East Fork COE Campground in West Virginia

After leaving Ohio, we headed south into, as the tourism board dubs it, "wild, wonderful" West Virginia, another new state for Pearl.

Getting to East Fork Corps of Engineer Campground was an adventure, as the last 35+ miles of driving were on narrow, winding, bumpy roads we were surprised our RV atlas marked as RV friendly.  But there was no other way to get there, and we knew that other rigs had certainly made the drive before us, so we forged onward. We had already had a longer than usual drive with unexpectedly high traffic, so we were pretty worn out when we arrived at the park. The park is south of Huntington in a very rural area, dotted with small towns.

Once we finally pulled in late on a Thursday afternoon in mid-October, we were rewarded with a lovely waterfront spot. East Fork Campground is located on the shores of East Lynn Lake on the East Fork of Twelvepole Creek.  We considered ourselves very lucky to nab such a private spot as the campground was quite full, especially Areas 1 and 2.  Areas 4-6 had already closed for the season, and this was the last weekend the campground would be open until spring. 

The campground offers electric and water hookups and waterfront view for only $12/night with Barry's Senior Pass -- a great deal. What it doesn't have is any cell or over-the-air TV signal since it is so remote.  It's satellite or nothing here.  The park does offer wi-fi through their satellite, and I sprung for a 24-hour pass ($10) in the middle of our three-night stay so I could get online for a bit.  The password is only good for one device, however, so it was pretty pricey, but since camping here was so inexpensive, the extra $10 was no big deal. They have better deals on internet access if you are staying a week or longer.

​Wildlife abounds here.  We saw many birds, ducks, deer, and wild turkey.  There were two deer near our site that scampered off into the woods when we pulled in.  We had gorgeous views on three sides of us, though we did get a bit of road noise as our site was near the only road into and out of the campground.

Campground road to right of our site

View from our back bedroom window

Great Blue Heron fishing in a shallow spot

Creek view

Although we had our loop in part of Area 1 all to ourselves on Thursday night, that would change over the weekend as a couple of rigs pulled in on Friday, and a young couple in a tent on Saturday.  Still, ours was by far the quietest loop, and we were very happy we chose it.  The main loops in Area 1 and Area 2 were packed with kids and quite noisy. 

Turns out there was a reason the park was so full and festive:  the annual Halloween celebration, with decorating contest and trick-or-treating for the kids, was on Saturday night.  We certainly hadn't expected this in mid-October.  But others had come prepared, and some rigs and sites were decorated to the hilt!   I guess they celebrate early here since the park closes for the season after this weekend.

In addition to campers, this event must be very well-known in the surrounding communities, as we were amazed to see the number of vehicles pouring in on Saturday afternoon just for the festivities!  Since we had no candy on hand to give out, we pulled all the shades down during the two-hour trick-or-treating time, just in case.  Fortunately, our site was far from the main action.  

Stay tuned for more from this pretty park in our next post.