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Lum's Pond State Park |
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Lum's Pond State Park |
On our many trips to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, we often passed signs for Delaware's State Parks on Route 13. Year after year, we would say, "we have to camp at one of these places one of these days." This year, I decided to make good on that promise. For the first camping trip of the 2002 season, we decided to try Lum's Pond State Park in Bear Delaware.
A few weeks prior to the trip, I reserved a campsite using the Delaware State Park online reservation system. Their online system is really impressive. Not only was I able to view a map of the campsites at Lum's Pond, they also had an interactive aerial photograph of the campground. This allowed me to easily find a large wooded site suitable for a pop-up camper. A few minutes later, I had reserved the site with my credit card and printed out a confirmation.
About a week before the trip, I emailed the Park office to find out where we could purchase a couple of 7-day, non-resident fishing permits. An hour later, I received a very detailed set of directions to the campground, which included a stop off at a tackle shop on our way. Needless to say, we were favorably impressed with Delaware's state parks even before we left home.
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Lum's Pond, located in northern Delaware, is a quick and easy hour and a half drive from our home in southeastern Pennsylvania. Thanks to the great directions from the Park Office, we easily located the tackle shop, bought our fishing permits, and arrived at the campground a short time later.
Lum's Pond isn't a huge campground. It has 68 sites, most of which are semi-shaded with grass. A few of the sites have electric hookups but most do not. Since we usually camp without hookups, this wasn't an issue for us. The first thing we noticed about the campground was that all of the sites are very spacious. A few are just downright huge. Our site (#35) was located near the Pond and just a short walk down to a fishing pier. It was a large, wooded site with a generous distance between the adjacent sites and us. Just the way we like it.
The bathhouse, located in the middle of the campground, was clean and well heated. (The weather was a bit chilly this particular weekend.) Water spigots are conveniently located throughout the campground.
The main park facilities are located across the pond from the campground. We took a ride through the park while we were there and found picnic grounds, a nature center, horseshoe pits, a Frisbee golf course, and other activities. There is also a beach on the pond for swimming, which hadn't opened for the season yet. There is also a nature store located right at the entrance to the park. We didn't stop in to check it out, though. A boat ramp is located just north of the campground on Rt. 71.
The Ocean Mart, two miles north of the campground entrance on Rt. 71, sells ice, firewood, and groceries. This little store also includes a deli and a post office. One stop shopping!
Although the weather wasn't all that great, we still enjoyed our weekend at Lum's Pond. We're already thinking about a fall weekend trip there.
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For more information on Lum's Pond and camping in Delaware, check out:
