RVingToadless

Home Base: 
Pacific Northwest
Type of RV: 
Forest River Sunseeker 3120
35 Reviews
13 States Visited

Recent Reviews


4

Alta Lake State Park

Beautiful park in the mountains. This campground recently went on the reservation system and they are still working on how to deal with this. The park does not put out reservation cards. You check for your reservation on a posted list and then hope nobody took your spot anyway. Even though you have a paid reservation, you are still required to fill out a green and white pay envelope, basically just to say, "I showed up." There are three camping loops. Two of the loops have both tent and RV ( water and electric only) sites, the third loop has tent only, although smaller RV's could fit in some of the tent sites if you don't want hookups. Each site has a picnic table and fire pit. However, at the time I was there, all fires were banned. In the loop closest to the lake, the tent and RV sites are quite close together, with neighbors in your face. The tent sites closest to the lake have lake access, and it appears you are allowed to anchor your boat near your site. The RV slots in this same loop are all "Back-in." There is room for your slides, but you are still close to your neighbor. In the other loops, the RV sites and tent sites get some privacy via separation with lots of vegetation. In these loops, the RV sites are both back-in and pull through. In one loop, try to avoid RV site #1 and RV site #45, as both of those sites are right next to the path to the bathroom. The tent sites in all three loops have different configurations. Some you may like, some you might not. A few of the tent sites are paired for "buddy" camping. Some of the tent sites are very LONG tent sites; i.e., you park your car here and "hike it down" about 500 feet. There are two very nice "Group Camp" areas. One is grassy with some trees for shade, the other is more woodsy and has more shade. From what I heard, the Group Camp sites are hard to get on weekends, as they are booked nine months in advance. The Day Use area has a very nice swimming beach. During summer season, a private vendor sells hot dogs, taquitos, ice cream cones, snow cones, soda pop, suntan lotion, and ice. He also sells used paperback books for $1.50 each, but if you have some to trade, he will let you just "swap." Verizon cellular modem barely works, it fades in and out. Showers are 50 cents for three minutes, typical of Washington State Parks. One bad thing, the park apparently gets wild fluctuations in voltage in the RV (utility) sites.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2010
Rate Paid:
 $27.00

3

Sun Lakes State Park

This park consists of three separate sections: The "resort," which is on State Park land but operated under a concession permit; and two campgrounds (Main and Bretz) operated by State Park personnel. This review will be for the two state operated campgrounds.

Main Campground: This part has approximately 10 RV sites with full hookup (water, sewer, electric 30 and 50 amp) and 150 tent sites. All sites get a picnic table and fire ring. The 10 RV sites sit in a row and are pretty close together. But on the good side, these sites are in the shade. The 150 tent sites are each the width of about a car length, and are right next to each other, all along a row on the driving road. There are grassy "common" areas to divide the tent areas into sections. However, no tents are allowed on the grass. The tents must remain in the gravel on the tent space. There are lots of trees for shade. In this campground, your neighbors are right in your face. There are bathrooms/shower areas for the customers in this section. As of this writing, showers are 50 cents for three minutes.

Bretz Campground (shown in the picture): This is a fairly new (about four years old) area in this part of the park. The good news is, great views of the cliffs that date back to the "ice age." The bad news is..... no shade in this part of the park. Summers can be hot and windy! There are two "premium" tent sites, one "group camp" area that can accommodate 25-150 people, and about 30 RV sites with full hookups (water, sewer, electric 30 and 50 amp). The "premium" tent sites and the "group camp" are exceptions to the "no tents on grass" rule. Tents are allowed on the grass in these sites only, but not in the RV sites. The "premium" tent sites are right next to each other, but are quite spacious with picnic table and fire ring. The group camp site has a vault toilet, about six picnic tables, two or three fire grills, and a large concrete fire pit. The 30 RV sites are laid out in two loops. Each loop has one "pull-through" and the rest are "back-in." The RV sites are somewhat spacious (can take big rigs and tow cars) with a picnic table and fire ring, except for spots 73 and 87 on the lower loop. Those two sites are back to back to each other. This is great if you want to camp with a buddy, but not if you don't know the person in the other site. The two loops are divided by a very nice bathroom/shower house, also 50 cents for three minutes in the showers.

