Shaded woods, open grassy meadow and a row of sites at the water's edge line the Hammonasset River at Riverdale Farm in Clinton. With a spring-fed swimming pond, a new pool, a camp store and a pavilion inside the gate, a family can fill an afternoon without anyone going near the driver's seat. Back the motorhome onto a river-bank site on the first afternoon, run the awning out, and it doesn't need to move again until checkout. The beach is Hammonasset, a short drive away in Madison on Long Island Sound.
Riverdale sits on River Road off I-95, and it lists full hookups and 50-amp electric along with a dump station for registered guests, a portable dumping service and LP gas. That's what lets a family-size rig stay put all week with the air conditioning running and nobody breaking camp to empty tanks.
Mornings go to the beach in Madison, afternoons to the pond or the pool once everyone has had enough salt, and dinner happens at the site with the river going by. Give Riverdale most of the nights and save one or two for Rocky Neck, farther east along the shore.
Reserve the site before you book the rig. Riverdale rates its sites for two adults and three children and doesn't guarantee a specific site, so ask for the river bank or the meadow when you reserve and choose the rental once the site is locked.
On a gray day the hiking is back toward New Haven, on Sleeping Giant in Hamden and the cliffs of East Rock and West Rock over the city. Those hikes and Hammonasset's Miller campground are written up on the New Haven campervan page, which is also the better fit for a couple traveling light.
Rocky Neck State Park and the salt marsh at East Lyme
Farther east in East Lyme, Rocky Neck State Park gives the week its beach night, with soft sand on the Sound, viewing platforms out over the salt marsh, and trains crossing the river mouth while you sit on the beach. The campground's five paved loops carry bird names (Heron, Egret, Crane, Osprey, Seagull), and a bike path runs from them down to the sand, so the bikes come off the rack for the stay. Pull in early enough for a swim and walk the marsh platforms as the light goes.
Rocky Neck is a dry night for a rig. The state lists no trailer or RV hookups, a dump station free to registered guests, and six people per site, so leave Riverdale with full fresh water and empty tanks. Sites book through ReserveAmerica, and July and August weekends fill early, so lock this one well ahead of the rig.
Elsewhere in East Lyme, Aces High RV Park has full hookups and large pull-through sites on a wooded 93-acre property. Its own photos show rigs parked under snow, and it's the shore's hookup base once the seasonal campgrounds close. Mystic, a little farther east, and the Litchfield Hills in the state's northwest corner are their own rig weeks on the Connecticut RV page.
