COE

[mtnman1989]

Which state has the most COE campgrounds?

[johnhicks]

OK, but you generally approach from Chattahoochee. 🙂

I always kid DW about escaping from Chattahoochee one more time.

[jaycocamprs]

johnhicks wrote:
East Bank COE, Chattahoochee. W/E only, dump etc.

Yea but, East Bank Campground is just across the state line in Georgia.

[mtnman1989]

I have stayed at the "WP Franklin Locks" in south Florida. It is very nice and is like being on an island and hard to get reservations in the winter. They also have hookup camping slots for traveling boats as well.

We usually just stay at USFS cgs but I wanted to get back into some COE camping just for fun. We have 3 COE cgs just 50 miles from home that we have stayed at often 14 years ago.

[johnhicks]

East Bank COE, Chattahoochee. W/E only, dump etc.

[one_strange_tex]

agesilaus wrote:


I suspect those aren't all campground parks, COE manages boat ramps, picnic areas and other sites around these lakes. I'll have to figure out where the other FL COE site is, maybe up at three rivers. There are two active ones around Lake Okeechobee. We have a reservation at the one on the west called WP Franklin South, Ortona is on the other side of the lake and has very few RV spots making it very hard to get into. These also have the highest prices of any COE CG I've ever seen.

Here is more detail from the original data:

FL
Ortona South
"FL Corp of Eng
863-675-8400"

Port St. Lucie
"FL Corp of Eng
561-287-1382"

W P Franklin
"FL Corp of Eng
239-694-8770"

All 3 are part the Okeechobee navigation system, related to locks built by the COE. Since the dataset is billed as "US Federal & State Campgrounds," I am pretty sure it does not include sites that are just boat ramps and picnic sites.

This is where I put in a plug for the POI Factory website. You must sign up for a free account to use it, but it contains a wealth of information (some useful, some less so) of points of interest (information and geographic coordinates) many of which I have found to be useful, whether you RV or just travel. The individual POI files are developed and maintained by individual users.

All POI files on the site come with revision date information. The one I used here is somewhat dated, so it may be missing some newer ones, though I doubt many new COE projects have been done in the last 10 years or so.

[enblethen]

Most of the dams on the Columbia River in Washington and along Oregon border have Campgrounds. Some are contracted but still operate through the Corps.
POIs quite often do not have all the campgrounds. Many require the agency to submit them or something like that.

[jaycocamprs]

coolmom42 wrote:


Thanks for the link to that site!

Tennessee has a LOT of COE campgrounds, usually multiples on every TVA reservoir. I would not be surprised if it had the most of any state.

TVA lakes are not USACE lakes, and TVA's campgrounds aren't really in the same class. Plus TVA has leased out or closed many of the ones they did have.

[agesilaus]

one_strange_texan wrote:
Here is a table from filtering a list of government campgrounds on the website poi-factory.com

I have not verified the accuracy.

State Count of COE parks
AL 26
AR 117
CA 3
CO 2
CT 1
FL 3
GA 44
IA 24
ID 4
IL 20
KS 50
KY 32
MN 9
MO 51
MS 21
MT 3
NC 4
ND 10
NE 6
NM 5
OH 2
OK 76
OR 2
PA 15
SC 7
SD 3
TN 25
TX 88
VA 11
VT 2
WA 7
WI 5
WV 12
Grand
Total 690

I suspect those aren't all campground parks, COE manages boat ramps, picnic areas and other sites around these lakes. I'll have to figure out where the other FL COE site is, maybe up at three rivers. There are two active ones around Lake Okeechobee. We have a reservation at the one on the west called WP Franklin South, Ortona is on the other side of the lake and has very few RV spots making it very hard to get into. These also have the highest prices of any COE CG I've ever seen.

[mtnman1989]

Thank you everyone, this is very helpful and good info!

[one_strange_tex]

Here is a table from filtering a list of government campgrounds on the website poi-factory.com

I have not verified the accuracy.

State Count of COE parks
AL 26
AR 117
CA 3
CO 2
CT 1
FL 3
GA 44
IA 24
ID 4
IL 20
KS 50
KY 32
MN 9
MO 51
MS 21
MT 3
NC 4
ND 10
NE 6
NM 5
OH 2
OK 76
OR 2
PA 15
SC 7
SD 3
TN 25
TX 88
VA 11
VT 2
WA 7
WI 5
WV 12
Grand
Total 690

[Bears_Den]

Lake Seminole, Lake Hartwell, Allatoona Lake and Carter’s Lake all in Georgia have COE CGs. Some of the lakes have more than one.

[CharlesinGA]

Here is the official Corp Lakes website with all of the lakes, recreation areas, etc. Lots of info.

https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/visitors.cfm

They used to have a CD-ROM you could get free. I was given one when I got my senior pass three years ago (just before the price went up).

Charles

[LadyRVer]

I have the book and it shows the basic area where the COE is located (by state) and then a description. I used in it my travels across the US last year and am getting ready to go to 2 different ones in NC in just a few days.

Doing reservations on the website works for me, especially if you look at availability on sites for dates you want, first.

[coolmom42]

vermilye wrote:
The Ultimate Public Campgrounds Project app can be filtered so it only shows COE campgrounds. While the AllStays app can do the same, I find the Ultimate Public list better for non commercial campgrounds.

Thanks for the link to that site!

Tennessee has a LOT of COE campgrounds, usually multiples on every TVA reservoir. I would not be surprised if it had the most of any state.