Season: May 1-October 15
Rates (as of 2014): Primitive tent: $20 per night; Full hookup sites (water, sewer, 30-amp electric): $30 for two adults and $2 per child; cabins: $75 per night for family of four
Website: http://evergreenlakecampground.com
We had just purchased our first travel trailer and needed to make a local "maiden voyage" to familiarize ourselves with the hookups and test for any problems. We chose Mother's Day weekend in 2013 for our test camping trip. It was cold and rainy, so we were delighted to have an RV with a furnace so that our 3-year-old and 10-month-old were comfortable. That was the point of buying the RV, after all.
As new Passport America club members, we were looking for a campground that participated in the program and found Evergreen Lake Park among its listings. With Passport America's discount, we only paid $18 per night for our whole family on a site with full hookups.
Initial Assessment
The campground was easy to find, right off of Interstate 90. In fact, when we went for our first walk around the grounds, I was slightly put off by the fact that you could not only hear the traffic on the freeway, but you could see it through the trees behind a single row of campers. To me, seeing and hearing traffic doesn't meet the criteria of a peaceful camping trip with the family. This place, I assumed, was probably more of an overnight stop for people passing through.
Getting to Know Evergreen Lake
As we walked the many winding gravel paths through the park, we noticed that the bulk of sites were seasonal campers, not the overnighters I originally suspected. The decorated gardens, golf-cart ports, built-in decks and sheds indicate that these campers have been coming back to Evergreen Lakes Park for years.
I couldn't help wondering why people would choose this campground next to the noisy freeway as their home away from home. We, ourselves, had considered purchasing a static campsite as our family getaway before deciding we needed the ever-changing scenery and opted for the travel trailer. When I pictured our vacation camp home, I pictured quiet, dark nights, which is why I was so perplexed by all of these families' decisions to pick Evergreen Lakes.
During the day of our arrival, we were so into learning how to hookup the sewer and water lines and resolving some functional problems with our RV that we didn't get far beyond a tour of the campground. We didn't even build our first family fire until the next day, after we'd been rested.
After we build our first family fire and sat there, watching the kids play in the gravel, the older couple in the site across the path brought over a small copper tube with chopped-up bits of old credit cards. This, they said, would change the color of the flames in the fire. They also told us that they'd been coming to Evergreen Lake every Mother's Day weekend since their children, now grown and on their own, were little. It was their tradition to kickoff the summer camping season at this campground.
A Final Assessment
Later in the day, after multiple trips and jogs around the lake and sharing simple conversations on the wooden swings, we settled down to watch the fire jumping. As is common in campgrounds, the regulars rode their golf carts up and down the paths. We watched them. New campers arrived with their RVs, and we watched them maneuver into the campsites. We sat there and watched our boys play with rocks and twigs and marvel at the popping flames.
Then, one of the ladies driving a golf cart stopped and asked if we'd like a photograph of our family. Yes, yes, we did. She took our camera and snapped a couple shots for us. We weren't at our most photogenic moments, being bundled up against the cold and still wrestling with a hot water issue in the RV, but we certainly did want a photo to commemorate our maiden voyage. How nice of her to guess that and offer to take it for us.
Not even an hour later, another camper in his golf cart stopped and offered his ride to us as an amusement for our boys. Wow. Maybe I am just too used to living in the city, but to offer your several-thousand dollar vehicle to total strangers? Wow. When we declined, he told us which lot he was in and told us to just drop by if we changed our mind. For the record, we just didn't want to be responsible for wrecking or otherwise harming the vehicle in any way.
After one full day at Evergreen Lakes, I realized why it is that these families come back year after year: It's the people. Evergreen Lakes has all the usual amenities: a calendar of events, fishing lake, cabins, store, Wi-Fi, playground, arcade, hot showers and dump station. It also offers a miniature golf course and a dog run. But it was the people that made us want to make Evergreen Lake Park in Conneaut, OH, our annual camping season maiden voyage on Mother's Day weekend.