2022 was a crazy year for travel! We covered almost 30,000 miles tugging our ol’ camper back and forth across the country. In all our travels, we found quite a few places we’d give a big thumbs up! But if we wrote a piece about every place we’ve enjoyed, it’d be a novel. So for the sake of brevity, here’s our top five picks for best campgrounds, best towns, and best restaurants of our 2022 travels.
Top 5 campgrounds
To pick our favorite campgrounds, we ranked them based on location, scenery, campsites, and kinda just how we felt overall. We definitely stayed in many unique places over the year, but these are our picks for the top five campgrounds of 2022:
1. Minooka Park – Bunker Hill, Kansas
When you think of Kansas, “amazing scenery” doesn’t really come to mind. Well, Minooka Park in Bunker Hill brings the wow factor to earn the number one spot on our best campgrounds of 2022 list.
Heading into the park, it’s about what you’d expect driving through Kansas: flat, flat, flat. You definitely see your fair share of cornfields. However, once you make the turn toward the park, you start to see a few more gullies and rolling hills until finally, the landscape opens up to reveal a gorgeous lake, rolling, hills, and even a cliff or two! If you saw it, you wouldn’t even know it was Kansas.
Our campsite sat right on one of the cliff faces, giving us amazing views of the lake below. It was the perfect space to set up a chair and enjoy the day.
2. Petersburg Campground – Appling, Georgia
Unfortunately, we only got to stay in this campground for one night on our way to Gulfport, Mississippi, but it didn’t take long for it to make an impression on us!
One of our favorite campgrounds ever is Hamilton Branch State Park in South Carolina. When we arrived in Petersburg Campground in Appling, Georgia, we were instantly reminded of Hamilton Branch, only (dare I say) it was slightly better!
Petersburg Campground is located on the same lake we love that divides South Carolina and Georgia. The sites are way back in the woods, very private, and all lakefront. What sets it apart from Hamilton Branch is that all (or at least, most) of the sites are paved and leveled, making it super easy to setup and keep your camping equipment clean.
Our site had a nice walk down to the calm lake, and there was plenty of walking for Rose, too. The roads going through the park were paved and super flat, making them ideal for skateboarding — though we didn’t really have time to do any… Next time!
To make all these amenities even better, Petersburg Campground costs around $26 per night for a large, lakefront site with water and electric!
We love quiet campgrounds, in the woods, on a lake. Because of its quiet beauty, incredible sites, and affordable price, we have to give it the number two spot on our best campgrounds of 2022. We’ll definitely be going back to explore more of this awesome park!
3. Farragut State Park – Athol, Idaho
Farragut State Park is a spot that earns its top-five place not because the campsites themselves were great but because the park was one of the prettiest we’ve ever stayed in!
Coming into Farragut, we were met by a huge line of campers waiting to check it. It was a bit daunting and didn’t really get us excited for what to expect, but once we got a chance to roam the park, it completely changed our minds.
The campsites themselves weren’t anything special. They’re in the woods with plenty of pine trees and paved roads, which is nice, but they were somewhat close to the neighbors and were sometimes noisy. However, once you got away from the campground, that’s where Farragut State Park really shined.
The park is nestled into the mountains of Idaho with a gorgeous crystal-clear lake tucked into the valley. You won’t find better views anywhere! There was a public beach where you could swim and spend the day, but it was super busy and full of screaming kids. However, if you found one of the smaller walkdowns from the upper road, you could sit on the bank and enjoy the water and amazing views in peace.
If you have the urge to wander out of the park, Farragut is only a few minutes away from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho — one of Idaho’s most beautiful towns that attracts tourists from all over! Whether you want to stay in the park or explore the surrounding areas, there’s plenty to do when you visit Farragut State Park, making it our number three pick for best campgrounds in 2022.
4. Logan State Park – Kalispell, Montana
If you want to get away from it all, there’s nowhere better than Logan State Park in Kalispell, Montana — and we mean it! There’s no service and nothing around. It’s just you and the pristine Montana wilderness.
