Beckley, West Virginia: Beckley Coal Mine Campground and area

June 2019, Weekdays, 3-nights, Campsite 11

Advance reservations, arrival, and check-in

This is a city campground located behind the coal mine attraction. Reservations are made over the telephone, and there is not a campground map available. I made our reservation as soon as they started accepting reservations in March. I did not receive a confirmation number, they did not require a deposit, and I was not able to request a certain campsite. I provided details about the size of our RV at that time.

Arriving was easy, and the directions are clear: check-in at the gift shop, if arriving before close, and there is someone at the campground for arrivals after close. There is plenty of room to turn around with an RV in the parking lot in front of the gift shop. When we checked in, I inquired again about the size and location of our campsite (from what I had seen on Google maps, it looked like site 11 is a smaller site). The person checking us in said that this was the largest site she had available. There is a locked cable across the front of unrented sites, so we needed to get a key with a $5 cash deposit. The total cost for three nights with tax (not counting the deposit) was $96.30. We were not given any information about the campground, and after we had set up, we learned we needed a code for the bathrooms. WiFi is not available in the park.

View behind campsite 11

Campsite 11

This campsite is located across from the bathrooms. It is a smaller site, and one of the worst sites in this campground. Our fifth wheel is 30', about 35' overall, which is the size I provided for our reservation with two slides. We were barely able to fit our truck onto the site on an angle in the small muddy grass area in front of the grill. The only good thing about this site were the nice trees along the backside. 

Leaning grill on campsite 11 filled with trash and cigarette butts

This site does not have a fire pit (all of the other sites that we saw had fire pits, and there was wood stacked by the tent sites), the grill was a mess, and there was debris on the site. You will need a long drain hose, as the drain is located at the back of the site beyond the tar. Our drain hose was not long enough, so we had to back up to the drain before setting up, and then again to dump our tank before departing. The area below the campsite is a local park with a swimming pool and a neighborhood of houses. We heard continual dogs barking, which we initially thought were dogs people at the park had left in their vehicles. Later, we decided maybe there is a kennel or similar located near the park.

Debris on campsite 11

I blame myself for not paying closer attention to the empty campsites before we set up. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, so when I was told this was the largest campsite available, I believed this--until later. Campsites 1 - 4 are the best sites, in my opinion. They are larger, grassier sites, they all have fire pits, and they butt up against a hilly treed area, so I imagine the dog barking could not be heard in this area. Two of these campsites were empty when we arrived and smaller campers came and went during our stay. Since I had made our reservation at the earliest possible time, and we were staying for three nights, I am offended that we were given such a crappy site. I will NEVER stay at this campground again, nor would I recommend it because of our experience with the site assignment.

Fifth wheel next to us on site 12; also a crappy site

Misc., and Beckley area

There is a discount to visit the coal mine when you are camping in the campground, which is $1 less than the senior rate. The nature trail around the campground was a bit overgrown; however, we still enjoyed it for some exercise the day we arrived. There are two [Kroger] grocery stores located near the campground: one on Harper Road and one on Robert C. Byrd Drive. It is a shame we had such a disappointing experience at the campground, because this campground is in a good location for the areas we wanted to visit: New River Gorge Bridge sites to the north, and Grand View and Sandstone Falls to the south. I will have information about those sites in my next post. 

We had an unusual experience at Dobra Zupas about 1½ miles from the campground. We thought about walking to this location; however, it was raining the day of our visit, and we had thought we might fill our growler, which we would not want to carry back. We stopped in the afternoon near the end of lunch time (about 1:15 PM) for a snack and to try their craft beers. The stout beer I ordered was kind of warm, and the keg ran out for the IPA my husband ordered. After the server/bartender tapped the new keg, he set a glass of all foam on the bar, which looked pretty nasty. This did not settle during our one hour visit, and he did not offer to try again, so we ended up with only one beer. We then learned that my beer was not cold because something was wrong with their cooling system. The server apologized, and said he should have said something before we ordered. 

The catfish bites we ordered had excellent flavor and the quality was good. It took a very long time to get our food. We had finished my entire beer, and I am not a fast drinker (especially when the beer is warm). Our server never checked on us, except to tell us he was not going to charge us for the beer as he walked by, so we began to think he had forgotten to put in the food order. The next time he walked by, we stopped him to ask about our food. He said it was ready, and then he immediately brought the order from the kitchen. After this, we never saw him again. Several minutes after we had finished, we starting wondering about our bill. After I stood up, I saw him in the kitchen chatting, and he saw me looking around. He poked his head out to tell us we were all set because he felt like we had not had the best experience. It was nice to have the complimentary snack, and we would have left a larger cash tip on the bar, if our server had let us know what was going on during the visit.

Beckley Coal Mine campground sites 1 - 4

Here is one more photo of the campground showing the larger sites, which are located on the right when you enter the campground. It is not a very good photo, although it gives a general idea of that area. The camper on site 3 is smaller than our RV and did not arrive until the day before our departure (there is a ton more room behind that motorhome, as he did not back into the site very far), and others in this area, except the small camper on site 2, stayed only one night. If you are considering this campground with a larger RV, I strongly suggest being informed and strong-willed with your desires before setting up camp. If you have a smaller camper, you may prefer the sites where we stayed, because you will not need to block the tires on one side. We would have preferred blocks under our wheels to no fire pit, no grill, no yard, and barking dogs. When I returned our key, the person who checked me in did ask if we had fit on our site. She said when we had driven away, she saw our fifth wheel was bigger than she expected (I had told her on the phone and during check-in! And, she could have looked out the window.). My husband was not about to move after she asked this, because we had already dumped our tank, set up camp, and I had not really noticed the available empty sites at this time. 

Let me know if you have any questions!