Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park — Attraction in Ephrata

Cons outweigh the pros in this case. You arrive and are underwhelmed by the campsites. Extremely small, hardly enough room for a tent which MUST be placed in the gravel. And right up on each other so unless you book the adjoining sites ($136 for 4 nights) you will have no privacy. We had a boat with us and needed more space so we drove around and found site #57 and #56 which are meant for group sites (and therefore much larger) and decided to pay the extra $20 for those sites as they had a large gravel space for parking the boat and a large grassy area for our 2 tents. After setting up our tents in the only shady place available (in 80+ degree heat) we tried to make due by setting up camp and making it homey. The problems started around 4 p.m. when what was stagnant air turned to 30+ mile gusts of wind, knocking over camp chairs, table settings, uprooting canopies and tents. By the night the wind reached between 35-40 miles. We were not able to have a fire (obviously), nothing could be set out or hung out put up. Our group ended up bunkering down in our heavily-steaked tents around 8 p.m. because it was freezing and dark and there was nothing to do. By morning there were several tents and canopies out by the trash that had been destroyed. Having already paid for our site we decided to stay the next night tentatively, still not being able to set up camp. We took out the boat, came back around 5 p.m. and was surprised to find calm weather. Happily we set up camp a bit, enjoyed a fire and went to bed. Next day was more of the first day, wind picked up and blew things over, wasn't able to make dinner or use the firepit, and went to bed early. The next day?...... packed our stuff and went home early. Weather advisories are useless and the wind was predicted as "light" for those gusty days so there is no planning ahead. You just can't set up camp, can't plan your day and can't have a fire, or enjoy yourself. Besides this, be on the lookout for rattlesnakes (not joking), chiggers (2 people in our camp were bit by those and had rashes), raccoon (our camp was ransacked) and mosquitos for dayyyyyyyyys. (I used 40% deet and still left with at least 10 bites). There are bathrooms and showers but bathrooms are dirty and showers are EXTREMELY unsafe for women (non-locking stalls, only a sheer curtain that doesn't fully cover the stalls. Beware of going alone or at night). Female check-in clerk was very rude and had attitude. 27 minutes to nearest grocery store. The only pros in this case is the stars at night if you are brave enough to leave your tent or lucky enough to have a mild wind day, and that you are by a lake (though you can't see it from your site) and if you have a boat you have a choice of launching at that lake or driving 5 minutes north-east to banks lake which is much larger. (But beware of shallow spots which severely damaged our new propeller). My advice....... there's a reason these sites don't fill up quickly. Only go here if you have a...

There are little to no regulations held at this park, so if you're a rule breaker or don't care about other people breaking them, or care about sleep, it's a paradise for you! You're shoulder to shoulder on these camp sites, there is zero privacy. We were placed next to a family reunion, they stayed awake until 2am and kept everyone awake with them by screaming and allowing their children to scream and ride their bikes around into late hours of the night, every single night we were there. Both ends of this gathering had open fires despite the several signs and burn ban, you'd think the incredibly dry hill and grass surrounding them would deter them but no, common sense obviously eluded them as they were waiting till people were in their tents and between their families trailers so they werent spotted, I know because I woke up to smoke draft in my tent as I was right across the way from them. They also have no concept of anyone outside of themselves as they blared their brights of their truck directly into my tent for about a half an hour, I had to get out of my tent and raise my hand in the air to let them know there is life outside of their bubble attempting to sleep. They shut it off, but jeeze, no consideration at all.

To top it off, the leashing your dog rule was followed by little to nobody and a sheep dog next to us was -constantly- barking and lunging at people, as well as getting away from its owner and attacking a small dog, why was there no regulation on this? It clearly upset the surrounding neighbors. The endless noise caused me to lose so much sleep with ear plugs in, we decided to leave earlier than planned to avoid disturbances.

This aside, the water was decent if you dont mind roaming dogs and are unfazed by children in diapers roaming alone on the docks unattended. I personally will never go back, it was definitely a bad experience I dont ever...

We stayed in the upper section, lower loop #76. The arrangement of the sites gives you lots of space between your neighbors. Get this spot or another adjacent to one reserved for disabled visitors; it's likely to remain unoccupied. Our site was pretty level; we didn't need to do anything special in that regard. There isn't any shade to speak of in the upper loops. Stay in the main area if that's important to you. We were there the weekend after Memorial Day, Thurs-Sunday nights, so it wasn't as hectic as it could be. Our loop was nearly full on Saturday night, but it didn't feel crowded at all. The bathrooms were clean, as was the shower, and the shower worked fine with plenty of hot water. We were most impressed with the camp host volunteers. They arrived at a newly vacated spot within minutes of the people leaving. They scrubbed the picnic table and benches and made sure the site was tidy and utilities were operational. There were regular drive - throughs by park rangers. We had no issues with the site or services. Downsides: 1. No wi-fi and marginal cell service. We have an external booster antenna which kept us at 3G, sometimes 4G. As mentioned by another reviewer, the site rate is a little high for not having wi-fi. 2. Mosquitos were present in abundance. I don't know if that's usual or not. This was our first time there. We camped at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park in a...