Logan State Park sits right on a pristine Montana lake with plenty of gorgeous mountains filling the background. You could easily sit on the lake and look at the scenery all day. The sites themselves are way back in the woods. They’re a bit tight, but you won’t find more seclusion anywhere. We even had a deer walk right through our campsite while we were there! It was also the only place we spotted a moose on our out west trip.
While there’s not much around, Logan State Park is about 40 minutes from Glacier National Park and five minutes from our honorable mention town, Happy’s Inn (which is definitely a must-see if you’re ever in the area).
5. James M. Robb Colorado River State Park Island Acres Section – Palisade, Colorado
Talk about a beautiful campsite! The James M. Robb Colorado River state Park Island Acres Section (whew, that’s a mouthful) was amazing! The drive across Colorado and the Rockies is incredible, to say the least. As you come down from the mountains, you start to bob and weave through these mountain passages with colorful canyons on each side. And that’s basically where the campground sits.
The Colorado River State Park is situated between two massive cliffs, along the banks of the Colorado River — as the name might suggest. It was just so cool to look up and see such incredible scenery in all directions! Plus, it helps block some of the harsh Colorado sun during the day!
Not only is the park itself beautiful, but it’s also very close to Palisade and Grand Junction, two of our favorite town we visited in Colorado. In all, it was a wonderful stop and a super cool campground to stay in, making it our number-five pick for favorite campgrounds of 2022.
Honorable mention: Greenville Recreation Area – Greenville, Missouri
It might not have had the best sites or scenery (not that they’re bad by any means), but we felt that Greenville Recreation Area in Greenville, Missouri deserved the honorable mention spot on our list of best campgrounds for its unique backstory.
Greenville Recreation Area is a campground located on the site of an old town. Walking around the campground, you can still see the foundations of the houses and public buildings that used to stand there, along with plaques describing the people who used to call Old Greenville home.
In addition to the building foundations, there’s also a historic cemetery on site. You can see the stones marking the final resting place of some of the townspeople, Civil War soldiers, and Native Americans who used to call the area home. It’s truly a unique camping experience!
Top 5 towns
We love a good small town. And we’ve stumbled on quite a few in our travels. Typically, we like towns that are unique — and we’re not afraid of touristy places with plenty of souvenir junk shops! Towns are supposed to be fun and unique, which is exactly how we made our selections. In our travels for 2022, here are our picks for our picks for the top five favorite towns we visited:
1. Fontana Dam, North Carolina
On a whim, we booked a trip deep into the North Carolina mountains for a weekend away. Little did we know we’d stumble on our top favorite town of 2022: Fontana Dam, NC.
To get to Fontana Dam, you have to travel super-steep and winding mountain roads all the way down into a valley. In fact, the roads in Fontana Dam are famous for their curves. Sports car and motorcycle enthusiasts come from all over to drive the Tail of the Dragon, a road with 318 curves!
We camped right below the incredible Fontana Dam, which was (and still is) considered a marvel of modern engineering. It stands an incredible 480 feet tall in the middle of absolute nowhere. As if that wasn’t cool enough, the Apalachin Trail actually crosses over the dam.
If you’re looking for shopping and dining, Fontana Dam probably isn’t for you. There’s only one bar, two restaurants, and a gas station — but there’s still plenty of fun to be had. It’s an incredible spot with tons of history and lots to explore. We absolutely loved our visit to Fontana Dam, North Carolina.
2. Steamboat Springs, Colorado
History, shops, restaurants, tourism, our second selection for best town we visited in 2022 has it all! Steamboat Springs, Colorado was a blast when we visited over the summer.
Driving through Steamboat Springs, you can instantly tell it’s a place to find some fun. The downtown main street is filled with historic-looking buildings and interesting shops, all with the iconic Rocky Mountains in the background.
There are tons of shops and restaurants to explore. When you’re in town, don’t miss F.M. Light & Sons. It’s a fun western-wear shop with cowboy hats, boots, knick-knacks, and even old-west dusters! We loved shopping around for hours.
If you like touristy little towns with unique shops and tasty restaurants, Steamboat Springs is a must-visit spot!
3. Wall Drug, South Dakota
Speaking of tourist destinations, say what you will about it, but Wall Drug in South Dakota is easy one of the top-five towns we visited in 2022. It never tries to be something it’s not. It knows what kind of town it is, and it’s proud of it!
