I've pulled into some bad campgrounds and instantly had just an overwhelming
feeling of disappointment. I'm gonna show you how I now find the best campgrounds
so this never happens to you. Hi I'm Randi and every Thursday I have weekend
warriors make every moment count because weekends are just too short! I need to
make a campground reservation so I'm on the hunt for the perfect campground. But
will I find it? Follow along with me as I share the app I use and my process. The
app I use is called AllStays it is available in the Apple App Store and
cost $10. it's a map app and the various icons represent different campgrounds.
I'm zoomed in here to Lake Superior because this is where I'm interested in
camping and more specifically I want to camp along this shoreline. When doing the
search for the perfect campground there's four things that are important
to me. It must have a four star rating or above, I don't want to spend more than
$30 per night and I like a more secluded campsite preferably in the woods and I
love to hike so it must have trails. The first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to
click on the filter icon right there and when I do I'm presented with a list of
different types of campgrounds that I can choose from. I'm gonna select Army Corps
of Engineers, County and city parks, independent campgrounds I'm also select state
campgrounds. This is where the fun begins and I'm going to begin to filter through
the different options and criteria that I've got available to me.
I want to find a campground that is under $30. I'm gonna select the average
rate with a three dollar signs and under. That means the pricing at the
campgrounds are going to be under $30. I'm also interested in finding a
campground with a four star or above rating so I'm going to select that
button right here. Let's continue to scroll down, If I was looking for a
campground that had a dump station I would select that button but I'm not
looking for that so let's uncheck it. Also if you had a big rig you would
check in this button and then only campgrounds that had sites that would
accommodate big rigs would show up on the map. If you wanted to make sure that
a campground had full hookups with electric water and sewer then you would
select this button. I don't care about hookups for this reservation so I'm not
going to select any of these. Sorting by all of these different filters is going
to make sure that you find a campground that has all the amenities and features
that are of interest to you so you can find the perfect campsite to fit your
needs. I've selected the amenities and features
that are important to me for this reservation so I'm gonna hit the back
button and now I'm gonna click done. And what I've done so my map now shows me
all the campgrounds in the map viewing area that meet the criteria that I've
chosen. A quick plug if you aren't a current subscriber to my channel do so
now by hitting the subscribe button below that way you'll be notified when I
publish the video about the campground I selected and you can find out if I made
the right decision! The first one I'm going to click on is
this icon right here and when I do I'm instantly showing a campground card. And
when we look at this card there's a lot of different information on here but
the first thing I always do is I click on the image button right there And when
I do that I am instantly presented with images
taken by others and I can see at a glance what this can campground is like and
instantly get appeal if this is a campground that I'm interested in. One of
the pictures that caught my eye was this one and when I tap on it I can see that
this is the campground on the water which I love that,
however the camp sites are rather close together so this camp gun may not be
ideal for me. Let's go back and now let's look at a different campground. Let's
click on this icon and get information about this campground. This campground is
called Gooseberry Falls State Park and the first thing once again I'm going to do is
I'm going to click on the image icon and I can immediately tell you that I am
very interested in this campground! Wow look at those gorgeous waterfall
pictures. But I also need to find a campsite picture to get an idea of what
these campsite looks like. Let me click on this picture. Okay I like it. It's
secluded and it's in the woods. Let's take a look at another closeby campsite.
I'm gonna click on the icon and this is Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Once
again I'm going to find images and at a glance I can see this looks like a
really nice campground. I like the fact that is right on the water and we've got
the lighthouse but let's take a look at some of the campsites themselves. And
this looks like a secluded campsite as well and it's in the woods. And stay to
the end because I'm going to show you my absolute favorite way to get information
about a campground, but before we do that I need to figure out if both of these
campsites have hiking trails. The information
card is where I'm going to look at that information. So Gooseberry Falls State
let's scroll down to the location information, this location information
also tells me things such as are there trails at this campground. And yes there
are trails so that's a thumbs up for Gooseberry! Let's click on Split Rock
Lighthouse and scroll down under the location information. We can see that
this campground also has trail and hiking. I think I know which campground I
want to make a reservation at but there's one more thing I need to do.
YouTube is one of my go-to resources and as a YouTuber that just makes sense. So
I'm going to search for Gooseberry State Park and I'm going to see if there's any
videos here that are going help me decide if this is the campground I want
to choose. This one looks interesting.
yay that looks like a pretty spectacular view. Let's also look at Split
Rock Lighthouse. A lot of videos to look at, oh my gosh. Videos is the best way to really see
what a campground is like. People tell you what they think too so that's
fantastic. Let's take a look at this video right here. Look at these views! I'm
not gonna go wrong by staying at either one of these campgrounds.
So which campground did I decide to make a reservation at?Drum roll please. I'm staying
at Gooseberry Falls State Park this summer and I can't wait to see those
waterfalls. I ended up standing on top of waterfalls at a campground I stayed at
last summer and it was so spectacular. If you haven't seen that video yet I'm
gonna leave a link to it right up here you've got to go watch it!