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Artillery Ridge
Posted on Friday, April 25, 2008 -- Related Regions: Pennsylvania • Eastern-Pennsylvania
Web site: Artillery Ridge
Gettysburg, PA - (717) 334-1288
Larry gave us this review on 04/25/08. Dates of Stay: April 20-24, 2008. Will You Return? Undecided. What did you camp in? Tent - Size of Camping Unit: n/a
Overall Campground Rating: fair-average.
What stood out? They advertise a diorama of the Gettysburg Battle, yet it was never open. Nor was the pavillion or game room. We were a group of 20 people, 15 boy scouts and 5 adult leaders.
Owners and Staff: One person checks you in and operates the store. We never saw another campground employee during our 5 day stay.
Camp landscaping and surroundings: It was still somewhat early in the season, but the grass that was there was green and growing. But lots of bare spots made for very muddy areas when it rained. They were extending the driveway by paving it further when we were there.
Overall Site Quality: not good
Good sites: None in the tenting area. The seasonals looked like they had the best spots. The other RV/camper sites looked ok, but not what I would have enjoyed with my popup. Bad sites: All tent sites.
Campsite hookups: primitive tent, electric, water, sewer, wifi Campsite Descriptions: sunny and open, wooded, semi-private, large and spacious, somewhat small, close to the road, grassy bottom, group camping area. All the sites had terrible drainage when it rained creating a very muddy area. We were given a horrible site to start and then moved ourselves (no one was there) to higher and somewhat less muddy ground as we set up 9 tents, and food preparation and eating area shelters.
Seasonal Campers and Campsites: neat and orderly, We only saw one or two seasonals during our Late Sunday thru Thursday stay. So we may have missed them.
Clean restrooms and showers? no. Restrooms and showers need updating? yes. free showers. Are restrooms accessible from all sites? yes. Additional comments on restrooms and showers: The restrooms were cleaned just once during our stay. TP was not refilled, the showers were not cleaned as old soaps, etc still littered the stalls. The water was extremely HOT and always available except when someone ran the sink. Then there was NO shower water at all. It just stopped flowing. The electrical outlets in the bathroom did not work either much to my surprse when I plugged in my shaver. No changes were made when I complained either.
Activities and Amenities
pool, pond, swimming, fishing, recreation hall, video games, pool table, playground, camp store, AM coffee, pets allowed, laundry room, dumping station, The pool was supposed to be open. It was closed. The camp store had barely anything in it. The Diarama is a big draw but it was never open. The game room was always closed and locked.
What is nearby? restaurants, grocery stores, nature trails. Artiller Ridge IS the closest campground to the Gettysburg Battlefields. Our scouts did hike directly from the campground. For them it was a plus. The brand new visitors center is less than a mile away and just down the street.
Last comments: The campground is a step up from a basic BSA campground which has no showers or flush toilets. It did have free showers, running water and it was close to the battlefield. So it was an imporvement there. It is the highest per person with a group ($8.50pp) vs less for other campgrounds. But it is close, that's it's one main convenient feature! But for a family with a camper or even a tent, I would not recommend it at all.
Related Regions: Pennsylvania • Eastern-Pennsylvania
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Comments
The comment area is open for approximately one year after the review date.
You were kind of hard on the campground seeing that it was off season.
I am not saying the campground doesn’t have problems, personally we have never stayed there, but you have to allow some considerations since it was so early in the season.
Posted by That's Camping in the Northeast on 05/04/08Hi,I just want to comment that That’s camping
usually in my observation,defends the campground
a lot of times when ther is a negative review.It
seems like you don’t believe the camper’s experience.Just another view.Posted by donna on 05/04/08Yeah, I do defend the campground, because I think a lot of reviews are biased. I am not saying anything about Larry as a reviewer, he has sent in many reviews prior, and he is fair.
I am only trying to point out that there is another side to the story, and sometimes the campground owner gets a bad rap because of one back weekend or stay.
Thanks for your comment, Donna!
Posted by That's Camping in the Northeast on 05/04/08I camped here for 2 nights during the last week of Oct, ‘07 in a motorhome. Pull thru sites and yes, we did see the diarama. Not as good as the visitor center, but for free, very good. Two people in the office/store each time we went in. I used it because it is in the Passport America system and not at all disappointed!
Posted by Carolyn on 05/20/08The campground does open March 31. So it may not have been peak season, but it’s not like they opened special for us. When we arrived on Sunday, we were told that it had been a very busy weekend and prior week and they were surprised by our timing the week we came. But MA had school vaca the week we were there and not the prior week.
What’s involved with putting more TP or cleaning the bathrooms once a day. It’s not like we were the only campers there. There was at least 2 other groups of tenters there when we were.
Posted by Larry on 05/27/08Stay there last week and it was great. We were in a camper and had a wonderful time. I must say we only really stay there at night spent a lot of time exploring the local area. Very nice time.
Posted by Gettysburg PA on 08/21/08
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