Wall Drug is all about tourism. It’s an entire town dedicated to trinket shops — and we couldn’t get enough! The town made its debut as a simple drug store in the middle of the South Dakota nothingness. The owners of Wall Drug drew in visitors by offering free ice water. Since they’re in the middle of the desert, this tactic paid off.
Eventually, they opened more and more shops and attractions, until it became what it is today: a touristy oasis for any traveler making their way through South Dakota.
Wall Drug was one of our favorite towns ever. It’s incredibly unique, and you won’t find anything like it, guaranteed! Plus, it’s very close to Badlands National Park, which is also a good time if you’re in the area.
4. Blue Ridge, Georgia
A town named after a mountain range? You know it’s going to be good! Blue Ridge, Georgia instantly became one of our favorite towns of 2022 the minute we crossed the town line. We found Expedition Bigfoot: The Sasquatch Museum!
As if visiting the bigfoot museum wasn’t cool enough, downtown Blue Ridge turned out to be super cute with plenty of shops and restaurants to explore. The Blue Ridge Mountains also make an excellent backdrop for the adventure, and there are tons of hiking trails, waterfalls, lakes, and campgrounds in the area to help you experience what makes the Blue Ridge Mountains so amazing.
Whether you want to rent a cabin in the mountains or stay in a downtown hotel, there’s no wrong way to experience Blue Ridge, Georgia.
5. Orofino, Idaho
We discovered our number five favorite town of 2022 by accident. We were camping way up in the Idaho mountains, and as you might has suspected, we had no service of any kind. In order to work, we had to drive the 30 minutes down the mountain until we could get some service. After the trek, we landed in Orofino, Idaho.
Orofino isn’t a tourist town, but it has everything you need to have a good time. It had an adorable downtown with a few little shops and restaurants nestled between the mountains. We stopped at a little hotdog cart for lunch and had arguably the best hotdogs we’ve ever had in our lives! We loved the authenticity of the town and the friendliness of the people. It wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t. It was just adorable, beautiful, and hospitable — the makings of any top town.
Honorable mention: Happy’s Inn
Technically, Happy’s Inn, Montana is a town. It has a population, town limit, and it has a star on any highway map. However, the only thing in town is a bar called Happy’s Inn. That’s right, there’s only one public building! And in that one building is a restaurant, bar, grocery, gas, and casino — and it’s not even a big building!
We found Happy’s Inn camping at Logan State Park in Montana. It was the only place around that had Wi-Fi service, so we went to scout it out for work. Well, our scouting endeavor ended at around 1am that morning after “several” drinks and lots of stories talking to the locals. We’ve never met a group of people so friendly in all our travels. They instantly accepted us as one of their own, and we all partied the night away.
Happy’s Inn is definitely a highlight of our travels, and we’ll remember it forever. While it might not be a “town” in the strictest of definitions, we still believe it deserved a spot on our favorite towns of 2022 list.
Top 5 restaurants
Half the fun of seeing new places is enjoying new food. Every city is a unique culinary experience! We don’t always eat out, but some places look so good you just have to leave the campsite. That’s why we also wanted to make a list of our top-five favorite restaurants we visited in our 2022 travels.
1. Roosters – Clarkston, Washington
We were in Washington State for our anniversary and made a reservation at this fancy seafood restaurant at the top of a hotel. Unfortunately, that restaurant is definitely not going to make our top-five list. However, the one we redeemed the night with does!
On our way to the next campground after our disappointing anniversary dinner, we passed this cool riverwalk area in Clarkston, Washington. And even better, there was a bar and grill right on the water that looked great. It was a long drive, so we decided to take a break for a bite to eat.
Roosters is such a cool place. The entire restaurant is decorated with fun signs and knick-knacks (but in a fun, tasteful way). You could tell they really put an emphasis on atmosphere, which usually means they also put effort into their food, too.
We had such a blast sitting on the back deck overlooking the river below, and the food was absolutely delicious. They specialize in “beers, burgers, and booze,” but they had all sorts of goodies on the menu. Their Hot Crab Cheese Dip appetizer was incredible! Enough to earn Roosters the top spot in our top five restaurants of 2022 list. We definitely redeemed our original anniversary dinner.
