Inside the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort and the growing camper community connecting the North and South.
ALL ROADS SPLIT SOMEWHERE
…or at least reach their end.
Driving into Pennsylvania from the Blue Ridge Mountains, the landscape ignites with color. You can imagine the highway going on forever. Life can take on a momentum that seems unstoppable and unalterable. Everything moves in one direction until you reach a fork in the road.
Historically, leaves are not the only things to fall in Pennsylvania. In July 1863, the road split here for an entire nation. Two years into a brutal Civil War, two massive armies of Americans collided at a town called Gettysburg. Here, the fortunes of war fell. Along with men by the thousands.
Musket and cannonballs littered the field. The combat lasted three days and became the single largest battle the Americas had ever seen—an enormous price for a house divided.
A dead end for a national injustice, everyone knows Gettysburg. We’ve read Lincoln’s address in history class. We might have picked up Michael Shaara’s Killer Angels or thumbed through Bruce Catton’s Glory Road.
We’ve seen stuff in the movies, too. (And scrolled Wikipedia afterward.) But every camper knows that’s not all there is. Place, after all, has the unique power to bring history into the living present. And that’s the stuff we go for.
Pulling onto the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort, the wheels of history still turn. Little Round Top is not a footnote here. It’s a rugged hill to climb—where thousands of stories once converged and are still coming together. With new eyes, we see the past and hope it steers us into a more positive future.
Striving Toward a More Perfect Union
The roads to Gettysburg branch out from major highways—each about a half hour away. Taking exit 16 off I-81 near Chambersburg, the town is just a lazy drive to the east along US-30. Or, approaching from I-70 in Frederick, you’ll swing north at exit 52B onto US-15 following the path the Union armies once took.
There’s a tranquility on the road. The busyness of the interstates vanishes. Small homes, open fields, and friendly trees seem to smile as you pass.
On clear days, the autumn sun gives the route a warm golden glow, and the air feels crisp like the apple orchards to the west.
This is gorgeous country. Stemming north onto Emmitsburg Road, three more miles will put the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort on your right. White fencing and open ground appear on your passenger side. As you pull past the stonework sign, a line of American flags from 1863 salute your entrance.
A little cabin there serves as the host station, where you’ll be directed inside to the barn lodge with the general store and the front desk.
Inside the lodge, Adventure Pass by Travel Resorts of America (TRA) members and their guests settle in at their own pace. A large fireplace is kept burning. Comfy couches and large TVs await road-weary travelers. There are beautiful bathrooms. Hershey ice cream is available steps away, which you can take with you as you head to the sunroom with the kids.
That’s usually where the day actually slows. Cones dripping as kids work hard to keep up without losing any of the tasty treat, someone’s shoes shed to feel the earth beneath them, eyes mesmerized by the fire dancing in the fireplace (even when it’s not cold enough to need it).
It’s the kind of ordinary moment that won’t make it into anyone’s trip photos but is reason enough to keep coming back.
The general store is right on hand with an attentive staff present, the manager Jaron among them. Once you enter, you’ll likely meet him. Jaron Starner is a Pennsylvania native. He was born and raised in the RV industry, and he has a passion for the way his team takes care of TRA guests.
Private membership camping clubs like TRA were once a dying breed, but they’re seeing a bold resurgence. TRA’s own footprint keeps expanding across the country. It’s not hard for Jaron to see why—it’s all about relationships and expectations.
Adventure Pass carriers at Travel Resorts of America belong to a more perfect union. “From the moment a guest pulls into our resort, we want to make sure we take care of them,” Jaron says. “Our members are incredible people.” They’re a loyal, candid, high-energy bunch—who make relationships with other members and become part of a thriving community.
Jaron’s been doing this long enough to have his own regulars—families he recognizes by their rig before he sees their faces, kids who’ve grown up a foot taller between visits. It’s less a job than an ongoing reunion.
Jaron laughs, “It cracks me up how well our members know our resort.” Why? Because of how often they roll their RVs in. 
