1. This KOA is very close to Hot Springs National Park. I would say you can get downtown within 10 to 15 minutes. I highly recommend that you go there and walk bathhouse row – you won’t regret it at all.
2. It is clean and the staff is constantly working to keep it that way.
3. They have a very friendly staff and a large store.

Let’s move on to why we wouldn’t be eager to go back (pictures Below).

1. The county road that leads to the entrance is very steep. In fact, it displays the deep battle scars of many rigs that just couldn’t handle that incline. If I were the owners of that KOA I would petition the county to reconstruct that road. It was an “Oh Shit” moment for us when we saw the incline.
2. The fun doesn’t end there as once you pull into the KOA. You must navigate yet another steep hill to their office, where oddly, there isn’t decent parking for check in. Then to your dismay, you will need to go around an upper loop to descend the hill to your spot (unless you are in the upper loop).
3. The dog park is behind the office – so if you want to take your dog there – get ready to walk the hill.
4. This campground is multi-level, so some of the sites (like ours) are built on a hill that steps down to the next site via a cinder block wall. In our site, there was no grass, so not great for having a dog. We would walk to the road with Eva, as that was the closest grassy area.
5. This KOA wants you to sign a hold harmless agreement (HHA) when you register. In a nutshell, no matter what happens at this KOA, it is your fault. This would include any damage that happens to your travel trailer, other personal property or your pets, even if it’s their fault. I can infer from this that even if they damage your camper – it’s your fault. This agreement gets borderline ridiculous as it tells you that “consuming animals, vegetation, and water around the campground is dangerous”. If you happen to have kids with you get ready to sign a second part of the form that holds them harmless for anything that happens to them. Obviously, an attorney crafted this, perhaps in response to something that happened once, or maybe just as protection for the campground.

When I go to a campground, the last thing I expect to get with my check packet in is a Hold Harmless Agreement. So that alone really turned me off from going back. Also, you will see no mention of this HHA on their KOA website. My feeling is that they should be transparent about it so folks can decide if that is something they want to sign before they go there. I can certainly understand that the owners are worried about claims, and want to protect themselves in a litigious society, but most folks are not out to sue a campground.

Does the good outweigh the bad? That’s something you will need to decide. The steep climb coupled with the HHA, is probably a deal breaker for me. However, if you have a small camper, or one that won’t drag on the hill, you may enjoy it here, many folks do. As I mentioned, it’s very clean and well maintained.

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We have a new book that was just published on Amazon. It is called “I Go Where I’m Towed”. Don’t be fooled by the title though, this book has nothing to do with towing a travel trailer.  

It does, however, have everything to do with our experiences over the last thirty-five years while owning eight different travel trailers.  Hopefully you will find this to be an entertaining, and nostalgic look back at those events.  

Come on our journey and read about some of the challenges we have faced, the places we stayed, as well as our experiences on the road.  From a very simplistic start with an eighteen-year-old no frills Jayco; all the way to our newest trailer; and everything in-between. These are some of our most frightening, weird, and memorable experiences.  In every journey, there is a story, and this is ours.

Here is a very brief sample from the book:

From the very start, the Jayco travel trailer was an amazing improvement over tent camping.  Although, putting down the dinette for the kids to sleep on was a bit of a hassle, it was nothing compared to the set up required to tent camp.

Then came the night of the tornado. This we were not expecting.  Not that we hadn’t experienced tornados while camping before – we had.

Once when Tammy and I were tent camping at Devils Lake State Park the tornado sirens went off. We had just finished getting the tent up and hurried to break camp and scurry away to safety.  Nothing came of that tornado, other than an adrenaline rush.

This particular day at the KOA, the weather had been very pleasant. We had heard that there was the potential for some rain heading our way; and that it would arrive sometime that night. The KOA sits in a bit of a ravine, with hills on three sides of the campground.  The open side faces what was Harney’s Peak, now renamed Black Elk Peak. As the sun set, the kids played near the camper. To the west we could see lightening behind the distant clouds. 

Later, after the kids went to bed, Tammy and I noticed the winds intensifying. At this point we could feel the trailer sway back and forth. “Wow, the trailer is really rocking,” I said.

Even with the portable jack stands on the front and rear frame, there was a lot of movement. That’s when the radio announced that there was a tornado moving towards the black hills. I told Tammy that the ravine would probably protect us, even though I couldn’t predict the storm’s effect on us.

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If your interested in reading more, click here to purchase our book on Amazon.

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