RV And Tent Camping Park

[Dahlia47]

I think I have mentioned this before here. I was thinking about opening an RV/Tent Camping Park. I have thought about this for quite a while. Several Years. I am always traveling. I see so many abandoned houses, hotels, motels and even a couple of abandoned Drive-In movie theaters. I would have bought the drive-in, but they were asking waaayyyy too much. Way overpriced. Anyways, my kids are out of the house, I finish school in the spring, and I would like to open one. Sold the idea to hubby. Far west Texas desert. Covered picnic tables with water collection and solar.
I would like to keep it simple. So many people have solar setups on their travel trailers and campers and as part of their camping gear.
I have been planning a trip to Guadalupe Peak and realized...there isn't much available to stay at in the area.
This is my starting point and I am looking for any additional ideas? What am I missing?

[RJ Howell]

When we do stay at a commercial CG, we're looking for showers &/or Laundry.
In Baja we had showers that were gravity fed, worked quite well! He literally filled the tank twice a day with warm water. Sun/air temp kept it warm. In Cali we found an inexpensive pressurized shower we just loved! So it can be done reasonably.
Laundry the best was a CG along the Gulf. Only two machines, outside under a covering on the bath house. Nice big machines though! Air drying worked well there.

Of course, potable water source. If you intend RV's, dump station.

Couple of thoughts for you

[Tom&Shelly]

I think I have mentioned this before here. I was thinking about opening an RV/Tent Camping Park. I have thought about this for quite a while. Several Years. I am always traveling. I see so many abandoned houses, hotels, motels and even a couple of abandoned Drive-In movie theaters. I would have bought the drive-in, but they were asking waaayyyy too much. Way overpriced. Anyways, my kids are out of the house, I finish school in the spring, and I would like to open one. Sold the idea to hubby. Far west Texas desert. Covered picnic tables with water collection and solar.
I would like to keep it simple. So many people have solar setups on their travel trailers and campers and as part of their camping gear.
I have been planning a trip to Guadalupe Peak and realized...there isn't much available to stay at in the area.
This is my starting point and I am looking for any additional ideas? What am I missing?

Hi Dahlia,

Good luck with this project! Shelly and I wish you well, and hope to stay at your park someday on our way from Central New Mexico down through that region on our way to Big Bend, etc. For us that will likely be a winter trip. Perhaps the best way to answer your post is to tell you what we look for in campsites. Obviously a self centered view, and others will have different ideas!

Normally, we look for state parks, or national park/forest service/BLM campgrounds. They generally have a bit more space between sites and more privacy with the local trees or other plants between sites. Of course, that's a fairly gross generalization, and a private camp that offers those would also be high on our list. (And not all government campgrounds in the region offer that either.)

We also are always looking for the least expensive camps, naturally. Of course, you have to make a profit to stay in business.

Since we have a teardrop, the bathroom facilities are important to us. When they are outhouses, they should be kept clean and relatively odor free (has a lot to do with their construction). If you have flush toilets, some thought should go into the facilities. (Sorry to get so explicit here, but this is important!) The KOA in Gunnison, for example has urinals in the men's room that are too high for young boys. That creates a problem with cleanliness in the other stalls. One of those is also small, for children, so the options can be limited. They pack families into their camp, and the restroom facilities are too limited to be kept clean. Well, enough said on that subject.

Definitely, shade in that country sounds necessary, so the idea of covered picnic tables sounds good. We heat and cool with shore power when available, so that would be nice. Perhaps not essential though. It sounds like you want to create a more rustic campground. I'm not sure what the temperatures are in that area, but it might be fine (for us) for three seasons (excluding high summer), or perhaps even all four.

Warm showers are always nice, but again, not essential. (For us, you are a day away from our home so we wouldn't necessarily need showers for one night on our way through.) We stayed at Organ Pipe Cactus NP which has solar showers, which weren't so comfortable when it was cloudy and the air temp was 65, but solar showers may be an option if you want to minimize infrastructure--I'm not sure whether they really offer an advantage if you have shore power on site.

Small local hikes are always a nice feature of a campground. If you happen to locate it next to some government land, perhaps you can arrange to put in a connector trail to their system, or something.

