RV Camping, Picture Lake Campground, Petersburg, VA

This RV campout occured between September 18-20, 2025. Julie R and I participated. This campout was sponsored by

The Potomac Dogwoods

and was hosted by Chris and Carol Moore.

Thursday, September 18, 2025- We left Manassas, VA around 11:30 AM and got to Picture Lake Campground right around 2:00 PM. This campground is located near Petersburg, VA and is within Dinwiddie County, VA. This campground is about 58 miles north of the NC/VA border. Traffic was good going down. It pays to leave on a Thursday. We got checked in, setup and just chilled the rest of the day. We took a walk around the campground that evening.

This campground is unique in that there are about 200 sites. All but 13 of those sites are for “full timers”. These are people that live in their RV’s within this campground and pay the company that runs it rent. The 9 rigs from our group took up most of the 13 available sites.

Friday, September 19, 2025- On Friday we again didn’t do much. We drove to the local Food Lion and got some supplies since we didn’t get groceries when we left home. That evening, we had a group dessert at our host’s site. It was yummy!

A short story about The Potomac Dogwoods Camping Club. It was formed by a group of RV campers at Algonkian Park near Sterling, VA in the summer of 1975. They applied for and became a chapter of the Good Sam Club, which was formed in 1968. One of the aspects of this club was that members helped out other RV campers that were stranded, having issues, etc. Membership varied between 10 and 20 rigs throughout the years. The club was open to class A, (later B), C, (later 5th Wheels) and travel trailer RV’s.

At it’s peak, there were hundreds of Good Sam chapters throughout the U.S. In 2010, Affimity Group, headed by entrepreneur Marcus Lemonus, purchased Good Sam Club. Over the next 10 years they stopped supporting the many Good Sam chapters around the country. Most disbanded. However, some became independent camping clubs. The Potomac Dogwoods were one of the chapters that did and is still going strong in 2025. They are celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year,

Saturday, September 20, 2025- We had a group breakfast. Then I went and tried fishing in Picture Lake. I caught a small sunfish my first cast. Then, after about 15 casts, I caught a small blue gill. I released both fish. I could only stay out about an hour as it was getting hot. Our air conditioning in the RV was acting up. The temperature was climbing and the AC couldn’t keep up with it. We went out for awhile and tried to find the Petersburg Battlefield Visitors Center. We drove past a private civil war museum. However, we wanted to find the NPS visitors center. Due to some of the backroads being closed for paving, we couldnt get to it. So we drove to McDonalds, got two McFluries, drove to Food Lion and got some more bottled water, then went back to the campsite.

At 3:00 PM it was 92 degrees outside and 88 degrees in the RV. Julie went to one of our neighbors to cool off. I didn’t know what to do. So I turned the AC off for an hour to let it rest, then turned it on again. I’m not sure if what I did helped or whether the falling afternoon temperatures helped but the AC in our RV started working again. That evening we had a group dinner at the site occupied by Chris and Carol Moore, our hosts. They made steak fahitas. Everyone else brought side dishes to go along with the main dish. We supplied cucumbers and tomatoes from Julies garden.

Sunday, September 21, 2025- We had a group leftover breakfast, said our goodbyes and headed for home. We made it home in time to see the Commanders Raiders football game. Washington won!

Here are the Pros and cons of this campground:

Pros- Very nice staff, good fishing in the lake and they gave us chachkies, 3-4 bars Verizon cell service, the camp wifi was good but got overloaded on Saturday night and I picked up 42 OTA TV channels.

Cons- The bathrooms only were in marginal shape. There were dirty floors and walls, rust stains in some sinks and toilets and at least one bathroom fixture in each bathroom had a plastic trash bag over it. I suggested to the front desk that they buy some CLR to get rid of those rust spots.

I was going to give this campground only 3 stars. But since I caught some fish in their lake and they gave us chachkies, I will give it four stars.

★★★★

Mike C

Map of where we stayed