On my journey back from Arizona, Visiting Carlsbad Caverns National Park was on my list of stops. I had been to Carlsbad Caverns once before and I was impressed with the natural beauty of the caverns so I decided to return on the continuation of my maiden journey with my RV. When searching for RV Campgrounds, I decided to stay at the Carlsbad KOA. Being new to RV’ing, I learned that I need to do my homework because just because the campground has Carlsbad in its name doesn’t mean it’s close. It’s actually about a 50-minute drive to the caverns.
The Check-In Process
The staff was friendly and helpful about information about Carlsbad Caverns National Park. I was guided to my back-in site and shown where all of the hook-ups were.
The RV Sites
The sites were level gravel with full hook-ups (I stayed at site S6). The one thing I didn’t like was all of the large rocks used to outline the site location. As I learned, there are blindspots on RV’s! When I was checking out the next day, I did all of my safety checks twice and as I was pulling out, I used my mirrors to make sure I was clear from everything. However, at the beginning of the site, along abutting to the road, there was a large low rock that was not visible just behind the driver’s door. I made my turn to avoid the other rocks but ran over a low rock causing minor damage to my brand new RV. Needless to say, I was not happy and I have no problem saying it is simply a stupid idea to intentionally landscape with obstacles that are within the turning radius of RV’s. There are enough blind spots in normal RV sites when backing up and pulling out. So one would think an RV campground would know it’s better to be practical as opposed to looking nice.
There were cable and free-wifi available at the site that worked well and they offered free delivery of Barbecue meals and pizza to your site. I did order some barbecue, and it was very good.
The Amenities
This is classified as a “Holiday” KOA which really only means they have RV Sites with a KOA Patio, Deluxe Cabins with full baths, Premium Tent Sites, and Group meeting facilities. Other than that, this KOA is pretty basic and serves the purpose of a weekend camping destination for locals and an overnight stay for those passing through or visiting the area. I am not sure why the laundry facilities are listed as unique because they were not anything special.
Review & Recommendations
If I were visiting the Carlsbad Caverns National Park again, I would probably check out other campgrounds but if there were none that appeared as a better choice, then I would return. I did notice a very strong smell in the air but later learned when at the pool, that it was caused by fracking in the area. With regard to the pool area, it was small and during my visit, it was hard to enjoy the pool with the amount of kids playing in the pool. I have no problems with kids but I do have problems with parents who don’t control their kids when they are out of control. I kept moving to different areas of the pool to get out of the way of the kids then they would wind up where I was trying to relax.
Unfortunately, being not only new to RV’ing, I am new to blogging and did not take pictures at this KOA, but you can view the photo album on the Carlsbad KOA website. The Good Sam rating is 9/9.5/9.
My Rating