Most important, of course, is a clean maintained campsite, and facilities, and polite and responsible fellow campers. Unfortunately, for the latter, sometimes some reasonable control by the camp staff may be necessary. But I've never run a camp and don't know much about that side of it.

We always look for a "little library" (book trade) at campsites. Just us, we like to read.

Hope that helps, and we look forward to seeing you someday!

Tom

[MickinOz]

We recently stayed at a very isolated camp site. Like, seriously Outback.
It had flushing toilets and hot showers! If you can provide those, you can call yourself a luxury destination in my opinion.
It was non-potable water, bring your own drinking water, but to me that's a given.
Other than that, the main thing that defines a good campsite for me is shelter. This camp was set in some gullies around a creek, and had plenty of trees, and understory vegetation.
it was so easy to set up out of the prevailing wind.
Over here in Oz, solar systems on campers and RV's are like belly buttons - just about everyone's got one.
Shore power isn't the necessity it might once have been.
If you can procure some land with trees on it, and provide basic toilets and garbage bins, you would be off to a decent start.

[Mark Gunter]

Yes to showers & toilets. Laundry is a great idea if you can manage it. As mentioned, the larger RV owners need a dump station, without it you won’t be very appealing to them.

Just keep in mind that pricing should be pretty low without all these amenities and 20/30/50 electrical service. Boondocking is no problem for me with solar & all, but I wouldn’t pay much for a very primitive camp site, I’m always on the lookout for amenities + low price. For me, boondocking = free camping on public lands.

[mtbikernate]

The amenities I care most about at this point are clean showers and clean flush toilets. For a short stay, I don't mind not having a shower available, but I'm only willing to do sponge/wipe baths for so long. Especially when it's cold out. I do plan on adding a propane water heater/shower arrangement eventually (I like the joolca hottap package with the sink/storage bin even though it's expensive).

And because of my bladder, I don't want to have to walk too far in the middle of the night to take a pee. If the sites are private enough, I might just use the facilitrees for that purpose in the middle of the night, so keep that in mind. I won't set up my toilet unless there are no restrooms available whatsoever.

I think in the US, having potable water available somewhere in the campground is an expectation. Even if they're just wells.

Power is lower on the list since I have a solar/battery arrangement that keeps me in good order. But in the southern US, a lot of people prioritize having A/C of some sort in their trailers, and the vast majority of them are going to need some kind of power pedestal to run it. I do not prioritize A/C. Partly because I avoid hot places when it's hot out, but also partly because my trailer ventilates well (and is white to reflect heat) and I just don't spend time inside it during the day.

I do agree about needing shelter. I wouldn't even consider that an amenity. In a desert type environment, I'd be maybe not prioritize shelter from rain as much, but shade from sun, absolutely. Also shelter from windy conditions. That can be plants/landscaping, which also serve to add privacy to each site.

Should probably consider whether you want a place that caters to the long-term crowd or something that caters to the short termers. Long term folks will probably want more. A dump station at minimum for bigger campers will definitely be necessary. If not at least some sites that have sewer connections themselves.

If you go in on the more rustic type sites, I'd definitely space them out and make sure the individual sites are more private. I guarantee that people equipped to boondock are going to want more privacy than the folks who are looking for full hookups.

Same privacy concerns for tent sites.

Now, if you really want to go all in on boondock sites and expect people to bring their own stuff, I think you might be asking for trouble with sanitation and you're going to have to spend effort on enforcing cleanliness standards.

I was recently looking at Hipcamp sites to use for my upcoming drive to Canada because those were actually reservable for a single night during labor day weekend. Lots of places with no restroom facilities whatsoever. Filtered by sites with restrooms available, and the only ones I was finding in my target area had a SINGLE port-o-john for multiple sites. Not even like 2 or 3 port-o-johns so minimize buildup of lines or to spread out the use a little bit in case one gets wrecked. Given that some of those places were willing to take 10-20ppl for a single booking, I saw how many people might be competing to use a single restroom, and I found that to be wildly insufficient. Seems to me a place like that would be better off not having anything and just requiring people to bring their own toilet and providing a place for people to dispose of their waste before leaving.