COE CG's

Most of the COE's I'v stayed at have 30amp and wtr hookups. They do offer a dump site and a place to fill water if need be to. We camp and them quite often but try to go during off season or weeks. Less crowded that way and a much better time.

I frequent COE parks from the SE to the SW and a little way into the upper midwest. All have had water on site and a dumb station. All have had 30A and most have a good number of 50A sites. I haven't been in one that didn't have 50A service altho one must check available. That's were the website comes in. Some are now starting to put in sewer connections. Dump sites are always available.

Suggest buying the book Camping with the Corp (2007 edition). You can get it online at Amazon Books for about ten bucks. Also, the next time you're near a COE with an adjacent district office, stop in it and pick up a free US Corp campground map.

If you qualify, get an Access or Golden Age card. It's free and gets you 50% discount.

Thanks Skyking -- I do have the Access Card ... have for years. Some places honor it, some not. But, it's nice to know most of the COE have at least some hook-ups. I do like to "boon-dock" some of the time, but also like the hook-ups when staying in an area longer than a few days. Just a little more comfort as I get to needing it -- as the years fly by, I discover I'm not a 'youngster' any more.


And for those that use these ... mostly available, or mostly crowded ? Good for stop-overs without planning, or should plan and reserve??

Never been in a COE park that didn’t honor the card.

They have a reservations policy that includes a cancellation/change policy. Suggest calling the national reservation number and listening to the recorded cancellation policy. 1-877-444-6677
The larger the campground the more likely it is to get a first come site or RON. At least 10% are first come, first serve. If you are only doing an RON, then be advised that many of the COE sites are back-ins so you’d need to unhook the towed if pulling one.

As far as being crowded, I’ve gone to a 100+ site COE park during the week day and been the only one there. Accepting holiday periods, Sunday after check out time thru Thursday is the best time to do a drive up. The best way to handle that is to go online and gather the sites you might be going by and the phone numbers for them. Then call while you’re on the road and ask if there are any first come sites open. You may get a District Office with the online published numbers, but you can then ask for the gate attendant number. Also, know that the larger the lake, the more likely it is to have more than one COE park on it. That’s were the Camping with the Corp Book or map comes in handy.

If you’ll email me with an intended route or destination, I can give you some suggestions on which one’s to use. Of the 25-30 that I’ve been in, only had one bad one. Some nicer than the others, but only the one I’d never go back to. That’s another reason I’d like to see this site include reviews of COE parks. To paraphrase one of Larry’s recent comments….that would be a shameless plug.

QUOTE: "...If you’ll email me with an intended route or destination ..."

Don't have one ... just gathering information of COE in general so that I can include those CGs in my travels ... I usually never make reservations, and simply travel around, staying where I am if I like it, and moving on if I don't ... BUt I specifically like MCG, National Parks, State Parks rather than
private CGs ... so am adding COE to the mix when MCG is not available in the area where I'm traveling at the time... thanks for info -- if I decide on a specific one, I'm post up and assk about it though -- see ys !! BD

That’s another reason I’d like to see this site include reviews of COE parks.

I actually took yours and others suggestion and created a website similiar to this one for COE parks. It was also a learning experience on some new software. However, when I started to reseasrch and gather the information to enter into the website, I quickly realized this was a major task. In addition, the COE already had a good website with the information available, minus the reviews. Bottom line, the website was never completed. I would still love to create a COE reviews website. Perhaps I'll attempt it again someday.

Currently, we started another website on RV Parking at Elks and Moose lodges. However, this has also turned into a time consuming project. With us currently working in the forest for the summer, this new website won't be ready until the end of December.