DivingDavid

This is a no reservation park, so get here as close to noon as possible for the best site selection. While there is no check-in time, there is a 12:00pm checkout time. The park was usually full by 3p - 4p. Our rate was with our senior park pass. There are two large, curved pull-thrus right at the entrance. Once in the campground, there is a "front" and "back" section. Do not head for the back section with large rigs. I was comfortable with my 26', but would not want to pull anything much longer around the curves. Those lava rocks are unforgiving! There are a few other large spots right inside the campground entrance. After that, the sites are mostly for mid-sized to small RVs.

We got a curved, pull-thru right across from a bathroom and water spigot. Had a picnic table and grill. No firepits - no fires allowed. You can only pay for one night at time so did it first thing each morning. That way, we did not have to worry about the checkout time.

As there is no dump station, we used the Exxon about 20 miles west of the campground. Around back, there is a free dump station with non-potable and potable water and air hose. There is a 2 stall self wash station with an 11' 10" entry height.

No T-Mobile service in the campground, but we could get 2 bars in Inferno Cone parking lot and full bars at the top of the cone!

We did most of the hikes including the ranger led walk to the Indian Tunnel lava tube. Very informative. The tube hike was sometimes easy / sometimes tough. If you elect to exit at the end instead of turning around, you will be climbing over large piles of lava rock. Not good for anyone with mobility issues.

The laundromat in Arco is gross. Skip it.

If you have an extra day, make the 90 mile trek to Jerome to visit the Minidoka "relocation" camp created after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is one of 10 camps used to house the west coast Japanese. Well done presentation of a darker chapter of America's history.

This is one campground in one area that we hated to pull out of our site. We were lucky to snag one of the electric only sites. Our rate is using our senior pass. It's half off the campsite and full price on the utility.

The campground is quite large and well laid out. In any private campground, there would have been another site in-between each of these sites. If you cannot get an electric only site and have solar, go for Loop A. Plus that loop has killer views of the Tetons.

The check-in process was painless. Due to septic issues, one of the two dump stations is closed. You have to get on the dump station list for when you want to use it. There are only 47 slots each day. The potable water is a spigot beyond the 2nd dump station. There is firewood and kindling for sale. Credit/debit only. It is permissible to scrounge any dead wood laying on the ground.

If you have plans to go to Jenny Lake for any activity, go as early as you possibly can. The parking lot fills up quick and spills out onto the road. That equates to a lot of people at the visitors center and on the trails.

The National Museum of Wildlife sculpture garden is a nice take-in. The food and ice cream at Jackson Drug is so good! Hand Fire Pizza is excellent. If you see cars pulled over to the side of the road with people bunched together, do the same! There is some wildlife worth viewing! Check out river float with Dave Hansen Whitewater & Scenic River Tours.

Often, when we travel using hotels, we are sightseeing all day so just need that clean place to put our heads at night. That is this place. It is a large parking lot turned into an RV campground. We had enough space to put out our slide on one side and lower the stairs on the other. The truck had to be parked in an adjacent cedar covered parking lot. The park was clean. The full hookups worked well. The wifi was not good so used our hotspot most of the time. Never did checkout the bathrooms. My wife said the single washer and dryer were residential style and worked well. There is a golf course next door which provides a nice view. Beyond the golf course is the airport. There is a voluntary flight curfew from 11p to 7am. Most of the time it was followed. The only con was the very bright light on the pole next to our site. It lit up our bedroom at night. Would be nice if it shut off after 10p or 11p. It was the perfect spot to explore Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur. Be careful entering and exiting as the dip at the road is deep. Heard many a scrape and scraped one of our stabilizers on the way out.

How can you beat a pull-thru site with full hookups for $28 a night in the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area?!?! You can't! Easy off/on I-84 right in the waterfall corridor. Be sure to validate the need for a corridor pass during your stay. It's just $2 on recreation.gov. The campground is built on a fairly steep hill. The A section sites are tiered. The B section is flat and are a mix of curved pull-thrus and back-ins. While there are 2 hosts sites, no one was there. The ranger came around every once in a while. Firewood is available for sale. There is a dump station immediate to the right when entering the A section. It's heavily wooded. You will hear freeway and train noise 24/7, but nothing that kept us awake at night.

First, know that the dump station is closed for the foreseeable future. The system has cracks and management does not know when it will get fixed or reopen. The nearby private campground will allow you to dump for $15. We used Millsite Park RV Dump Station about 30 miles up I-5 for $5. Has potable water, too.
The campground is in a nice forest. The site had electric and water. It was a fairly level back-in site with a picnic table and campfire ring. The toilets are dry pit and are brand new this year. No showers. Firewood is available for purchase from the on-site host. Be prepared for many speedbumps on the roads. Reservations have to be made 3 days in advance, but you can just show up. No sign of any homeless as noted in prior reviews.