Auburn RV Park at Leisuretime Campground in Auburn, Alabama has turned itself into a base camp for football fans who love to spend their Saturdays watching the games at the 88,000-seat Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University.
The 140-site site RV park even offers a free shuttle service to take RVers to the stadium, which is about four miles away.
“It’s a service we’re happy to provide,” said park owner Thomas Sparrow, adding that many RVers leave their rigs at his park for football season, which includes eight games from late August to mid-November.
But starting the second week of May, Auburn RV Park hopes to broaden its appeal beyond its loyal base of football fans and travelers who visit the azalea and dogwood trails in Auburn and neighboring Opelika in the springtime. That’s when the oak- and pine tree-covered campground will open two resort-style swimming pools that will be among the largest campground swimming pools in the Southeast.
The park’s beach-entry “Ocean Pool” is 135 feet wide on one end and 90 feet on the other, with a depth of 8 feet at the deep end. The park’s “Lagoon Pool has an oval shape and spray features and is about 110 feet long and 60 feet wide, but only about a foot and a half deep. This makes it attractive not only for children, but for adults who like to sit in shallow water on Adirondack chairs and read a book.
"Our ‘Lagoon Pool’ is a place where people can sit in the pool in chairs and not have to be fully in the water, but still enjoy the sound and feel of water on their feet,” Sparrow said.
Auburn RV Park complements its swimming pools with a lazy river, which winds its way through the oaks and pine trees that create a scenic setting for RVers looking for a mid-week or weekend escape.
“Our big pools and the lazy river will make this park into more of a resort, but it still has the look and feel of a campground, which I think I think adds to its appeal,” Sparrow said of the park.
Sparrow has owned and operated Auburn RV Park since 2011. In 2015, his company acquired a water park that had closed next door to the campground. The water park’s pools and lazy river were still in good shape, however. That’s where Sparrow got the idea of converting these water attractions into an exclusive amenity for guests.
"RVers enjoy places away from the crowds, places where they can reconnect with their families and friends, and that’s the environment we’re trying to create,” Sparrow said.
Auburn RV Park has also gotten a boost from the opening of a Buc-ee's travel center in Auburn last spring, which is prompting growing numbers of RVers traveling I-85 to spend the night at the park. “Buc-ee’s is only a mile away from us,” Sparrow said.
Auburn RV Park is about 90 minutes south of Atlanta, five hours south of Charlotte and about four hours from the Gulf Coast beaches of both Florida and Alabama.
