Crooked River State Park

We stayed at Crooked River State Park in Saint Marys, Georgia. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A pleasant stop on our way north.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2025-03-09
  • Check out: 2025-03-16
  • 7 nights

Weather:

  • Partly sunny, some rain
  • High temps 62-76°F, lows 48-62°F
  • Some wind, gusts to 32 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train horn noise
  • Little neighbor noise

Site:

  • #62, back-in, gravel
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
  • Mostly level site; a little high on rear passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
  • Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by 20 feet wide
  • 30 feet to neighbor on passenger side
  • 75 feet to road on driver side
  • Trees and shrubs between sites providing good privacy
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • Lantern hooks
  • Tall trees
  • Clean site
  • Elevation 20 feet, front facing due West

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, fairly conveniently located
  • 45 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 28-38 Mbps down, 9-10 Mbps up, 32 ms ping
  • AT&T: 115-127 Mbps down, 13-20 Mbps up, 50-85 ms ping
  • Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping (our SIM has 5 Mbps max)
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters
  • River

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Lovely state park

Not all campsites here have full hookups, but we were lucky enough to get a reservation for one. Our back-in site was plenty long enough for our 40-foot motorhome and tow vehicle. All the connections were good, and the campground hosts were on the ball, cleaning sites as soon as they were vacated. The campground is peaceful, with lots of nice, easy trails to enjoy. Note that the boardwalk has been removed from the loop behind the nature center, and we had to hop around some very large puddles to get around. Despite signs warning of snakes and gators, we saw neither, but we did see an armadillo, which was exciting as I’d never seen one that wasn’t roadkill. We camped at Crooked River State Park in a Motorhome. 

Tip for Other Campers: Jekyll Island (Driftwood Beach) and Fort Frederica National Monument are both worth a daytrip. Locals Dockside had excellent seafood, and historic St Marys is a cute little town.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Pollen on our truck:

Pollen on our truck

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

The first time we’ve seen a live armadillo:

The first time we've seen a live armadillo

Venomous snake country:

Venomous snake country

Little library:

Little library

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Cabins and screened picnic area:

Cabins and screened picnic area

Shelter building:

Shelter building

Dangerous cliff:

Dangerous cliff

A nice park; we’d be happy to stay here again.

Travel from Wauchula, Florida to Saint Marys, Georgia

We drove our coach 273 miles, about five hours of driving, from Wauchula, Florida to Saint Marys, Georgia.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:

Route map

An interactive map:

A tight corner leaving the campground, made more tricky by vehicles parked close to the road, but we didn’t have any difficulties:

Tight corner leaving campground

I-4 East:

I-4 East

Rest area:

Rest area

Heavy traffic and an RV on the side of the freeway:

Heavy traffic and RV on the side of the freeway

RV on the side of the freeway

Traffic cams with our coach:

Traffic cam with our coach

Traffic cam with our coach

Passing downtown Orlando:

Downtown Orlando

I-95 North; we appreciate road markings on lanes to make it very clear where we need to be:

I-95 North

Snuggly Paladin:

Snuggly Paladin

Snuggly Paladin

Handy rest area truck parking spaces available sign:

Handy rest area truck parking space available sign

Rest area:

Rest area

I suspect they don’t want anyone parking there:

I suspect they don't want anyone parking there

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

$296.20 of diesel, before our discount:

$296.20 of diesel, before our discount

Rainy:

Rainy

The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward bridge aka Dames Point bridge in Jacksonville, lost in the clouds. Apparently some Floridians are scared of this bridge, because it’s so high (and Floridians aren’t used to high places, being such a flat state!):

Bridge lost in the clouds

Thank you for visiting Florida:

Thank you for visiting Florida

Welcome to Georgia, state of inconveniently-placed poles:

Welcome to Georgia

Sub outside Kings Bay Sub Base:

Sub outside Kings Bay Sub Base

Crooked River State Park:

Crooked River State Park

Our site:

Our site

Peeking behind the wet bay

As previously mentioned, I had my wet bay modified to integrate the water filters and water softener, plus add valves and connections so I could regenerate and backflush the softener without having to remove it. Very handy. But it wasn’t hooked up quite right, so I pulled apart the wet bay to investigate. I determined that the pipes were reversed from how I wanted them, but the good news is that I was able to flip the water softener around (so the input and output were reversed), and change the labels on the valves and connectors, and now the system works properly. Yay!

Anyway, I thought I’d share some pictures of the complex hoses back there:

Pipes

Pipes

Pipes

Pipes

Fascinating stuff.

