Metamora-Hadley Recreation Area — Attraction in Hadley Township

I just got on here to write a review and saw the other review about the very rude staff. The gate attendant was a wretch for no reason to me and other members of my family. My husband and I and our kids arrived at the park, pulled up and stopped at the gate to see if we needed to purchase a recreation pass. Our car was looked at, we were given the thumbs up and waved through. No problems here. We had a 2018 sticker on our windshield, so we thought it must still be good.

We go to the campsite, proceed back out to take the kids to the beach. When we are done, we have a violation notice on our car. So we head back up to the gate attendant. There is an older lady there now and a young man who is leaving. I have my husband park in the nearby loop and I walk up to the gate. There is one car in front of me. Then it's my turn. I say hi, how are you? No response. Doesn't even acknowledge me, look at me or ask how she can help me. I proceed to tell her about how we were waved through and that we weren't trying to avoid paying for a new recreation passport. She finally responds by grabbing the violation notice I had in my hand. She sets it aside. Then she has a phone call--she takes that, even though there is another girl working behind her in the booth. My future brother-in-law happens to pull up to the gate. I said, Hey I know you...I'm (XXX's) sister. He greets me and we make quick small talk; all the while still waiting for the gate attendant's help. By now, she's gotten off the phone, still doesn't take my payment or help me. She then looks at my brother-in-law and says, "talk to me, not to the sister..." and starts asking him questions. It wasn't even his turn yet. I lightheartedly told him, "oh, I guess you're cutting in front of me..." She finally gets done with him and then finally begrudgingly takes care of me. That was rough.

We get back to the campsite and I relayed what took place and several of my family members spoke up about having similar experiences with that lady. Apparently my niece's boyfriend was in line directly behind me. He never has a bad word to say about anyone--and he said she was rude to him too. Whether subtly snide or outright nasty, it's not a good way to get a family vacation started. I would've expected a welcoming, friendly personality to be at the entrance. Maybe she was having a bad day...maybe going through some stuff, perhaps I should pray for her...I don't know. But it made a negative lasting-impression on me and my family. Okay, as far as the rest of the park, the beach is fine. Concession was closed. The fishing pier is dinky. The one next to the beach is good, but you won't catch anything. My other brother-in-law and nephew went out twice, fishing for hours at a time (and are very experienced fishermen) and they only caught 1 small fish each. We were hoping for our kids to catch their 1st fish, but alas nothing. :( My sister had her food tent zipped closed and food properly stored and had a raccoon dig under the dirt to get inside the tent and ate up 3 whole zucchini breads. The bathroom soap smells amazing. The only reason I would choose to go here again is due to it being only 35 mins...

I wish I could give this place more stars but I can't. The park/campground was overall beautiful. Staff were very nice as well. Went camping there over forth of July weekend and we stayed in the more wodded area of the campground. I was very disappointed as we were surrounded by trashy people who did nothing but be disrespectful to one another (not even drinking) and leave their trash lay around everywhere. The neighbors across from us had 4 little kids. In the 4 children, they had a baby who did nothing but cry all day and all night long (literally) because the parents would not attend to him. It was very frustrating to listen to that the entire time. Our other surrounding neighbors did nothing but fight with each other till 4 in the morning. My camping buddy and I got woken up every morning between 4-5 am because our neighbors were either starting fights with each other causing a scene or the neighbors with the baby would wake up screaming to the top of its lungs. I wish DNR would patrol at night because there were literally almost physical fights every night with these neighbors and just down right disrespectful during quiet hours. Nothing was done with it. Nobody was kicked out. It was a long miserable 4 days camping there that weekend. I know that our experience had to do with the people who were camping there but it's the fact that it still ruined it for us and it was our first time being there. We will never go back to this place. Seems like this campground doesn't draw in the...

Woman running the camp store and concessions is unbelievably rude. She also rents out the kayaks, paddle boats and paddle boards. We came with eight people wanting to kayak and had to pay $15 per kayak per hour, which is quite expensive. For how much we were paying, we expected to at least receive decent service. We did not. We were forced to fetch the kayaks ourselves and figure out how to get them to the lake and into the water. After kayaking, we were told it was our responsibility to get the kayaks back on the stands. We also had to pack the ores and life jackets into our compact cars and drive them to a different location. It was ridiculous. We go kayaking often and have never experienced this before. We decided to go back today because the kayaking company we usually use was closed. We nicely explained to the owner of the camp store that it seemed a little unfair that we did all of the work and she just collected our money, and that it was difficult for us to transport supplies in our small cars. We informed her that when we go kayaking with other companies, we’re paying them to do that work. The owner proceeded to scream at us, saying we were “ruining it for everyone” and that we were “the rudest customers”. She also told her employees to no longer rent to us. I’ve never experienced such an unprofessional and rude business owner. This woman provides horrible customer service. Do not give her...