Review of Camping at Lums Pond State Park
We chose Lums Pond State Park in Bear, Delaware as our destination for our maiden voyage; the trip that was to serve as our “shakedown trip” of our new RV, a 2021 Thor Gemini 23 TW. Lums Pond ended up being a wonderful spot for our first camping trip for several reasons. Firstly, since it’s 2-3 hours away from our primary residence, it gave us enough distance to impart that truly away-from-home feeling. In other words, we felt it qualified as an adventure, but was still close enough to be close to home should any major issues occur. It was also the ideal spot to really experience the pleasures of nature while being close enough to amenities to make us feel secure.
Early Spring Camping in Delaware
A bit of early warm spring weather also helped us decide to get out of the house. Since we arrived at the campground in March, some of the campground amenities weren’t fully available, but it still gave us the opportunity to test out our camping setup quite well. Lums Pond is a large park with several distinct areas for recreation and a separate campground. There were several hiking trails that can be accessed from the campground itself, along with a larger portion of the park across the pond from the campground that is either a short drive or bike trip, with trails, sports fields, a disc golf course, horseback riding areas, and Go Ape a zipline and climbing park. We loved this campground for its welcoming feel from camp hosts and other campers, the wide campsites, open park layout, close restroom facilities, miles of hiking trails, plus beautiful views of the pond.
Getting to Lums Pond
We made a few quick stops on our trip to Bear, Delaware from our home base in Lancaster County. We intentionally took a route that took us through North East and Havre De Grace, Maryland. It was a great mix of back roads and highway travel to give us a sense of the way the motorhome would handle this terrain. All the things we packed were mostly secure, although there were a few rattles from our belongings that we have since solved. That drive truly gave us some insight into the shakedown aspect of driving an RV. While we didn’t encounter any really low bridges, the twists and turns and few bridges route along the country road to North East certainly reminded us that it’s always a good idea to make sure your route does have clearance.
Stopping in North East was our first-time parallel parking our RV in a town setting, and it fit the spaces along the main street in North East perfectly. Because of the weather (and during the time of still in-place Covid restrictions), we decided to enjoy a lunch at Woody’s Crab House before driving the rest of the way to Bear, Delaware. We also made a stop in Lewes, Delaware for some groceries, since we hadn’t packed too many groceries from home. One of the nice things about having an RV is being able to put groceries away in the fridge right after you buy them! We then headed to Lums Pond.
Lums Pond Campground Amenities and Features
The Campground Entrance is separate from the entrance to the part of the state park that houses the sports fields and other main attractions of the park. Since we were arriving early in the season, it was self-service check-in with just a quick visit to the host. The campground itself is a wide-open space with large campsites. It has the feeling of a welcoming town park, with just enough landscaping and trees to make each site stand out. While the site we ended up getting was pretty level, we drove by one of the sites we had been considering, and saw that it –and others near it– were at quite an angle, and would require many more leveling blocks than we had with us! Now that we’ve camped 20+ places, we can safely say that we’ve never seen quite such a steep spot anywhere else! We ended up in another spot ( I have forgotten to record the exact number, but I think it was site 34, with a large level paved site with some stone dust surrounding the edge, and quick access to both the restrooms and a short walk to the hiking trail. It also offered a slight view of the pond through the trees. The site was full hookup, which was great for convenience and having the chance to test our set up, and there was a dump station available. We ended the day by taking a walk to the campground side of the pond and around some of the trails there, before getting settled for the night. The camp store was closed and out of firewood that night, but there was a great-sized firepit on our site, which we would have used. The next day we moved across to site 35.
Things to Do Near Lums Pond
The next day was sunny and warm, so we decided to head toward Chesapeake City to visit Schaeffer’s Canal House for lunch. It was a good chance to see how our RV handles small spots and parking lots. With bikes in our future plans, we also wanted to check out the bike trail that runs next to the C&D canal. After a great lunch outside, with good service, a cobb salad that helped us stick to our loosely-followed keto diet we were trying at this time. We didn’t cross the bridge into Chesapeake City – because we’ve visited before and we wanted to get back to explore Lums Pond a little more.
The Park
On our way back, we drove to the official Lums Pond State Park entrance. We were impressed by the expansive spaces for picnicking, family gatherings, sports, and other outdoor recreational activities. My husband enjoyed playing a few holes of disc golf at their facility, and I wished I had time to do some of the horseback riding available there!
We recommend Lums Pond Campground and would love to return in the season to do some of these activities like horseback riding, the Go Ape park, and –now that we have e-bikes –we’d love to be able to ride the trails. If you don’t have an RV, they also offer campsites for tents and yurt camping which looked pretty cool!
The Location Details
If you’d like to camp at Lums Pond too, you’ll want to make reservations through the website at Delaware State Parks.
Lums Pond State Park (Campground Entrance)
3488-3598 Red Lion Rd, Bear, DE 19701
Up next, we drove through Bethany Beach and headed to Delaware Seashore State Park for our next camping reservation!
