RV Campground Review: Grant River Recreation Area – Potosi, Wisconsin
Grant River is one of our favorite Corps Parks. Located on the banks of the Mississippi River, it has nice mature trees offering lots of shade options for the camp sites. Modern full service washrooms with showers kept spotlessly clean. Lots of frontage along the river with benches every 100 feet or so offering a pleasant places to sit and watch the river roll by. There isn’t a lot of activity on the river itself, largely free of the sound of jet skis and power boats charging back and forth disturbing the tranquility. But there is an adjacent boat launch for fisherman and a large parking area for trailers.
Spacious, well-planned camp sites with shade at least part of the day.
The sites are level and concrete and the road throughout park is paved. The heavy, substantial picnic tables are well-maintained and stand on a well-drained gravel pad with a fire-ring and grill. The sites are electric-only with 20, 30, and 50 amp service. No water hydrants at each site, but several hydrants are sprinkled throughout the campground for convenient refilling. There is adequate spacing and green space between the camp sites. A few of the camp sites are dedicated for tent campers and provide very adequate spacing away from other camp sites.
This may be an original Shasta camper. Looks in good shape.
Just north of the campground is a day use area with a picnic pavilion, a boat ramp and dock, and lots of parking space.
Watching the sun go down at Grant River Corps park
Things to See and Do at Grant River Corps Park
Besides hanging out at the campsite, we enjoy hiking around the park, enjoying the scenic views of the river, and biking both around the park and to the Potosi Brewery for a brew or food (see our review). The National Brewery Museum is also located at the Brewery and is a fun and interesting look at the history of brewing with stories and pictures from former breweries in Wisconsin and across the nation.
For bikers, the rustic rural road that runs from Potosi’s main street to the park isn’t that busy with traffic and is a scenic bike ride over a mostly level terrain. More enthusiastic bikers can take the return trip along Brewery Hollow Road (a Wisconsin scenic rural road) back to the campground. And even more enthusiastic bikers can take the scenic River Road 20 miles north to Cassville and the Stonefield Village Historic Site.
When we have the grand kids or grand nephews/nieces with us they enjoy fishing from the banks of the river and the park playground that has slides, swings, climbing gym, volleyball court, and horse shoe courts.
Provisions like ice, beverages, and basic groceries are available at the Pine Point Store 4 miles away in downtown Potosi.
One Downside to RV Camping at Grant River
While we consider Grant River an A+ campground, some campers would downgrade that vote due to the fact of frequent trains running by. Seeing the trains is a neat experience for kids and train aficionados, but the noise of them passing can disrupt what are otherwise a very peaceful nighttime atmosphere.
All along the upper Mississippi River there are railroad tracks with active freight trains running day and night, so one downside of any campground near the Big River are the periodic trains that run overnight.
The Indian Pass Campground is at the very tip of the peninsula adjacent to a portion of the St. Vincent Wildlife Sanctuary and the Boat Ramp and Ferry Dock. There are 34 RV sites with electric, water, and basic cable, plus a handfull of tent sites. There is a bath and shower building, a laundry area, and a modest store in the campground office. Wi-Fi is available at the office and on the porch. The lagoon formed by the peninsula and the adjacent St. Vincent Sound (bordering St. Vincent Island) make the campground popular with kayakers and canoeists. The convenient boat ramp and the protected waters are also ideal for fishermen. While the campground has its own beach, the isolated sand beach bordering the wildlife refuge is a better alternative for sunbathing and swimming.
The beach across the street at the wildlife refuge.
The Indian Pass community is mostly homes with a few smaller condos with few commercial establishments so there’s not much traffic and being located at the end of the road, the campground is in a very peaceful setting and the extensive beach looking out towards St. Vincent Island is uncrowded and unspoiled.
The campsites in general are well-shaded and mostly level. The sites are arranged in a somewhat crazy-quilt manner oriented around the trees and terrain. I think this adds to the general attractiveness, although it means large units will have trouble accessing some of the sites. But some will easily accommodate larger RV units and some sites are pull-through.