Not all campgrounds are made equal. Every RVer knows this. And Jaron sees that’s one big advantage members have with TRA, “You have a park to go to that’s going to meet your expectations and fit your rig.”
Members have that assurance—whether they’re staying in New York, Florida, or Minnesota. At the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort itself, members get the full hookup, solid internet, and access to an Olympic-size swimming pool with a shallow end for the kids and a deeper end for anyone who wants to make a bigger splash.
The resort has also kept pace with rising electric demand, with most sites wired for 30/50 amp service.
Even with all the perks, Jaron is convinced the staff is the resort’s No. 1 amenity. Campsites are reserved by members calling or booking online. Even if the desk is busy, member services will answer questions.
The resort even has a concierge service to help members get the most from their visit, from local treasures to great food.
To see the battlefield itself, Jaron says they don’t have to go far: “You leave the resort, take a right-hand turn, and you’re on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
Opening Maneuvers
While the history of Gettysburg is enormous and the sight of the 6,000-acre field of battle is grand, the town itself is still relatively small, preserved to maintain its 1863 condition.
Just five miles up the road from the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort is the National Military Park Museum, where most visitors start.
Learning just a few facts here clues you into the magnitude of the history involved. Over 175,000 combatants faced each other, brother against brother. Over three days of fighting, 51,112 became casualties, and 7,058 never left the field. Today, 1,328 monuments cast shadows in remembrance.
Setting out onto the battlefield itself, you can start the tour from your vehicle. But ultimately, you’ll want to walk this hallowed ground. To feel the same earth beneath your feet and imagine what those moments were like.
Little Round Top is where Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th Maine scrambled for the high ground—the harrowing danger as they fired against attack after attack from the 15th Alabama, the moment they realized all that was left was the bayonet.
Many imagine themselves there. Perhaps as Union soldier Frank Haskel gazing across the open field to see, “an overwhelming resistless tide of an ocean of armed men, sweeping upon us!”
Or as a soldier in the 11th Mississippi making that Confederate charge—weathering a storm of lead across an open field—the mass of your formation disappearing like smoke—only to realize a mere 14 men from your regiment made it across the road where this happened.
No film, no book can compare.
At Gettysburg, you feel it in your legs and your chest—the scale of what happened here and the men caught amid the blunders and ambitions of generals, extraordinary heroism of ordinary men.
It’s the kind of thing that stays with you the rest of the day.
It’s also, truth be told, the kind of thing that works up an appetite.
An Unforgettable Retreat
Back at the resort, Jaron might give you his recommendations before the concierge service can.
There are great local Italian places like La Bella Italia and Tommy’s Pizza. Even more, the town of Gettysburg is full of little pubs, taverns, and bars that also serve great food. Any of which are the perfect place to sit together and share what impressed, humbled, or saddened you most.
It’s also not a bad place to pivot toward what’s next. Because there’s more to Gettysburg than the battlefield alone.
For example, over the first two full weekends of October, Adams County hosts the National Apple Harvest Festival. Walking in the open air with your kids or significant other, it’s the perfect change of pace—moving from the gravity of the battlefield to the reassurance of nature’s bounty.
All the fresh apples, candied apples, apple bobbing, cider tasting, and hayrides equal good wholesome fun for the whole family.
And if that just made you crave a little more sweetness, there’s also Chocolatetown in Hershey Park just over an hour away to the Northeast. It’s easily a full-day adventure of its own. And if you time it right, you could even catch America’s Largest RV Show®.
At night, take some local advice (straight from Jaron):
Hit up the Lincoln Speedway just a half hour northeast in Abbottstown to inject a little adrenaline into your trip—as engines roar and wheels tear across the dirt track.
Whichever road you choose, they all wind back to the Gettysburg Battlefield Resort. After each day’s advance, the way back becomes a comfort.
Like a great Civil War tactician, you’ve kept a safe line of retreat. And, like a bold strategist, you can even execute a master maneuver—traversing Adventure Pass TRA resorts like a network of bases for adventures up and down the country.
You see, ultimately, all roads split somewhere. So why not choose the path that continues state to state—the path where North and South provide a welcome home to any member?
