Jeff Kushner
08-10-2009, 08:41 AM
For whats it's worth....if you go camping near Front Royal...you'll want to avoid this place. I have camped in 38 different states during my lifetime and have camped in the "commercialized" campgrounds as well as the most primitive. That's my background and here is my story;
Have you ever seen the movie where the couple gets lost, off the beaten path and ends up at the hotel at the end of the lane? That's how this felt from the moment I walked into the "camp store". I put it in quotes because it had a sign saying Camp Store but inside was just piles of junk and magazines....more like a junk room and not a store. There were a couple of hand written signs saying that there were sodas in the fridge but no real supplies, not even camp stove gas or mantles! There was rotten old wood for sale outside@ $10 a wheelbarrow load...but that's a "level" load in the smallest wheelbarrow I have ever seen. It was a chintzy way to sell you 6-8 pieces of rotten wood for $10! Don't worry about putting too much in it, she will be watching you like a hawk and will pounce on you if you even think about trying to get a fair load!
The place is run by a very old woman and I made it a point to try to get to know her. My mistake! Turns out that she ended up buying the campground some years ago or would have had to face capital gains taxes on another business she sold. She's not from the country and is clearly overmatched by the requirements of running a campground. By her own admission, she doesn't like people and it was obvious from the way she treated them. Cantankerous & nasty would best describe her and I got along with her because I refused to let her run me over! I watched as she ripped a young couple because they couldn't find the correct site that was sandwiched between two others. The oddest thing about it was that typically, campground owners love people in general and love talking to people, she doesn't unfortunately. The owner, I found out later, had charged me extra by rounding up the $19 fee to $20 and adding some charge of 2 dollars to my credit card????
If you do get stuck there, best to avoid the owner as much as possible for she will surely try to provoke and upset you. She can't help it, she's an old woman who isn't happy with her lot in life and takes it out on her customers. Several people that we saw come in, left shortly.
The buildings are pretty run down with webs covering all of the fluorescent lights, chunks of wood holding up the stalls and there was a copperhead in one of the two men’s shower while I was there. The setting is nice, running along the creek but she has divided it into very small plots for tents. There are two out-houses (one for each gender) and they are filled with spiders. A "bathhouse" contains two showers, two sinks and two toilets for each gender but doors are left open at all times making easy entrance for any spiders, bugs and of course the aforementioned copperhead! The water was hot though and with someone standing watch to prevent the entrance of snakes, felt good after a long hot day of camping. A gulley-strewn road enters into the campground making a difficult drive for anything less then a four wheel drive vehicle. Motorcycles and fifth-wheels are not recommended. If possible, find another campground in the area and you'll be better off.
Lastly, the hywy runs over one end of the campground so there is no, "getting away from it all" feeling with every truck or motorcycle pounding in your ears as you try to sleep.
Again guys, take it for what it's worth......
jeff
Have you ever seen the movie where the couple gets lost, off the beaten path and ends up at the hotel at the end of the lane? That's how this felt from the moment I walked into the "camp store". I put it in quotes because it had a sign saying Camp Store but inside was just piles of junk and magazines....more like a junk room and not a store. There were a couple of hand written signs saying that there were sodas in the fridge but no real supplies, not even camp stove gas or mantles! There was rotten old wood for sale outside@ $10 a wheelbarrow load...but that's a "level" load in the smallest wheelbarrow I have ever seen. It was a chintzy way to sell you 6-8 pieces of rotten wood for $10! Don't worry about putting too much in it, she will be watching you like a hawk and will pounce on you if you even think about trying to get a fair load!
The place is run by a very old woman and I made it a point to try to get to know her. My mistake! Turns out that she ended up buying the campground some years ago or would have had to face capital gains taxes on another business she sold. She's not from the country and is clearly overmatched by the requirements of running a campground. By her own admission, she doesn't like people and it was obvious from the way she treated them. Cantankerous & nasty would best describe her and I got along with her because I refused to let her run me over! I watched as she ripped a young couple because they couldn't find the correct site that was sandwiched between two others. The oddest thing about it was that typically, campground owners love people in general and love talking to people, she doesn't unfortunately. The owner, I found out later, had charged me extra by rounding up the $19 fee to $20 and adding some charge of 2 dollars to my credit card????
If you do get stuck there, best to avoid the owner as much as possible for she will surely try to provoke and upset you. She can't help it, she's an old woman who isn't happy with her lot in life and takes it out on her customers. Several people that we saw come in, left shortly.
The buildings are pretty run down with webs covering all of the fluorescent lights, chunks of wood holding up the stalls and there was a copperhead in one of the two men’s shower while I was there. The setting is nice, running along the creek but she has divided it into very small plots for tents. There are two out-houses (one for each gender) and they are filled with spiders. A "bathhouse" contains two showers, two sinks and two toilets for each gender but doors are left open at all times making easy entrance for any spiders, bugs and of course the aforementioned copperhead! The water was hot though and with someone standing watch to prevent the entrance of snakes, felt good after a long hot day of camping. A gulley-strewn road enters into the campground making a difficult drive for anything less then a four wheel drive vehicle. Motorcycles and fifth-wheels are not recommended. If possible, find another campground in the area and you'll be better off.
Lastly, the hywy runs over one end of the campground so there is no, "getting away from it all" feeling with every truck or motorcycle pounding in your ears as you try to sleep.
Again guys, take it for what it's worth......
jeff