Other Nearby Attractions. The nearest bar or restaurant is 3 miles away on Highway 30a at the entrance to Indian Pass. The closest general shopping is in Port St. Joe, 13 miles from the campground. The St. Joseph’s Bay Golf Course (see our review) is 10 miles away and for us a nice bonus as we enjoyed the course very much. Historic Apalachicola, with many notable seafood restaurants, raw bars, galleries and shopping boutiques is 21 miles from the campground.
Campground Review: Manatee Springs State Park, Chiefland, Florida
Manatee Springs is located along the legendary Suwannee River about 6 miles west of Chiefland Florida. It offers swimming, snorkeling, and manatee viewing in its signature warm water spring. Other amenities include hiking/biking trails, canoeing/kayaking, and enjoying its full-service campground (see our review lower down this page)
Getting ready to take a swim in the spring
The Spring pool maintains a 72 degree temperature year round which draws in Manatees from the river during the winter months when the temperatures in the river fall, thus the reason the springs are named Manatee Springs. The year round moderate temperature also provides humans swimming, scuba diving and snorkeling recreation year-round.
From the spring pool, about 100 million gallons of cool, sparkling clear, clean water are discharged into the stream that connects to the Suwannee River. The stream and the river provide excellent waters for canoeing and kayaking; both types of water craft are available for rent by the park concessionaire, Anderson’s Outdoor Adventures, who also carries a collection of camping equipment and supplies. Another service is pontoon boat tours of Suwannee River.
Boardwalk around the spring pool.
Boardwalk to the fishing pier and boat dock on the Suwannee River.
Going fishing from the canoe launch by the spring.
Camp Store & Grill
In the same building as Anderson’s Adventures is a walk-up grill and beverage stand with covered picnic tables and Free Wi-Fi service. So you can sit there have a brew or a burger while surfing the Internet!
Having a burger and surfing the Internet overlooking the springs
Other types of recreation popular in the park are fishing, hiking, and mountain-biking. There are 8 miles of hiking and nature trails, plus two boardwalk trails. Biking is allowed on most of the hiking trails as well as on the roads running throughout the park. Some ambitious bikers will bike to town on highway 320; we’ve found the road to town relatively less busy so reasonably safe for biking.
Biking on one of the many wooded biking-hiking trails
The Manatee Springs Campground
The campground offers 80 campsites in three camping areas. Most sites are reasonably level and nicely spaced away from adjacent sites. Each of the three camping areas has its own conveniently located washroom and bath house. One of the bath houses we used had heat lamps in the showers, a nice feature if you are showing on a cold morning. There is electricity and water at each campsite and a dump site near the park entrance for emptying your holding tanks. There is no Wi-Fi within the camping area, however there is free Wi-Fi at the concessionaire pavilion near the springs itself.
Cypress Trees line the spring pool and lowland areas near the river, but Oak trees are the major tree species in most of the park. Sweetgum and Ash are also found throughout the woods. The mature trees provide nice shade for the campsites and woodland plants and shrubs provide welcome privacy screening in the campground.
After each campsite is vacated, park service personnel pick up trash, sweep and rake every campsite. Sort of like a good motel has the room swept, sheets changed, bathrooms cleaned, and waste baskets cleaned between stays. We also found good maintenance of the picnic tables and fire rings and the cleaning of the washrooms excellent.
Price-wise, Camping fees at Manatee Springs is middle-level and in our opinion is a very good bargain for the services offered by the park and the high level of good maintenance.
Level campsites, electric & water, decent privacy screening.
Gulf Coast Beach Town. An easy drive (about 30 miles) is the fun Beach Town of Cedar Key (see our post). The friendly village is built on a collection of gulf islands and offers the expected beach resort attractions such as restaurants, pubs, gift shops, T-shirts shops and the like. Yet is also offers a more homey, laid-back atmosphere than you find in most other gulf beach communities. Beach sunbathing, swimming, deep sea fishing, boat and dolphin-watching tours, shopping boutiques, and excellent sea food restaurants and pubs abound in Cedar Key.
