Mmm.. I think this campground has potential, but it is a long way from being the sort of place that…read morecharges the prices that we paid. The photos on their website are very misleading.
Our group was very large. 6 families: 12 adults 15 kids. The youngest kid was 3, oldest was 15. The average age for all the kids was 10.
3 of the 5 families stayed in the "glamping" large bell-tents you see the pictures of, the white canvas tents on the platforms. We occupied the 3-tent site called Bell Tent Group Site. All of our socializing and hanging out was done here at this 3-tent group. I will focus the rest of this review on this group site.
First: There was exactly ONE picnic table for all three tents in the group. ONE picnic table. If we did not bring 3 folding tables ourselves, we would not have had enough room for food preparation, and definitely no place to eat as a group.
Second: Between the THREE tent groups there were inadequate bathroom facilities. What was provided was a single cassette toilet. It is not a bad option for a small RV or single family. If we were primitive camping, it'd be different, but this Bell Tent Group is advertised as GLAMPING. "Kick back with friends and family at our group site." (direct quote from their website) -I understand plumbing is expensive for such a remote area so far off the main road, and this campground is still only a few years old, but ONE cassette toilet? Our cassette toilet malfunctioned within 12 hours of our arrival, and it was a huge mess. I cannot confirm it was a fault in the toilet, likely it was someone who didn't follow the procedure and clogged it. (remember the part above about the 15 kids, average age 10) It was eventually fixed, and we joked about it, but for $155/night (Plus cleaning fee) I would expect something more than a single cassette toilet for a group-area.
Third: The Fire pit was located on a slope. Anyone who has been camping knows that the fire pit is always the central hub of all activity. It is where everyone sits around, sips their beverages, and just hangs out. The slope was enough that over the course of the weekend, 8 times chairs fell over while trying to either get in, or get out, or reaching too far to one side. We did laugh about it, and I want to be clear that we were drinking, but no one was "drunk" and no one had so much to drink that would warrant a "ooh cut them off, they've fallen over." With as many people as we had, I think there is a fair chance someone would have fallen out of their chair once, but the slope was considerable enough that when a chair fell over it was obvious it was due to the chair position in relation to the direction of the slope.
Fourth: More Fire Pit: We had to climb into a physical pit that was more than 2 feet deep to get to the fire. Maybe if we were roasting a pig we would need a fire pit this deep and large. It was very dangerous. Especially when it came time for the kids to toast marshmallows. We had those long wooden "Campfire sticks" and the kids STILL had to crouch precariously on large stones and lean over, and I mean REALLY lean over to reach the fire. And we didn't have a huge bonfire, we had a reasonable fire size. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't small either. It was very dangerous the flames of the fire were not even as high as the top of the pit the fire was in, so imagine your kids having to crouch on large stones and lean far over with their Yard-Long marshmallow stick to reach the hot coals of the fire to toast their marshmallows. We had to keep close eyes on them the entire time. The website has a photo of a circle of stones with some marshmallows being toasted, with the legs of what appears to be one adult and three young children. The fire pit at our site was nothing like this. I wish I had taken a photo (Sorry, my phone was out of power and I intentionally didn't recharge it because this was my weekend away from that stuff), but by the time the fire had progressed into a really nice pile of coals, and the kids had gone to bed and it was just us adults sitting by the fire, having consumed a good bit of our adult beverages, you had to really pay attention to stepping down INTO this fire pit to place those last few logs, when the placement of the logs are kind of important? or when you need to give the fire a good stir to keep it going without throwing on more logs because it's near the end of the night? Yeah this fire pit was terrible.
The "Glamping tents themselves were adequate. Nothing particularly special. Pretty much as advertised. But I would not pay $155/night for this group site. Even divided by 3, (which is about $55 with Cleaning Fee) This is too much.
And the individual "glamping" sites are $75 (plus the cleaning fee)
This place has potential. Maybe in a few more years with a bit more investment it might be good. It is a not-bad concept.
Bottom line: too much $$ for the value. $75/night... too much. 155 for the group site? Way too much.
