Camp Avalon Spiritual Nature Retreat — Attraction in Four Corners States

Editing to add: The inaccuracy and lack of empathy of this response should raise flags for anyone looking into this place. I'm only responding to help future campers avoid the extremely stressful and expensive mistakes we made!

It needs to be clearly communicated not to RELY on the link that you provide. Maybe it works for some, but let us know that the link you are providing MAY not work! This is feedback to help you improve your business. Take it or leave it.

Yes we DID text and it failed to send--no service. Even when we arrived in the morning and texted, there was no service.

Lots of places in the AZ desert have shade--especially in Sedona! Just helpful information for people checking out your place. It was not what I expected for the area.

Sedona is not 12 minutes via the instructions you have on your website. The road you told us to take after getting there took 12 minutes to Sedona and had we been given those directions prior to our arrival, we could have saved $600.

Original review: I don't often leave reviews, but I would have wanted a warning before booking this place. We booked this place because other campsites were fully booked according to our web search. We were charged $130 for 2 nights. We thought this place was going to be right in Sedona or at least a few minutes drive from Sedona. While it is, the directions that they give you to get there take you all the way around the back way. When you are not from the area, none of the streets are familiar. It's also very confusing because while the website says not to follow GPS (it takes you the wrong way), they include a link to Google Maps with their own directions. DO NOT FOLLOW GOOGLE MAP DIRECTIONS!! We did not understand this because we assumed if it was linked, it was the right way.

We drove around for hours looking for this place. Of course, there's no cell service and no way to communicate with them. By 11:30 at night we gave up as it was dark, we were so lost, our kids were tired and scared, we have trauma from recently hitting an elk and totaling our car, so we drove into Sedona to find a hotel. It was that or drive the 5 hour drive home! We spent nearly $600 on a hotel that night due to little availability to accommodate us. The whole point of camping was to save money for our large family! We had no choice!! This was a huge financial strain on our family!

The next day we drove another 45 minutes from Sedona to the camp site only to find the place full with very few spots left and completely in the sun, very little shade. It was hot and we expected trees and shade. Our kids were scared of the dogs that run all over the campground. When we asked about getting to Sedona, they told us a DIFFERENT route to take (from the directions they give you on the website) that is just a quick drive right into town. I can't tell you how aggravating that was to find out how much time and money we wasted because of their lack of clear directions, when there WAS a road straight into town. Our hotel was just a few minutes if we had known about that route!

We were told we could be refunded if we were not happy. So we drove around to other campsites to see if we could luck out with first come first serve. Sure enough, we found a $26/night campsite in Manzanita, under the trees, much better access to the creek, half mile from Slide Rock, closer access to town. We ended up extending our trip another night because it's a lot of work to go camping with a big family for just one night.

We have YET to be refunded for Camp Avalon after a week. I've contacted the owners and they assured me the refund would go through in 3-4 days. Still waiting... I'm not sure why anyone would choose this place when there are much better options. Something felt off the whole time we were there. This was a holiday weekend and we were able to find an open spot on a Saturday. We even went to another campsite down the road while we were there who also had open sites for first come first serve....

I’m the other party to Belle Newby’s one star review. There are a couple of points that are really important to understand here. 1. The owner‘s magnanimous attitude about our refund does not assuage our feelings. Of COURSE you’re going to refund us after our experience. We had just arrived to camp about 10 mins prior to the experience. The camp host walked up, without a “hello”, without a “how are you doing” but an immediate, aggressive and accusatory tone “yeah you guys were panhandling at bashes” this was to my GF, as I was in the van and he couldn’t see me. To which I stuck my head out and said “excuse me what are you talking about??” He dismissed me and then walked away without even checking us in. Belle then approached him down the road to find out what that was all about. It’s important to note how kind a person belle is and her question would have been asked with a very curious and slightly nervous tone. He dismissed her and said “I’ll go get my phone”. We both thought he was going to get it to check us in. When he returned he began yelling again at us as he showed photo of our own vehicles, parked at bashes. Taken two weeks prior, when we were shopping. I can’t properly explain how absolutely creepy and scary that was. “So am I lying now‽!” We had no idea what this guy was on about. But 3. The more important thing here is that it does not even matter IF we were panhandling. We were prepaid customers who paid with our credit card. I guess that nuance escaped the host. At this point I asked him if he was the owner or just a host to which he said “I can do whatever I want I am the owner”. I pressed him on it, because he was obviously lying and beginning to stammer. To which he finally said “you can speak to the owner about a refund”. A refund?? So he knew we had prepaid, but this was still his attitude? We’re weren’t panhandling. We’re successful at what we do and make a great living. But that again is not the point. His obvious disdain for the homeless was what was really bothersome, on top of his lying. If he goes to the owner and said “I saw them panhandling” her response should absolutely be “so what, they are paid customers!” From our phone conversation with the owner, it’s apparent this won’t be her take. The camp hosts aggression came really easy to him and that was apparent. We were incredibly uncomfortable. The owner didn’t do anything to assuage our feelings or figure out how to remedy the situation. The refund was the absolute bare minimum of what any business...

PLEASE READ before giving your “donations” to these owners!! They are not what they seem. It’s a pretty campsite for sure, and was quite busy on a holiday weekend. I came under the assumption that this campground was a spiritual retreat that welcomes all, which sounded like a great addition to a camping experience with my group. However, this campground is not what it seems.

When we arrived a kind gentleman showed us our spot and let us know they were not doing any spiritual activities as listed on their site, citing COVID-19 and building a bath house as their reason. He said this was for the exception of a group meditation and spiritual reading the next morning. My friend and I checked it out, and there was no group meditation. It was a spiritual reading by these men dressed in various robes, that tried to promote and convert us to their religion of Urantia, which seemed based on aspects of Christianity. They had fliers and pamphlets, stating they’re a community based out of Tucson. I felt bad for the other camp-goers that said they were from the LDS religion, which triggered the men to criticize Mormons and other organized religion several times. That seemed strange to my friend and I, who were expecting the open-minded attitudes of a place that describes itself as an International Spiritual Retreat that welcomes all. Keep reading and you won’t believe what’s going on at Camp Avalon and who actually owns it.

My friend looked into their campsite further when we returned, only to share an article from a journalist that had investigated the URANTIA RELIGIOUS CULT that is based out of Tucson and owned by Tony Develin aka “Gabriel of Urantia” who owns Camp Avalon. They apparently use the building facilities for their meetings, services, and who knows what else. Apparently this guy thinks he will become the “Ruler of Humanity” to make everyone listen to his failed band music. I looked into this more and it was all verifiable. So unless you don’t want your money going to this Tucson Urantia Cult that disguises itself as a welcoming spiritual retreat that clearly is run by a guy taking advantage of others, then I would suggest just avoiding this place altogether. I feel a bit repulsed that our group’s money to meet their highly encouraged $40 donation per night, went to a group of individuals that are probably perpetuating abuse like any other cult...