Compact Class C MotorHome Reviews – PleasureWay Plateau XLTS
2021 Update. While PleasureWay no longer makes the XLTS or any Class C motorhomes, this review will be handy for those shopping for used or nearly new compact motorhome. The XLTS is worth considering. 2023 Update – surprise! Pleasure Way, after a 4 year absence is again making the XLTS.
In my previous reviews of American or Canadian Compact Class C Motorhomes, I didn’t include a new entry for 2018 from Pleasure Way Industries from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The main drawback hampering its inclusion was price. An MSRP base price of $145,470.00! Our threshold was $100,000. While you could expect to find a dealer who could knock several thousand dollars off that $145K price, I would be surprised if a buyer could ever get below $110,000.
But for the benefit of those who might not be scared off by the sticker price, I’ll review some of the strengths. While Pleasure-Way has been known for producing high quality Class B motorhomes, the Plateau XLTS is a wide-body Class C. That extra width is important as even the high end Class Bs we’ve looked at always seem claustrophobic. While using the Mercedes chassis that has become popular, they managed to keep the length down to 22′ 9″ whereas many competitors using the Mercedes platform are pushing 25 feet.
Our benchmark features for a compact Class C Motorhome are those we have found in our Winnebago Rialta. Those are:
Low profile, aerodynamic and attractive body style
Short length (21 feet) enables parking in a conventional automobile parking space
Driving and manevering it is as easy as a pickup truck
Doubles as a deluxe passenger van with seating for 4 adults and 3 kids
Large coach windows, with natural light lending an open feeling to the interior
Large rear-facing picture window with view from the driver’s seat
Good gas mileage: 17 – 19 highway
Has the same coach accessories/conveniences of much bigger units.
Two features of the Rialta we don’t have that we might trade-off against having some of the above are: 1) Not having to tear down the bed each day to put up the dinette and 2) Having better service available than we now have due to the no-longer-available-in-US VW eurovan engine and chassis.
How does the XLTS stack up?
Somewhat aerodynamic and attractive body style but rather tall at 10′ 9″
Shorter than many competitors at 22’9″
Driving – we would need to do a test drive, but with decent aerodynamics and shorter length expect it better than most
Doubling a passenger van – does well here, can tote at least 5 adults.
Rear lounge area has three fairly spacious windows, good natural lighting
Has medium-sized rear window with view from the driver’s seat.
Mileage claim: 14 to 16 mpg (diesel fuel not gas)
Coach accessories/conveniences are top notch, A+
The coach fit and construction materials of the Pleasure-Way XLTS are grade A. Tubular steel frame, a molded fiberglass skin with very few seams, everything bonded together without fasteners. High quality, durable clear coat finish. Inside the cabinetry is quality construction, real maple wood with mortise and tenon joints. Deluxe appointments like corian countertops, spacious dry bathroom, dimmable LED lights, 6 cubic foot 3 way refrigerator, lithium batteries, a 2000 watt sine wave inverter, and many more very deluxe accessories. The monitoring panels for electrical and plumbing utilities are extremely high tech – touch pad features, providing state-of-the-art metrics and controls. So you get lots of creature comforts and quality materials to help justify spending up to $50,000 more than units that may bear some physical resemblance to the XLTS. To be fair, part of that premium price is due to the Mercedes chassis. In our reviews of Class C options, it seemed just changing out the chassis from Mercedes to either Dodge or Ford saved from $10,000 to $20,000.
I like the floor plan. Two lounge areas. Good use of space and option to keep the bed made up.
The two handy workstation tables.
