karifoster

I'll start with the basics, then a little about our experience. The majority of the sites that we saw in this park are quite tight, with ones in the center being back to back sites. We had very little room to park our truck and just barely fit into the site assigned to us. There was very little shade, we had a single tree next to us that our slide pushed into to get it open. Parking the truck required moving the picnic table almost into our neighbors site, but it was way too hot to sit outside anyway. I used the laundry and other than being hot it was clean and convenient. If you have to be in the area, I don't think that there is much else to choose from. The location is an easy drive into downtown Pendleton and close to the highway. Now, here is what happened to us.

We booked this in a panic, needing a place to stay for the Fourth of July. We selected a back-in, full hookup 50/30 amp site, it cost a little more, but we thought the few extra dollars would be worth it. I remember it saying we would have a view of the mountains from our site. We checked in and were directed to our spot, which is in the middle of the park, with another site directly behind us. The staff was very nice, trying to make it easy for us to get into our spot, even changing it to the one on the backside of the one originally assigned because it has more shade (highs have been in the hundreds, even a little shade is welcome). We unhooked, leveled, and I went to plug in and the site only had 30 amp, with the heat we really wanted 50 amps to run both AC's, plus we thought that we had reserved a site with 50 amps. We double checked our reservation and all it said was full hookups. We went up to the office and they only had one 50 amp site for our stay (just a couple of days, but over the 4th), so we went and looked at it. It wasn't a great location and looked awkward to get into, plus we'd have to take our bikes and bike rack off the RV to fit in. Considering we were planning on leaving early, and putting the bikes and rack back on early in the morning would be difficult (and would probably require blocking the road to make it happen), we decided to see if we could live with 30 amps for a couple of days. Ends up, we can run both AC's and a fan on 30 amp, just nothing else.

This was a learning experience for us, we thought if you reserved 50 amp that you will get it. We have learned that is not always the case. It's especially frustrating because, before our arrival, I tried to get the days leading up to our stay but they only showed 30 amp available, which led us to believe that we really had 50 amp. It's the ultimate in bait and switch. We don't often stay at KOA's, if we can help it, but we hadn't experienced this problem before, so we really were upset about it. At least the staff attempted to be accommodating, and they weren't upset when we told them we backed in to the picnic table and bent it. They said it happens all the time and people usually don't bother to tell them.

Overall, we survived and we're glad that we cut our time there short. If you need to be in the Pendleton area, by all means stay here, just don't expect a bunch of room and be prepared to not get what you expected if it's a busy weekend.

We were very impressed with this campground, it really has a state park, more so than some state parks. We were assigned a pull through (we were told we chose it, but we didn't know enough to chose a site) and we're warned it was devoid of trees and hot. We were disappointed to hear this, but upon arriving at our airport we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't that bad. We didn't have the tree cover of other sites, but we had trees on our living side that gave us some privacy and we could still get satellite.

Most sites are back-in with lots of oak trees. They are sandy, but ours was fairly level, with 50 amp full hookup. The campground has a pool, shuffle board, playground, camp store and two restaurants (one beachside and one on the intracoastal/river). You can also walk to Cap's on the Water, which I recommend since parking there can be a challenge. We had no problem navigating our rig in the campground and into and out of our site. If coming from the south, go in the first entrance, before the sign, this will make life easier. A1A is under construction from just south of the campground and for several miles north of it, but we had no issues with it.

We had no problem getting satellite, but I suspect it might not work at some sites. We had good AT&T coverage and the wifi actually worked quite well.

We really loved our site and the area, fairly easy access to St Augustine and the surrounding areas. We would definitely stay here again, this time for longer.

We upgraded to a premium spot when we reserved. Check in was fairly easy and access to our pull through site was easy. The premium site included sliding table and chairs (see photos) and an upgraded cement fire pit, both were very nice. But, the premium sites are closer to the highway with only a driving range between the site and the road.

Exiting the park there is a tight turn that most people navigated well. The premium sites exit differently and avoid that turn, which was nice for our bigger rig.

They had some activities, but we were in the area for sightseeing and didn’t participate. The park wasn’t overly close to the city, but it was manageable. Overall, it was a nice park and we had no problems, but I wouldn’t pay for the premium site next time.

We were really looking forward to this campground, even though we didn't have a riverfront site. We were disappointed. Our pull thru site had only a small patch of dying grass, it was mostly rocks and the firepit was a 2 inch high ring set on top of the rocks. The picnic table was almost as wide as our living space.

We asked about moving to a riverfront site and received a gruff "All booked." He didn't even bother to look or make any effort. Ends up there were at least two spots on the river that we could fit in and were open our entire stay.

The entrance to the park is awkward and it can be a little tight coming around the fence. The gate does not go down and they allow day pass access to the river, day parking is inside the campground. The rapids are an attraction to kayakers and we saw some tubers exiting at the campground.

The river is beautiful, and if you have a riverfront site you will most likely love this place. The riverfront sites are mostly rock, but have a real firepit set into the rocks with a grill. We would sit each night at one of the empty riverfront sites with our glass of wine and enjoy the sound of the rapids, we never sat outside of our depressing site.

Our site was fairly level and most the others looked level. We had decent At&T signal, but the wifi was good enough to use. We didn't use the bathhouse or laundry. The roads in the campground are a little tight for big rigs, but most will be able to make it.

Sites 28 - 34 on the river are the best. Sites 20 and 21 back up to a rather stagnant looking pond. The one pull thru that I would consider is 23. It has a nice grassy area for living space. Sites 30 and 31 are probably the best sites in the place. All riverfront sites are 30 amp.

I would stay here again, but only at a riverfront site or site 23. It was so disappointing to not have an outdoor space that we could enjoy when it was such a beautiful location.