W.P. Franklin Locks Campground

We never did get motivated to go kayaking yesterday, so we took a drive to explore some nearby places.  The Caloosahatchee River is nearby and it’s a huge river with a lot of smaller tributaries.

You can see how big it is in the picture below.  It flows right out into the gulf.

There are a lot of parks along the river and we went to explore a few of them.  

A few years ago I  read a blog about a campground that had locks along the river.  I made a mental note to remember that place,  and when we started full timing, we would need to go there.

On our drive yesterday we happened to see a sign about the W.P. Franklin Locks.  I felt pretty sure that was the same place that had beautiful campsites on the water and that we could get half price camping, with Al’s National Parks “senior pass.”

We found the place and sure enough, it was the same place I had read about years ago.

The campground is on one side of the river and the best area to watch boats go through the locks is on the other side.

We entered on the side opposite of the campground, although there were a few sites for work campers.  They have a visitor center which gives you some history of the locks.  On this side you could walk out on the locks and get a good view of how a boat goes through the lock.  Unfortunately when we were there, no boats were coming through.

This next picture is the lock canal. 

We had to drive across the river to the other side where the campground was.  Wow…what a pretty campground.

The sites are $24 a night (or half price with the Senior Pass).  Water and electric..no sewer. 

Note the nice patio.

The sites were paved and mostly waterfront.  They were angled nicely for ease of backing into. They look like sites at some expensive rv resorts.

There were “boat-in” sites also where you could keep your boat  in the water at your campsite. The price was the same.  I guess I didn’t take any pictures of those sites….funny how I’m not as interested since we don’t have boat anymore.

These are a view from this side of the locks.  Not as good to watch boats go through the locks.  We hope to go back today and catch a few boats going through.

It was a real nice campground…if only they had sewer hook-ups!

Here is a picture of our boy Baxter.  He was sleeping on the dash.  I can’t believe how big he’s getting.