Sofa bed converted into Queen Bed
A few special features of note. Behind the driver and passenger seats are two work station tables that when the seats are swiveled around work nicely for a laptop computer or an individual dining table. In the rear lounge area is a power sofa that converts into a bed. In the sofa configuration, there is also a dining table (that stores when the bed is made up). But due to the two workstation tables up front, one could elect to leave the rear bed made up. Another nice feature of the power sofa bed is that it can convert either to a full-size queen bed or two twin beds. Given its larger bathroom and relatively short length, there is a decent amount of interior storage space in closets, cabinets, pull-out drawers, etc.
Pleasure-Way doesn’t quote the amount of exterior storage. It looks to be at least halfway decent. Not sure we could store two golf bags, which is one of our personal criteria for a Compact Class C motorhome. We’ll amend this report once we are able to visit a dealership or find this model at an RV Show to see it in the flesh. So stay tuned for more reports.
PS. Also on our 2018 review docket is an in person review of the new North American Hymer Aktiv 2.0.
We are the owners of a classic motorhome admired and desired by many prospective motorhome buyers: the Winnebago Rialta (shown at the top of the page). In production from 1995 to 2005 the Rialta ceased being manufactured by Winnebago because the VW Eurovan chassis upon which it was built was no longer being made for the American market.
We love the low profile, aerodynamic and attractive body style and we get stopped often by people admiring it as what they have been looking for. Besides looks there are other features we like about the Rialta.
Short length (21 feet) enables parking in a conventional automobile parking space
Driving and maneuvering it is as easy as a pickup truck
Doubles as a deluxe passenger van with seating for 4 adults and up to 3 kids
Large coach windows, with natural light lending an open feeling to the interior
Large rear-facing picture window with view from the driver’s seat
Good gas mileage: 17 – 19 highway
Has the same coach accessories/conveniences of much bigger units.
But our unit is getting “long in the tooth” and one of these days we will have to buy a new Class C. Which is the reason we began doing serious research on the alternatives.
Every year when the new models come out, our heads are turned to see “what’s new” and what might be a viable replacement if and when we decide to sell our Rialta.
Here’s our review of leading candidates.
Compact Class C Motorhomes – Europe Sets the Standard
In our attendance at RV Shows and searching online we’ve yet to come upon any units (made in USA or Canada) that provide a nicer bed setup and better mechanical service options without compromising many of the features of the Rialta we love.
It seems the kind of motor home that would be a good alternative to the Rialta is only built in Europe. They seem more dedicated than US manufacturers in providing the most in space and convenience in the smallest possible footprint.
To follow are samples of several European models of compact motorhomes that manage to pack a whole lot of room in a small footprint
European Style Motorhomes set the standard in Class C
Hymer Motorhomes
Typical of the kind of compact motor home you find in Europe are the models made by German Manufacturer Hymer. Their motorhomes manage to pack in a huge amount of internal and external storage in a small footprint. Their build is quality throughout with ingenious engineering touches.
The smallest of their units is the Hymer Van At 19.65 feet long, the Hymer Van is even shorter than the Rialta. And at 9 feet tall it is only a little taller. It is an amazing little unit with a permanent bed system – either double or twin, a dinette area for 3, van seating for 4, large exterior storage, and ingenious storage drawers and units throughout the interior. Quality design and materials throughout. It is built on a fuel efficient Fiat Ducato Chassis. The only downside to the Van model is apparently coach Air Conditioning isn’t an option. Here’s a video profile of the Hymer Van.
Larger Hymer Compact Motorhomes
To get a larger kitchen set-up, more space in general, and coach air-conditioning you’d have to upgrade to either the T-Class CL model or their Hymer ML-T model.
The twin-bed bedroom model T-Class CL 574 is 22.3 feet long; the queen bed model T-Class CL 698 is 24.1 feet long. Both these models are on the Fiat Ducato chassis with an option to upgrade the hp from 130 hp to 180 hp. The ML-T models are built on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis. The ML-T 560 offers a double-bed setup for the permanent bedroom. The 560 measures 22.9 feet long and 9.5 feet high overall. Quite compact compared to Sprinter builds we find in the US. It seems US motorhome builders can’t build on a Sprinter Chassis any less than 24.5 feet. Europeans must have access to a slightly smaller Mercedes Van Chassis or it is just that European idea of not making something any bigger than it needs to be for the features you want?
