A Comment On Cherrystone Campground Worthy Of A Post

Coming across this blog online was rather upsetting for me because it's very true. I'm 20 years old now, and my family has gone to Cherrystone every summer since I wasn't even a year old. So this hits right at home because growing up, even as a 17 and 18 year old, Cherrystone was the only thing I knew and looked forward to every single summer. When I was still an infant, my family was still in their tent camping stages. I was 3 or 4 before they finally upgraded to a pop-up camper and about 11-12 before they upgraded to a 30 foot trailer. Due to these upgrades, every summer we started staying longer. Every since we got our trailer, we've gone to Cherrystone every summer for a straight 4 weeks. And let me tell you, Cherrystone was fun when I was little, but even being young, I saw all of the changes happening every year as I grew up and I hated it. I can't remember the name of the original owner but things were great when he ran the park. When he died, I believe his son took over and when the son passed away from a heart attack, that's when it really went downhill. The main issue is that it's practically run by teenagers now. They took the family out of the campground by charging for kids (which I believed they've changed now by 2012, kids are included now). Ernie(used to run the Bait and Tackle Shop with his wife) was even told to leave Cherrystone because they didn't like how they, quote, "ran it like a mom and pop store." They took what was good and fun out of Cherrystone. Just like in a grade school, the pumped the place full of rules and the only people who seem to get penalized for breaking the rules are the ones that might break one rule once, rather than the kids who run around cussing or riding their bikes at night or the people who catch kill or keep illegal sized fish and crabs or the people who otherwise readily abuse the system. They're still jacking up prices for no reason. The highlight of our summer trip was always watching the fireworks for fourth of july. 10 years ago, those shows last 30 minutes plus. In the last couple years, they've lasted just over 10 minutes. The campground is poorly managed, their activities and amenities are getting cheaper and yet their prices are becoming ridiculous. Honestly, the only reason my family even goes there anymore is for flounder fishing, soft crabbing, and hard crabbing. I didn't get to go last year since I was employed for DNR but I'm excited to be going to visit my family for 8 days this summer (Even though it'll cost me, my boyfriend and my car $35 a night to stay. Honestly, it's not worth $300+ but we have no where else as good as Cherrystone for soft crabbing especially, and also to be honest, it's like a tradition that I miss). Cherrystone was awesome back in it's day and if you didn't ever camp there before the mid 2000's I completely understand why you hate it. My request though is not to hate the campground, it's still good for everything it's got. Hate the people running it, hate the people employed there, and hate the economy. I miss the old Cherrystone.

By Ashley Moreland on Cherrystone Campground Just Isn't What It Used To ... at 6:42 PM