Pine and hemlock close around Lorraine Pond on the Andover side of Harold Parker State Forest. Loraine Campground keeps 91 sites back in those woods, off a looped campground road, and 10 of those pads have electric. Forest trails leave from those same loops, so the walk starts at the pad, not at a parking lot. Book that pad before the van, because Loraine Campground takes no walk-ins.
The entrance is on Jenkins Road in Andover, and back-in sites post a 40-foot cap on ReserveAmerica. The season at Harold Parker State Forest runs early May to mid-October, and those electric pads are the ones you want in summer. If you need more sleeping space or a longer rig, look at Massachusetts RV rentals.
Harold Parker is the first night in Andover, and the van stays on the loop while you walk. Salisbury Beach is the other trip from this town, the beach week, and the alternate overnight if you are late for the forest loop.
Lowell's brick mill canals and the Boott Cotton Mills waterwheel district take a day from this forest, and you come back to the hemlock the same night because the park has no campground. Oversized-vehicle parking near the visitor center is why a van can do that mill-canal day.
Salisbury Beach State Reservation
The Merrimack meets the Atlantic at Salisbury, and a boardwalk from the campground loop crosses dune grass onto 3.8 miles of sand. The loop is just behind the dunes, and two boat ramps are on the reservation. This is the big hookup campground on the coast, with 484 sites. You sleep with water and electric on the pad and walk that boardwalk to the beach in the morning.
Reservations are required, and water and electric shut off in mid-October while the campground stays open into late fall, as of September 2026. Summer nights want those hookups.
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island keeps dune boardwalks over salt marsh open from sunrise to sunset. Plan it as a barrier-beach day from the Salisbury loop.
If the trip keeps going north, Pawtuckaway State Park is on the New Hampshire campervan page. Salem's oceanfront campground at Winter Island is on the Boston campervan page. The rest of the state is on Massachusetts campervan rentals.