Both the ML-T and Class CL have dining for 4 persons and dry baths wit a separate shower unit. Like their smaller 314 Van little brother, ingenious storage drawers and cubby spaces all over the place providing lots of storage – no wasted space. The outside external storage (called the garage) offers a massive amount of storage space.
Hobby Optima Motorhome
Just to show you that Hymer isn’t alone in offering spacious, quality-built, compact motorhomes, lets take a look at another German motorhome manufacturer: Hobby. They offer similar quality and options to Hymer but give the buyer a few different options or layout configurations not offered by Hymer. I like their Optima model 65 GQ. While spacious in the interior it runs only 22.9 feet in length. The dinette can can handle up to 5 people and their are seat belts for 4 passengers. This model comes with a queen size bed. With an average set of options, the Optima prices out around $75,000 US dollars. Take a look at the Hobby Optima Video here:
In researching on the Internet I discovered another possible reason for the space and size efficiency of European motor homes. Apparently in Europe on a regular automobile license you can only drive a vehicle weighing up to 3500 kg. Anything over that and you need a special license. So there is a consumer incentive to offer full-featured motorhomes under that weight. Unfortunately in the US there isn’t that incentive.
Here’s a few more examples of the kinds of compact, yet full-featured motorhomes offered in Europe sent to me by reader Mathias of Austria.
LaStrade Nova EB
LaStrada Nova EB
The Nova EB is a class B sized motorhome 22.9 feet long built on a Mercedes sprinter chassis with very clean lines. But it is a Class C because coach section is manufactured by LaStrada. It is under 10 feet in height and about 7 feet in width. It has a dedicated front lounge with seating for 4 at the dinette table and a dedicated sleeping area in the rear which can be two twins or one large double bed. Generous garage style exterior storage. A very attractive unit that would sell well in the US.
Dethleff Pulse
Dethleff Pulse
The Pulse is a low profile Class C from Dethleff’s that is 22.9 feet long, less than 10 feet high and 7.5 feet wide. It has ample garage style exterior storage, a dedicated front lounge/dinette area and a dedicated bedroom in the rear with either twin beds or one double bed. It is built on a Fiat chassis which is similar to the Dodge Ram. That extra interior space from a custom cab unit makes it so much more livable. It should be built here but US manufacturers are tied into essentially doing Conversion Vans on the narrower profile.
Wingamm City Suite
Wingamm City Suite
The City Suite is built on a Fiat Ducato chassis that is 22.9 feet long. However it’s width is the same as the Fiat Ducato van but it isn’t a class B due to the fact that Wingamm builds the entire coach section – “The bodywork is not the sheet metal of the van, but a fiberglass monocoque with all the thermal and acoustic comfort guaranteed by Wingamm standards. The entrance door is not the huge sliding door of the van, but a solid hinged door made of insulated double-shell fiberglass.” While the same width as its Van counterpart, the custom built coach allows a bit more interior room and layout options than you get with Van conversion style Class Bs. Also unlike Class B motorhomes the City Suite has garage style generous exterior storage. Like other Euro Compact Class Cs, it has a dedicated front lounge for 4 and a rear double bed.
Unfortunately European standards haven’t been copied here. There is no viable alternative to the Winnebago Rialta made in the US or Canada. If you believe there is let me know in the comments so I can find out more about it!
February 12, 2011 LaCrosse, Wisconsin Great River Road Scenic Byway To break up the winter Jo and I took a drive up to La Crosse, Wisconsin to catch their Boat and Outdoor Show. We also wanted to visit with our friends Burt and Brenda Zwicker of Wabakimi Wilderness Adventures, who had a booth at the … Read more
