Why we chose a state park instead of our home-base when we were back in MA

Back in February, as soon as reservations opened for Massachusetts state parks, we jumped on Reserve America to book our home-close-to-home, Wompatuck State Park. It's not a sought-after state park like some others and rarely fills up, but we wanted to get our site etched in our calendars. And by "our site," we mean the same one we stayed at two years ago. We loved that, unlike most of the sites in the park, there are some open grassy areas where we can put our Starlink. We also like its proximity to the bathhouse and dish washing station, just two sites down. When we stay for two weeks at a campsite with no water and sewer, we conserve, so being able to shower and wash dishes nearby without using our resources is extremely helpful.

Two years ago, we didn't know that we'd be returning home until a couple months beforehand. We were still able to book our campsite without issue, but we weren't taking any chances this time. We wanted two full weeks in site K11, and we wanted it when we wanted it.

This became the homecoming reservation that we booked our other New England stays around, and coming back to Wompatuck really does feel like coming home. We used to come here often when we lived in the area. The park has some of the best roads for biking on the South Shore. If you're a hiker or mountain biker, the back trails through the forest are virtually endless. In all our visits to this state park, we never even came close to seeing it all.

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Wompatuck may not be a lively state park like some others in Massachusetts, but truthfully, that's what we love about it. We nestle ourselves under the trees in our campsite and enjoy the peace and quiet. The sites are spacious and the campground is bustling with wildlife. We saw deer almost every day, and boy do we just love the extra adorable Wompatuck deer! We also saw an opossum and lots of frogs and birds.

The park does have its draws for non-locals, though. It's close to Boston but still feels worlds away, and it has a rich history. It's named after Josiah Wompatuck, the Native American chief who deeded the land to English settlers. It opened in 1969 and became a designated state park a few years later, but before that, the land was the site for an ammunition annex used by the Navy. You can still find several decommissioned bunkers and buildings in the woods. A Nike missile launch site is located at Turkey Hill, a park adjacent to Wompatuck. This is where the military guarded the ammunition depot. Wompatuck's series of trails connects to Turkey Hill and the neighboring Whitney Thayer woods. You can hike/bike to each of these parks without leaving their boundaries.

Wompatuck is also home to Mt. Blue Spring, which has been in operation since the mid-1800s and lets visitors obtain free spring water. As for recreation beyond the hiking and biking, the Aaron River Reservoir allows non-motorized boating.

In our travels, we have noticed that some places just have a good vibe. Wompatuck is one of those places. Only, you may be surprised to learn that we didn't always feel this way. We missed a lot when we took short walks and bike rides here back in the day. Not until we camped here in 2022 did we really start to understand the park's beauty and essence. Slowing down and immersing ourselves in the nature here made all the difference.

You may be wondering, though, why we spend the money to stay here when we have a home-base less than a half-hour away. The immersion in nature is a big part of it, but not the whole story.

When we return home to Massachusetts, we prefer skipping around the area for changes of scenery. This also helps us draw lines of demarcation with whatever tasks are our priority at the time. For instance, when we're at our home-base, we are usually prioritizing seeing family and doing mods and repairs. Home-base is where we get all our packages, can spread out our things when we're reorganizing, and can wash the rig. When we choose to stay at Wompatuck, this is usually when we prioritize work and recreation. Changing our location helps us shift our mindset to our new priorities.

Recreation is a huge part of why we stay at Wompatuck. This year, we stayed in the second and third weeks of August, which were our weeks to do some serious catching up on our goals to hike and ebike 100 miles in the summer. To have the opportunities right at our site, without the need to drive anywhere, is a huge help. Granted, even when we're not up to our elbows in challenges, we love having trails walking distance from our campsite. It's one of our favorite perks of living in campgrounds.

Then we have the sheer logistics of it all. Both our Wompatuck site and our home-base have electric only, but at Wompatuck, we have a dump station. Staying for two weeks allows us to use the dump station to easily extend our stay in Massachusetts. If we stayed at our home-base for more than two weeks, we would need to schedule a pump-out service, which would end up being half the cost of our entire Wompatuck stay! Splitting our time is seamless and cost-effective.

We also use our home-base sparingly. Regulations prohibit "living" in a recreational vehicle in many MA towns, including ours, so we like to make it very clear that we are popping in and out and not trying to use the property for an extra dwelling. Furthermore, you may have noticed in previous posts that the ground in this region is pretty soft. Clearly, when my parents put in a basketball court, they did not envision a 12,000lb aluminum behemoth parked on it, and so we try really hard to not crumble the asphalt too much. We've also done quite a number on the grassy patch where we park our truck. With the amount of rain the area got this spring and summer, we're being extra careful to not park there for weeks on end. Winter is much less precarious. The ground as had time to dry, and it's usually partially frozen. Plus, in winter we really have no choice because the campgrounds are all closed. So, when we return in summer and have other options, we best take them and save the wear-and-tear for when we really need to be parked at the house.

Lastly, we stay at the state park simply because we love the campground life. When we're parked at our home-base for weeks during the holidays, it's a welcome change of pace, but we're always really happy to get into our first campground of the year, greet the neighbors and smell the distant campfires. Wompatuck is one of those parks that truly feels like you're camping, even if you're in a luxurious RV with air conditioning and a patio. There is something special about sitting in the woods, surrounded by people with the same goal to embrace nature. It's extra special when those woods are made up of the trees of my childhood, and when those neighbors are not just campground neighbs. Most of them are from here just like me, and together we can welcome the out-of-staters to this little gem in our home state.