Great dry camping, outstanding location! Great people! Under new ownership/management as of about Feb 2018.
The Carson River RV Resort is a nice little place, about 5 miles south of Markleeville, CA on CA 89/4. It consists of about 6 or 8 small, rustic-looking log cabins, about 6 or 8 RV sites with full hookups, and a separate dry (no running water, electricity, or sewer) 9-site campground, about 200 yards down the road, with pull-through RV sites and tent sites, right on the Carson River. From reading previous reviews, it seems that the place has had its ups and downs over the years, affected by the owners and managers. It apparently changed owners again in about Feb 2018, and it looks things are good and getting better. For one thing, Todd, the hero of all the previous good reviews, is back. And I can tell you from personal experience, he is one of the nicest human beings you'll ever meet. Plus, he's on a first-name basis with every fish in the river - just ask him something about fishing there to get him started. He's great!
We were there with a medium-size group of Off-Roaders for the weekend before memorial day 2018, and had reserved the end two campsites (6 and 7) in the dry-camping area. The sites are right next to river (like "be-careful-staggering-around-after-dark" close to the river) and you get the wonderful noise from the rushing water all the time. Though the road is relatively close, we didn't hear it at all above the sound of the river, and traffic on the road at night was nil. The RV sites in the campground all appear to be easy pull-through sites, and there was a lot of extra area to park other vehicles. The tent sites in our area were mostly sandy base, with nearby trees. Each site has a picnic table and nice fire ring. There were 3 or 4 brand-new portapotties for the 9-site campground, and they were serviced at noon on Friday, so they were neat and ready for the weekend. We had a total of 4 RVs and 3 tents in our group, and Todd let us also use site 5. There was plenty of room for all our jeeps and even a couple of jeep-towing trailers. We had a great time, and I absolutely loved the campground. I will be back for sure. I HIGHLY recommend this place.
We stopped a couple times in the main area with the cabins and full-hookup sites. Everything looked neat and well-maintained, but rustic. I think the cabins all use one separate restroom, which was clean and working fine when we went there. The RV sites had good hookups, and used a fair amount of artificial turf to keep the dust down. The little store has some very basic essentials: your basic cases of beer, a nice selection of fishing tackle, a few T-shirts, and some other food & drinks. They do not sell fishing licenses there, so if you want one, or if you want a larger selection of food, drink, and supplies, stop in Markleeville, 5 minutes up the road.
Todd happened to be in the store when we arrived, and was very accommodating about sites, places to park trailers, etc. A really nice guy.
This place is not a soft, cushy, well-decorated resort hotel with room service, so don't expect that (as some previous reviews seem to). But if you're an outdoors-person who loves the mountains, and a nice trout river, and fun/interesting backroads to explore, it's hard to do better than Carson River RV Resort. read more