Cape Henlopen State Park

Stayed at CHSP over the President's Day holiday weekend as a quick, local getaway. Arrival was interesting as it is offseason and we were arriving later in the evening. Park offices and guard shacks are closed and unmanned during the offseason (11/30-3/1). There was a printout posted showing our reservation and the site was marked with a tag as 'reserved'. We did not see a ranger or staff during our entire stay. Campground is nice and orderly. Partial hookups only and advertised as no water during this time of year however we found that water was available after seeing multiple other campers using it. The sites are pretty packed in and are fairly tight. We had sufficient room to extend our slides however in better weather we would have been unable to deploy the awning. There are lots of hiking trails, access to the walk-on or drive-on (with surf fishing tag) beaches, biking trails to Lewes and Rehoboth, and Fort Miles is interesting to check out. Given the time of year occupancy was low and we had no issues with noise or disturbances but during peak times in the summer it can be crowded and somewhat noisy.

Campground Review

10/17-10/24 Cape Henlopen SP
Stayed for a week in our 38ft Fifth Wheel. Pull through is the only way to go with larger rigs. Back in sits are not deep. If you can manage without showers and tolerate obnoxious weekend party campers it is a great place. Weekday camping was much more serene, which is what I expect for State Park camping.

Front entry was not designed for big rigs. Very tight oddly placed check-in buildings. Manageable but not easy. Spent more on Signage & Contact Station check-in booths than anything else in the park.

Showers are a s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Push button. Cold water. Bathhouse thermostats Set to 60°. Freezing cold experience. Inmates probably have nicer accommodations. Both old bathhouse and new family style were terrible. You have to practically stand on the wall to get wet. $50/night for electric & water only is a little steep for a State Park.

Sites very tight, no privacy. No rules enforced. Ranger presence is almost non-existent other than speeding through on rare occasion. No after hours number to call for obnoxious campers, music vibrating your camper at 11:30pm. Dogs allowed to run off leash, campers tow in like it’s the Indy 500. Watch your kids.

Camp Hosts were friendly, kept sites clean & were available. They are not able to enforce. Seem like they have very little support from park staff. They are left on their own.

Nice dishwashing station & laundry room behind camp store. Only 1 of 3 wash machines was working and many people doing laundry mid-week.

Nature Center, Bike Paths & Historic First & Beaches are the greatest assets of this park. Nicest SP Nature Center we’ve ever been in. Awesome partnership with Friends of Cape Henlopen to borrow bikes for free (kids, little kid bike trailers & adult bikes). Path around Gordon’s Pond to Rehoboth Beach is a stunning 12mi round trip. Library (bike-able distance) is brand new & very nice. Verizon was 4 bars, excellent coverage.

So, to be fair, I might recommend this campground to others but for myself it didn't cut it. For me it was too far from the beach, sites too close together, too noisy, too busy, and as a hiker it was a little disappointing as the only trail was largely on pavement. The closest access to the beach was where they let 4x4s enter which is not the kind of area I'd want to lay out a blanket. It would have been better perhaps if I had brought my bike as there are lots of bike trails. The bathrooms are nice in that they are cleaned daily and are private including showers though the showers were mediocre. There is a convenient camp store which is nice. Cell signal on AT&T and Verizon were good. Stayed in late September 2019.

The highlight of our stay was biking 6 miles south to Rehoboth Beach. The trail was beautiful as it meandered through woods and marshlands. Instead of trying to find RV parking at the beach, we just locked up our bikes there :)

The beach at the park was not crowded and there was no cost to enter it. There's a WW2 fort nearby that we learned a lot at, and plenty of hiking/biking trails there. The town of Lewes is also very close.

We had a spacious, partially shaded, water and electric site. Excellent walking/biking trails. Newly renovated with nice bathhouses. Limited camp store. About a mile walk to ocean. You can easily drive to beach access within the state park. Interesting things to see if you like historical places. Dumpsters were located just beyond the campground exit which was a bit of a walk(we didn’t bring our towed). Made reservations online and arrived after hours and drove through entrance with no problem. Site was clear and “reserved” sign was posted on our site post. We stayed in a 28 foot motor coach. Decent AT&T but couldn’t pick up Dish signal.