behind our campsite. Whitten Park may have had the sunsets, but Palo Duro had the sunrises.
You can see in those photos that we also had a killer picnic table pergola. Texas likes to shelter their picnic areas for shade, but this pergola was exceptionally gorgeous. Of course, we sometimes opted to use our patio instead, but the best part is, we had all the space we needed to choose where we wanted to lounge.
Camping in a canyon is special, made even more so by the fact that we didn't have it on our agenda. Oftentimes this part of Texas sees temperatures too cold to camp this far below the canyon rim, but we hit the area during a warm front. Going in the off-season also meant we could book last-minute. A lot of Season 4 involved us booking sites on a rolling basis, gauging our level of travel burnout along the way. Experiences like this are when our spontaneity paid off. We woke up one morning to the realization that we were suddenly out west again, at the bottom of the 2nd largest canyon in the country. What a weird – and special – turn of events.
Read more about our Palo Duro adventures here:
Nicole Anderson
Valley of Fire State Park, Overton, NV and Devils Garden Campground, Arches National Park, Moab, UT (Season 4, March 2025)
We're grouping these two campsites into one because their unique attributes were the same: both sites were surrounded by the very landscape these parks are famous for. At Valley of Fire State Park, we squeezed ourselves into a site surrounded by red rocks. Clyde didn't quite make it and had to park across the street at the vault toilet. But that was the price we paid for choosing a campsite on the backside of the loop at Arch Rock campground. We almost couldn't tow around the small curves, but we made it unscathed. What greeted us was this red rock nest, with the rocks so close to us that they emanated a red glow through our windows, which reflected off our white cabinets. This was the embodiment of bringing the indoor-outdoor feel to our RV!
Something Valley of Fire and Devils Garden also had in common: No arches in our campsite, but arches at the campground:
Left: Valley of Fire State Park. Right: Devils Garden Campground, Arches National Park
Our campsite at Devils Garden might not have been the most unique, but let's face it, every site here is unique. The positioning of our campsite was a result of the landscape – where the picnic table fit is where it sat! This meant behind our parking spot, between our site and our neighbors'. It couldn't go on our pleasure side like a normal site, no no. That's because we had a huge red rock cathedral next to us, with layers upon layers of rock creating nature's jungle gym. Not bad views from up there, either.
Hickison Petroglyphs Recreation Area, Austin, NV (Season 4, May 2025)
Lastly, we're handing unique points to one of our campsites along America's Loneliest Road. We made no reservations this whole stretch, and on our first night, struggled to decide where to stay. Hickison Petroglyphs was our top choice and had a loop of first-come, first-served sites, but we weren't sure if we would fit. We pressed our luck hard, attempting to make it around the campground loop but running into tight turns and scraping branches. Just as we were about to call it a day and go somewhere else, we found one site near the parking lot, outside the loop. It would still be a squeeze, but we thought we should give it a shot.
20 minutes of delicate maneuvering and lots of leveling, we were in our spot for the night. And boy did we love this spot! I mean, we loved it enough to squeeze into it for one night, even though that meant unhitching. You know then it has to be good.
Clyde took one for the team again and parked in the day-use lot
You might look at the above pictures and think, "So what's special about it besides the tight squeeze?" What you can't see is that our site was built right into the sands and among the shrubs. Our picnic table was integrated perfectly in the surrounding nature.
But best of all, we had access to the Petroglyph Trail, a gorgeous hiking trail dotted with ancient petroglyph sites. The views from the other side of the trail were good, but our campsite had the best feature of all: this magnificent rock formation carved with petroglyphs. We found this feature before we even knew it was part of the trail we planned to hike the next morning. After hiking the whole trail, we can safely say that our site had the best "sight."
The roundup of unique and special (and some quite wonky) campsites is complete...for now. We're sure we'll park in more in our future, but until then, we look back on these memories with a smile, and sometimes a "How on earth did we maneuver into that thing?!" That's what makes the RV life exciting – fun surprises, great views, and the proud moment when a challenging campsite pays off.