JAMES RIVER STATE PARK CAMPGROUND REVIEW

Nightly Rate (April, 2025): $42/night (includes sales tax)

Site: Red Oak 16 (W/E) - Utilities Placement & Location: Good / Power: Clean (Dump Available)

Check-in: 4PM / Check-out: 1PM (If site is available before 4, you can enter the park)

Rig: 2018 Vista 31BHE Class A Motorhome, No Additional Vehicle

Connectivity: Our T-Mobile Hotspot was sufficient for internet connectivity and streaming without using our WeBoost antenna system; Cell Service on Verizon was 1 or 2 bars

THE PARK:

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this 1500+ acre park features rolling grasslands, quiet forests and beautiful views, as well as 3 miles of shoreline along the James River. Visitors can hike, bike, canoe, kayak, fish or tent camp on the banks of the historic river or at Branch Pond.

Facilities include cabins, a visitor center, a gift shop, a natural playground, picnic shelters, multi-use trails, boat launches, water/electric campgrounds and equestrian camping. The park also has a universally accessible fishing pier and a .25-mile-long wheelchair-accessible trail around Green Hill Pond.

The road into the campground is about 7 miles, and is relatively narrow. We arrived around 4PM and didn’t encounter any RV’s coming in the opposite direction. Since checkout is not until 1PM, I’d probably not plan on arriving at the park before 2PM. You could squeeze by one another, but that’s never my favorite thing to do.

Included in our packet retrieved at the self-service check-in, we found two car passes, a park map that included information on the trails, an activities calendar, bear safety information, and a flyer for a special Earth Day celebration.

The park itself is beautiful and feels vast. There’s so much open space, including a vast dark sky viewing area (pictured above), and plenty of scenic wooded trails. Our stay this time was short, but we will definitely come back to explore some more!

THE CAMPGROUND:

We stayed at Red Oak Campground, which was a single loop of about 30 sites served by one bathhouse located at the back of the loop. The campground road was wide, well-marked and paved. You’re in bear country, and perhaps because of that the closest dumpster is located quite a ways from the campground. We did not encounter any bears, but we did see lots of squirrels, and a small herd of dear passed just behind our site in the evening. Hosts are friendly, and campsites are spacious and shaded when trees have leaves. It was very quiet throughout the park except when a freight train comes through near the river. On my noise intrusion scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most intrusive, I rate this campground a 1. It was, for the most part, serenely peaceful!

Campfires are permitted between designated times (4pm-10pm) when the Camp Host is in attendance and local burn ban restrictions are not in place. There’s quite a bit of downed trees that you can forage for firewood as well.

The bath house had four private, unisex shower facilities and men’s/women’s rest rooms. One of the shower facilities was accessible for individuals with disabilities, as was one of the toilets in each of the bathrooms. Three of the showers offer an overhead waterfall shower, spray jets or a handheld shower, all with plenty of water pressure and hot water. My shower felt like heaven after 5 months on the road. The accessible shower does not offer the overhead waterfall shower head, and one of the four showers was out of order during our visit.

The bath house is also home to a double sink dishwashing station with a hand-held sprayer that my hubby loved, and an amply equipped laundromat ($1.25/load for wash and dry, quarters only).

Beautiful, well-maintained and well-marked hiking trails are accessible right from the campground, with more to be found along the park road. We enjoyed a hike up to the Tye River Overlook, which was quite lovely.

On the way, we passed an old family cemetery, and I took note of another off the main Park Road as well. Scenery throughout the park is beautiful, with mountainous terrain, plenty of trees and yet a surprising amount of open space.

We visited in late April, and the weather was very pleasant. We missed the mountain laurels blooming but were happy to see the dogwoods in bloom throughout the park.

OUR SITE: (Red Oak 16)

Our site was huge, partially shaded, and located next to the bath house with forest behind us and a small rental cabin in the far distance. The site surface was gravel, with a pea gravel / sand tent pad and/or patio area. We had a lantern pole, a large tent pad, a fire ring with cooking grill, water and electric hook-ups.

Our picnic table was a bit weathered, and had an educational placque about bear safety affixed to the surface. Our 20 amp receptacle was not working when we arrived; we told the host and he promised to pass word along so it would be available for the next camper. There were some low hanging branches that touched the RV roof as we backed into our site, but they were new growth so quite flexible.

OUR SUMMARY & RATING

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ + 3/4 ⭐️’s

James River State Park Campground is a gem of a campground, and earns 4 and 3/4 stars in our book. The park offers lots of open space to explore, spacious sites, unbeatable shower facilities that offer accessibility features for persons with disabilities, laundry, and plenty of hiking trails. It is quiet, peaceful and the campers and hosts were very friendly. To earn 5 stars, the site would need to be full hook-up and concrete (or macadam) to avoid tracking the pea gravel and sand into the RV. We also would have appreciated a trash dumpster within convenient walking distance from the campground, since we’re still traveling without a tow vehicle. Other than those minor factors, we think James River State Park Campground is pretty darn near perfect! We are active snowbirds, and we rate campgrounds based on our preferences, which may be different from yours. We travel with two dogs who don’t always get along (sigh…), so we enjoy campgrounds with trails where we can exercise the pups and tucker them out. James River State Park offers that in abundance, with a nice mix of easy and moderate hiking trails and beautiful scenery in a serene setting that is everything we love about camping. We only wish we had been able to stay longer, and look forward to returning in the future!

See you on the road! Travel safe and have fun, folks!