adrianocaloiaro

The sites on the river are nice and relatively level. It can get very dusty here, so be prepared.

Service with 6dBi gain, omnidirectional antenna:

Tmobile
6-20Mbps down
3-10Mbps up

Verizon
3-5Mbps down
1-2Mbps up

Standing Bear is an ideal RV park for rock climbers visiting Fountain Green for its access to Maple Canyon.

Cell service (at&t/verizon) is great, the owners are friendly and accommodating, and the grounds are well-kept.

Crags are a ~15 minute drive away.

I've stayed here twice, for a total of roughly 25 days. That makes me no expert on the campground, but gave me a fairly decent impression of the place.

This is a well kept park. The facilities are clean, the sites are clean, and everything overall has a tidy appearance. That much is indisputable.

This review gets progressively saltier.

Sites/Site size/Site Configuration/Amenities
While some sites are level, some aren't (I currently have two leveling blocks under each of two wheels, no big deal).

Management regularly place guests in the smallest possible site for their rig. My first stay was May 1st, 2023, opening day, and I stayed for one week. During that stay, I estimate United averaged 1/4 capacity, and I can't imagine having been placed in a smaller site. What makes matters worse is that, I believe, there's a single utilities stand for every two sites. Building that way cuts campground utility installation costs considerably, and it also means without complete blackout window tinting, you get to watch your neighbors eat dinner from 5 feet away. Why? Well first, remember that sites are very small and management place RVs in the smallest-possible-site for their rig. Secondly, because when you have a single utility stand, rigs pull in in alternating directions. e.g for every backed in travel trailer/5th wheel there's a motor home/camper van pulled in head first next door. Since most RVs have the dining/lounge area on the driver side, that means guests are as physically close to their neighbors as possible, at all times. I don't fault them for the business decision to pack guests in this way, but it doesn't mean I have to like or enjoy it.

The pool is nice and warm.

There's a decent amount of road noise overall. Highway 550 is close.

As any intrepid RVer will have anticipated, the WiFi is not to be relied on for even the most basic usage.

Staff/Policies
There's at least one member of staff here who is very pleasant. I have a feeling she's an owner, because she's very kind to guests, speaks to them like adults, is knowledgeable, and knows how to get things done efficiently around the office. She is everything I enjoy in a staff member/owner.

As for the rest of the customer-facing staff (not grounds people, they seem to work really hard and do a great job), I offer you one generalization and two anecdotes. Generalization: They're unfriendly to the point of seeming mean.

Anecdote #1: As I said, I was probably guest #1 here in May, 2023. I had just finished tuning some things up on my mountain bike, so I took it for a spin around the park. As I was riding, I came across two people who I assume are staff. I smiled and waved. Their acknowledgement to that smile and wave was "are you staying here?". I cannot overstate the "you don't belong here" energy with which that question was asked. I responded with "I am", and went on my day. Internally stewing at how odd an interaction it was.

Anecdote #2, late June, 2023: I ride my gravel and mountain bikes ~150 miles per week on average. They're not cheap, and bikes require a lot of maintenance when they're ridden so heavily. The cornerstone of that maintenance is cleanliness. A simple misting/spray/wipe down after every ride is absolutely essential to stave off thousands of dollars in premature maintenance over their life time. I had just finished a dusty 50 mile gravel ride and I'm giving my bike a quick spray and I start hearing someone _yelling_ to get my attention: "SIR!". There's an irrigation stream running by my site, and I'm somewhat hard of hearing, so maybe they thought I was ignoring them. Benefit of the doubt. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT NO WASHING VEHICLES HERE!". I assumed they thought I was washing the back of my RV, where my bikes are. I said, "Oh, I'm just spraying off my bike". "YOU CAN'T DO THAT WASHING VEHICLES IS NOT ALLOWED!". Now I get that bicycles technically are vehicles, but when you read the park rules and see "Please don't wash your RVs or vehicles", I think it's reasonable to assume they're talking about automobiles and not bikes, which require all of one or two gallons to spray down. I can only imagine that I take 15 gallon showers on a cool day. Anyway, this is already far too long and I apologize. So I went to the office to verify that this was indeed their policy, and it was! I explained that I can't stay here again if I can't maintain my equipment during my stay. (Fun fact, there are car washes in town, but no bike washes that I'm aware of). The employee didn't have much to say about that and kind of gave a shrug and an explanation that the owners have to pay for water. Let me be clear -- the no RV/vehicle washing is a common and arguably reasonable policy. But I think this no bike washing policy is absolutely bananas. With that said, they're entitled to make up all the silly policies they like. What I'm bothered by is being yelled at, like a child, for doing something so inoffensive and lacking ill intent. And let's face it, I don't know a soul who colloquially refers to bikes as vehicles. But let's say I did know that bikes were included in United's no washing policy -- just be nice about informing guests of policies; it's not that hard. This person is everything I loathe in campground staff.

Anyway, I can't stay here again because they won't let me wash my bike, and the staff have disposition problems. You probably don't care about bike washing as much as me, and can probably steer clear of the staff if it's a shorter stay. So you'll probably have a fine stay.

Cheers!

Overall our stay was nice and the park is well maintained.

Water pressure on the upper loop is quite low and the water itself is clean, but very unpleasant to drink, and shouldn't get anywhere near a decent ground of coffee.

The upper loop is partial hookup, which makes the nightly rate of $50 quite steep, in my opinion. Particularly for such a small site. My 26' trailer wasn't a good fit; the truck had to be parked on the street.

Wireless Service ---

Cell service is great. T-mobile, Verizon, and AT&T all have strong signal here. Wifi in the sites is also quite usable. Verizon, while a very strong signal is present, lacked bandwidth.

Service with 6dBi gain, omnidirectional antenna:

Tmobile
30Mbps down
10Mbps up

Verizon
2Mbps down
2Mbps up

I came here to be near the canyon for rock climbing. It's about a 15 minute drive to good crags.

The campground is quiet, clean, and well shaded. The place doubles as a horse hotel, so there's quite a bit of horse trailer traffic, but it didn't bother me at all.

The way they arrange the sites is a bit unorthodox, which means you often can't put out an awning to cover the picnic tables.

Water pressure is is good (at least at the front of the campground), and the water tasted fine.

Wireless Service ---

Cell service is passable. T-mobile data is unavialable; Verizon, and AT&T both have decent coverage. Campground Wifi was functional, albeit slow at times.

Service with 6dBi gain, omnidirectional antenna:

T-mobile
Was not useful for data.

Verizon
1.5-2Mbps down
1.5-2Mbps up
Note: Verizon seems to throttle at 2Mbps here

AT&T
4Mbps down
3Mbps up