Alright let me set the stage here: I went here as a kid about 15 years ago and had some great memories. Fast forward to last weekend, when I returned to camp with several other couples and some old college buddies.I read every review here and on trip advisor, and I'll try to add a bit of fairness to these reviews. We reserved about 3 months in advance of our late June stay, and it was a scorcher out there.
First, the Good: Shade was actually quite decent, which was much needed when it got hot out. Perhaps we got lucky with our selected sites, but it seemed that all sites except the group sites had reasonable shade throughout the day. The bathrooms near us were actually quite clean for campground bathrooms, and I've seen worse even at other state campgrounds. A couple volunteer site hosts came by when we set up and mentioned the best places for us to swim, they were actually very kind. You can throw baseballs and frisbees on the golf course, so long as it's after the last tee time and you stay off the green - someone in our group brought a glow in the dark frisbee which was awesome at night. Swimming was amazing at deep lake down the road and you are in perfect position to hike to Dry Falls. This campground was ideal for our tents since neighboring Sun Lakes Resort is a RV town, as is Steamboat Rock.
The Bad: swimming from the main beach is mediocre. Nothing anyone can do about it - it's a stale lake with a decent amount of algae and bird poop in it (I would equate this to swimming in Greenlake - which plenty of people do). However... if you swim from the docks nearby in Sun Lakes Resort, or from Deep Lake down the road, you will enjoy yourself handsomely. One couple in our group was stopped late one night after returning from the Grand Coulee Laser show for passing a stop sign (at 11pm). The ranger was polite to not ticket, but be warned that they do take traffic laws seriously. Someone mentioned the showers were not too great, and only had hot water (no cold option in the summer?).
Additional notes: Yes, like others mention, you cannot pitch your tent on the grass. For what it's worth, many campgrounds do this, because with the heat the tents would surely kill all of those patches of grass. We brought a tarp for underneath the tent and it was just fine. Sites are plenty private as any eastern Washington campground will get. Bugs... well we got lucky with very few mosquitoes, which likely was due to the drought and heat. Also, someone else mentioned in a review that the tables are chained... they in fact are not as of 6/24/15 - none in the campground were.
One final note: I feel like the reviews here pay tribute to the fact that your experience at this campground is factor of SO MANY things - the time of year, recent rain and it's affect on bugs, campers nearby that are obnoxious or pleasant, and certainly the people you chose to camp with. Maybe we got lucky, but we had a wonderful experience, and it seemed that everyone camping near us did as well. But don't take my or anyone else's word for it - get out there and go camping! read more