Bear Cave RV Resort Thousand Trails

As we drove down the long gravel entrance, I wondered how this would go. We went over a LOT of bumpy roads coming from the west (though leaving to the east, not too bad ). As other reviews have noted, a lot of dust, and seasonals/annuals have claimed the best spots. We also had a wild turkey squawk at us as we entered our site, which seemed weird. Turns out the turkey is almost a camp mascot--hanging around that section of the park for at least six weeks or so, and (s)he seems pretty domesticated. After walking around, I saw the awesome access to the St. Joseph River which changed my mind about the location. Next time, we'll look into some of the lower sites and see if we can get closer.
I still have some mixed feelings--the convenient check-in let us choose our onsite and give/receive all our registration online. However, that leads to an isolation of sorts, and I didn't see any park employees our entire time there. We also dragged our back end trying to get up the hill toward the dump station, and the lane also had an overhanging limb that made us a little nervous. A bit better signage would have made this easier as we could have taken a different path. We would have had to turn the RV around to dump, but that would make things a bit less adventurous.

One of my favorite Thousand Trails park. Most of everything is well maintained compared to other parks. Wish cell phone service was a little stronger. The paid Wi-Fi is fast enough to stream and do remote work.

This campground is very nice. There are not a lot of full hook up sites available due to annuals but they have pump out service twice a week for $15. Speaking of annuals, they maintained their sites and almost all were well manicured. The amenities weee very nice. Bathrooms updated and clean. This campground could use some road maintenance as the dirt roads with very little gravel created an incredible amount of dust.

I read reviews and did not expect much. I only booked a 5 day stay as I read very few spot with FHUs. It's a bit weird when you arrive. A few days before my rez I received a call and the gate code. Upon arrival you need to get out of the motorhome to enter the code. Then there is no signage where to go. I figured I needed to go check on at the camp store. Nope. It was after 3 and it was closed. There is a gate house with no attendant. I looked around and there is a box and luckily I opened it and found the paperwork for my stay. I drove around and see mostly annual type sites. I was lucky and found a large grass site that had full hook ups. The bath house was remodeled in the past decade and was clean. The park is generally nice and also quiet. Verizon and ATT both worked for data although ATT was better for uploading. It is not close to much shopping or restaurants. Elkhart is 45 mins away and was the main reason for my visit to this area. I'd stay again but wish they had more FHU sites.

Upon arrival you need to enter a gate code to open a large sliding gate. The ranger went off duty at 3pm so it was a bit confusing where to go. We initially took a spot up near the main bathrooms. The site was level and had some shade. The weather was extremely hot when we arrived. That afternoon we took a ride around and found some additional sites for smaller RVs/Vans that had new electrical and cement pads. We were basically the only ones down here. We were able to pull in enough T-mobile (2-3 bars) to do some work and connect to the internet. The staff are very friendly and helpful.

Bear Cave is a good location to take a family. Great swimming pool. Most sites are level (side- to-side), although extra blocks were required to level front-to-back. The resort is located about four miles North from Buchanan, and about 20 miles South of Saint Joseph, Michigan. Buchanan does not offer much for entertainment. However, Saint Joseph is a great town offering many restaurants, plus shopping.

Bear Cave was a convenient location for our military reunion.

Besides this park being a little worn out and the cave tours being less than exciting - this was great!

Near Buchanan which was a nice cute small town (go to Union coffee house!), getting to the park was pretty easy. The gate seemed a bit tight but we got through it. We checked in after hours and they just left the packet and told us to pick a spot. The full hookup sites were a few rows of back in but we got in just fine. Grass was a bit long and they mowed the next day.

The site we were in had a good amount of space around it and a large field in the middle of the park for playing with the kids.

The amenities were there with a playground, really small laundry, fine bathrooms, pool, and some other things. They were all quite nice, but being at the end of the season as well, it was all just a bit worn.

Overall, this was really nice and hopefully over the winter they get things cleaned up just a little bit.

No management. Amenities were dirty and run down. Utilities were par. Annuals take up most full hookups. Maybe saw two employees total. Trees are overgrown.

We enjoyed our stay at Bear Cave RV Campground. This Park offers reservations however sites are assigned first come first serve. We had reservations and there were some concerns when we arrived if they had a site large enough to accommodate our rig. We ended up in the loop along the river which was shaded and level. The Park has a new manager, and you can tell she is putting money into this park to make it a nice campground. There are seasonal campers, but all seemed to welcome us transient campers. We would stay again.
Although we did not use the Restrooms and Showers were clean.
This Park offers many amenities including a pool, clubhouse, boat dock and launch. Interesting History within this park with the Bear Cave and the Tulip Tree. It is close to the Redbud Moto Cross track, Fernwood Botanical Gardens (which offers hiking), in the heart of West Michigan’s Wine Country, Warren Dunes (Lake Michigan), Silver Beach (St. Joseph) swimming, dining, and shopping.

We really enjoyed our stay here, this was a low key stay for us since going full time traveling. The sites are good size. Unfortunately they are first come first serve. We really liked our spot with full hook ups. This park is just outside the town of Buchanan and about 30 minutes for either attractions in ST. Joseph or South Bend. You can tell the property is well maintained also, AT&T service was weak but our T-mobile hot spot worked just fine.