As for amenities, this park is wonderful! There is a great day use area with a large kids play toy and picnic tables with grills, and a small swimming area. There are lots of hiking trails, and three lakes (named Perch, Deep, and Dry Falls) for fishing. The Deep Lake section has a separate day use picnic area. Further, anyone camping in either of the two state operated campgrounds can go over to the "resort" part for boating (to include canoe and peddle boat rentals), mini-golf, and a nice golf course. Plus, the "resort" area has a grocery store with basics if you need them, a snack bar that serves breakfast items and great hamburgers along with smoothies, and a small gift shop where you can buy T-shirts and novelties. At this park, you can have family fun without leaving the park!

Pets are allowed in the camping areas, but must be on a leash. The only caution for this area is that you must be careful about snakes. There are rattle snakes in this area.

Date of Stay:
 July, 2010
Rate Paid:
 $28.00

3

Sun Lakes Resort

Sun Lakes Resort operates on State-owned land under a concession permit from Washington State, and is located right next to Sun Lakes/Dry Falls State Park. Rate is the amount before taxes. Spots are rather close together, on grass, mixture of pull-through and back-in. I had a pull-through, which was quite long. The pull-throughs are "side by side," i.e., the "evens" pull in one way and the "odds" pull in the other way. One good thing about the "closeness" of the sites, if it gets windy here (which it did the night I was here), the wind won't hit you that much. Each site has a picnic table. There are trees providing partial shade. Bathrooms were OK, not perfect, probably due to how busy the park was. There is a good sized laundry room for the park. Wi-Fi was iffy. There was an "unsecured" Wi-Fi in the RV section, and a "secure," password protected Wi-Fi for use near the check-in office. The "unsecured" Wi-Fi had very low connectivity, probably due to lots of people using it. The "secure" Wi-Fi worked if you took your laptop to the office. I'm basically saying "no" to Wi-Fi being available. Verizon Air Card didn't work here, although the cell phone would get a signal if you stood in the right area. There are a couple of pay phones if your cell phone doesn't work. There is a little store, and small fast food serving local cuisine, to include a good German sausage on the menu. The putt-putt course was nice. Make sure you bring a good supply of DVDs, as you won't get any TV reception over the antenna. I have a "wingman" on my antenna and I still couldn't get any TV. There were some power fluctuations while I was there. If you have one of those expensive surge protectors from Camping World, they will fit on the poles. Recommend using one if the park is really busy. For people concerned about junk mail, this resort automatically puts you on a mailing list unless you specifically think to ask/tell them not to. If you stamp your feet and insist on it, they will write a note on the your registration saying not to add you to mailing list (but who knows if anyone pays attention to this!).

Date of Stay:
 June, 2009
Rate Paid:
 $33.00

3

Lake Manawa State Park

You have to drive three miles into the park before you find the camping area. The camping slots are all on gravel. The sites with the best lake access are all "dry camping" sites, and will hold tents or small trailers and campers. The bigger rigs will need to be in the pull-throughs in the center. The sites with the best access to the lake are sites 1-5; and sites 7-17 odd. Sites 19, 20, and 22 also give you lake access, but down a longer path. I would try to avoid getting Sites 1 and 2, as they are right next to the community dumping station. If you decide you really, really, REALLY want an electric site, you may need an extension cord. Two sites share one pole between them. Depending on whether you are on the "correct" side, or the "wrong" side, you may, or may not, need the extension cord. I was glad I happened to have one. Each site has a picnic table and fire ring. The sites do not have water, you need to fill up at one of the water faucets in the park before you park. The sites do not have sewer, you use the community sewer dump. At this time, you are not allowed to bring in wood from out of state due to a certain bug problem. Campground host was friendly and helpful. Bathrooms weren't the greatest, but at least the showers were free. However, you had to keep pressing the button, as you only get 20 seconds of lukewarm water (I timed it...). Recommend wearing shower shoes. I stayed two nights. Verizon Air Card worked just fine. Park was ok for the price, but nothing spectacular.

Date of Stay:
 September, 2009
Rate Paid:
 $16.00

3

Park Lane Motel-Suites & RV Park

Owners are very nice. Park located in kind of an "industrial" area. The spots are very close together. However, I was able to put my slides out. Good grocery store, a credit union, and fast food restaurants located within a short walk. The Wi-Fi worked fine when I was there. Cable had only a few channels, but they were good channels, not "junk" channels. Two good things about this park:

(1) It's right on a bus line with frequent daily service to downtown Spokane, and it's very close to the Spokane Fairgrounds if you are attending a function there.

(2) If you don't have a cell phone with you, but you carry a telephone, a few of the sites have a telephone hookup. You use it like a hotel, dial 9 first to make local calls. For people to call you, the calls go through the hotel switchboard.

Date of Stay:
 May, 2008
Rate Paid:
 $40.00

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