Thousand Trails Peace River

We stayed at Thousand Trails Peace River in Wauchula, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

We had some concerns about staying here, based on reviews, but were pleasantly surprised.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2025-03-02
  • Check out: 2025-03-09
  • 7 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly sunny, a little rain
  • High temps 68-82°F, lows 43-63°F
  • A little wind, gusts to 25 MPH

Noise:

  • Negligible road noise
  • No train horn noise
  • A little neighbor noise

Site:

  • #C50, back-in, grass
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
  • Very level site, surprisingly; used hydraulic leveling
  • Grass site about 55 feet long by 40 feet wide
  • Just grass between sites
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • Tall trees
  • Somewhat clean site; a bottle and a few other bits of trash (TT doesn’t clean sites)
  • Elevation 40 feet, front facing North

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 45 PSI water, conveniently located
  • No sewer connection; pump-out service available (one free per week, $15 for extra)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Starlink: 10-26 Mbps down, 11-16 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
  • T-Mobile: 290 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
  • AT&T: 435 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
  • Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
  • Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters
  • Pool
  • River

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Better than expected

We were somewhat skeptical before our stay here since the reviews weren’t all that great, but we decided to try it anyway and were pleasantly surprised. There were sites available in the full-hookup section, but opted for a w/e-only site since they offer one free pump out per week. The full-hookup sites are smaller and at the front of the park, closer to the highway and noise. The sites closer to the river were much quieter and spread out, so the slight inconvenience of no sewer was a fair trade. Since the hurricane that blew through a few years ago, all sites have been upgraded to 50A (the previous lack of 50A was our main hesitation based on earlier reviews). The campground got a bit busier and noisier (up in the full-hookup section) on the weekend, but it was otherwise a peaceful stay. We camped at Thousand Trails Peace River in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site, in the non-sewer section; more spacious and quieter than the sewer section:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

A squirrel on our picnic table:

Squirrel

Towards the end of our stay the waste tanks were getting a little full:

Full waste tanks

We wanted to empty them for our travel day anyway, so we went to the office to schedule the free honeywagon pumpout; they gave us this sign to put in our window:

Honeywagon sign

The pumpout truck; quick and easy:

Waste pump

Aerial views of our site:

Aerial view of our site

Aerial view of our site

And the campground; you can see the more tightly packed sewer sites closer to the road, and much more spacious non-sewer sites closer to the river:

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of bridge

Office:

Office

Playground:

Playground

Pool:

Pool

Courts:

Courts

Walking path by the river:

Walking path by river

Bridge, river, kayak:

Bridge, river, kayak

Kayak on the river:

Kayak on the river

There are a couple of dump stations, but on the wrong side of the road for non-sewer sites to use when leaving, weirdly (without looping around):

Dump station

Cabins:

Cabins

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

As I said, we were pleasantly surprised. We’d be happy to stay here again.

Travel from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida

We drove our coach 68 miles, about 1.5 hours of driving, from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south (though we actually took the route closer to Lakeland):

Route map

An interactive map, showing our actual route:

Pulling out of our site:

Pulling out of our site

Line to leave TTO:

Line to leave TTO

A gate ranger collecting site tags:

Ranger collecting site tags

Can only turn right out of TTO, so we needed to do a U-turn to head south; we’d done it before, so know it’s easy for us:

Preparing to do U-turn

Another RV doing the U-turn:

Another RV doing the U-turn

Us doing the U-turn; doesn’t look like it here, but there was heaps of room, didn’t even need to go into the bike lane:

Us doing the U-turn; easy

Passing an accident:

Accident

I-4 West:

I-4 West

Route 570 toll road:

Route 570 toll road

Route 98 South:

Route 98 South

Turn:

Turn

17 / 98 South:

17 / 98 South

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

An interesting building in Bowling Green:

An interesting building in Bowling Green

Arriving at Thousnd Trails Peace River:

Arriving at Thousnd Trails Peace River

Check in line:

Check in line

Clock in bathroom

A very minor modification this time: we added a battery-powered clock on the wall in our bathroom. It is an atomic clock, that can set the time automatically, and has convenient time zone support, useful for us as we travel around the country. Plus it shows the temperature and humidity, useful for the bathroom, and reminds us which day it is, handy when we’re still waking up:

Clock

It is attached with Command picture hanging strips, that has two velcro-like pieces that can be pulled apart easily, so I can change the batteries. Nice and convenient.