2. Wicked Hen Farmhouse – Springfield, Nebraska
When we were deciding on the list of our top five favorite restaurants, we both instantly yelled the same place for our number-one pick. The Wicked Hen Farmhouse in Springfield, Nebraska easily takes the top spot for our favorite restaurant in 2022.
We were looking for some country breakfast while camping in Nebraska, and the Wicked Hen came up as one of the options. On a whim, we decided to check it out, and we were VERY glad we did!
Right away, you could tell this place was special. One of their signature dishes was a massive homemade cinnamon bun, cut in half, and made into an egg, bacon, and cheese sandwich. It was so unique that we just had to order one! If we had a list of our favorite dishes of 2022, this would take the cake (or bun) for sure!
The appetizer was amazing, but so was all the rest of the food. Everything is made from scratch, and it shows! There’s no better breakfast anywhere, as far as we’re concerned.
Unfortunately, the Wicked Hen Farmhouse closed down in September of 2022 because the owner wanted to spend more time with their family. Although you can’t eat there anymore, we still had to give it our number one spot on the list because it was just too darn delicious!
3. Bier Stube – LeClaire, Iowa
When you think of German food, your thoughts probably don’t go to Iowa. But in our travels over the summer, we found the best little German restaurant nestled into the downtown area of LeClaire.
We spend the day exploring LeClaire, which is also the home of Antique Archeology (yes, from the TV show American Pickers), and were looking for somewhere to grab a snack. We had never eaten at a bonafide German restaurant, but we came across Bier Stube’s website in a Google search, and it looked so good we had to check it out. Lucky for us that we did!
It’s as authentic as it could possibly, right down to the giant boots of beer. We enjoyed fresh-baked soft pretzels, Reuben eggrolls, sausage, and washed it all down with a one-liter boot of beer. They had a two-liter boot, but we had to get back to feed Luna and didn’t have that much time.
This place was actually so good that we reserved another day at our campground just so we could come back and try the two-liter boot! It was easy to put Bier Stube on our list of favorite restaurants of 2022.
4. Michelle’s – McCormick, South Carolina
We can’t help it. Any list of our favorite restaurants has to include our old favorite, Michelle’s in our favorite little town of McCormick, South Carolina.
We go to Michelle’s every single time we’re in the area. They have the best pizza, delicious appetizers, and friendly service. Even better, it’s in the adorable small town of McCormick. We love this restaurant so much, some of the wait staff knows who we are! It’s an easy pick for the fourth spot on our list of favorite restaurants.
5. The Dam Pizza Place – American Falls, Idaho
I love pizza, so it makes sense that we’d have so many pizza places on the list! Bringing up the fifth spot in our favorite restaurants list is the “best pizza by a dam site,” The Dam Pizza Place.
The Dam Pizza Place is really located right next to a dam (hence all the puns). We weren’t planning on going out to eat on the night we visited Best Dam Pizza, but I can’t help myself when it comes to a good pun — or good pizza.
They specialize in pan crust pizza, but there’s just something about the flavors they add to it that makes their pies taste like Pizza Hut on steroids. The building might not be impressive or even catch your attention, but you definitely don’t want to drive by this gem if you’re in American Falls, Idaho. How could you pass up the best dam pizza!?
Honorable mention: Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar – Gulfport, Mississippi
Being a sucker for seafood, there was no way we could get through a place like Gulfport Mississippi without having a taste of the local flavor. As we drove down the gulf coast road, Felix’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar stood out because of their awesome second-floor patio overlooking the beach. Naturally, we had to stop in.
We had such a blast at Felix’s! Our waitress was a riot who was more than happy to tell us all sorts of stories and answer questions about the area. Although the food was good (the oysters were massive!), the atmosphere and the staff really set Felix’s apart. That’s why it earns the honorable mention on our list of favorite restaurants in 2022.
Rounding out 2022
As 2022 comes to an end (so quickly, it seems), it finishes our year of crazy travel. We saw and experienced a lot over the year, and we’re excited to keep it going in 2023. We have some big plans, and can’t wait to get started. Here’s to a new year of travel! Enjoy the ride.