Herkimer Diamond KOA Resort — Attraction in Town of Newport

Herkimer KOA diamind mines is one of our most favorite campgrounds to bring our family to! This campground in previous years has been amazing and the staff always so kind, but tragically not anymore. The employees at the front desk are WONDERFUL, kind and helpful, Im so grateful for the glimmer of hope in customer service they offered during our 8 day stay. But the management is dangerously negligent and appalling.||||Beware of MAJOR septic system issues at this campground. I could have never imagined being treated so poorly while at a camping RESORT, an award winning one none-the-less. We camp at Herkimer every year and have for the past 4 years. We have atleast 10 to 14 sites reserved with our group every year we come. Myself, and many of these families who have also been camping at Herkimer for years, some since they were children, will not be returning as long as the current management remains the same. ||||The lift station that just so happened to be between our camper and our friends on the next site over was having issues on our 4th day of being at our site. The power had gone out and it was super hot that day (not an ideal time for septic failure.) An employee drove between our site and the river with a tractor and honey wagon to handle the situation. The tractor and wagon were mere feet from our two grills we had sitting behind our camper. At no point was any attempt made BEFORE the pumping to move our grills out of the way. As he turned on his pump to start emptying the lift station, the hose sprung a leak and accidentally sprayed human waste (not just our own waste, but a collective cocktail of everyone's human waste), on our 2 grills we had sitting only a few ft away. One was a pellet smoker and the other a griddle flat top grill. ||||The employee quickly ran over to move the smoker, but unfortunately it was already too late. I just watched human waste spray all over where we cook our food and my stomach hit the ground. I was alone at the time, so I sat and waited for my husband and friends to return. I was honestly so dumfounded at first I just sat there thinking "what in the world just happened, and what do I do." The employee did not say a word. Not a sorry, no reassurance he would send someone down to address the situation, nothing. He proceeded to shut off the pump, tape the septic pump hose with electrical tape and continue pumping as if nothing happened. At first he had no idea I was watching this unfold, until I jumped up to help move/save my grills, only then quickly realizing I do NOT want any of the spraying septic on ME, so I flipped the sides of my flat top up and sat back down in shock. ||||The employee then leaves and returns again. This time wasn't any better. Im not sure if the lid on the honey wagon was lose or if he over filled it, but I watched gallons of septic waste slosh up and out of the top of the honey wagon and all over the ground after his second time pumping and filling the honey wagon. There were also several other leaks on this wagon but that's almost a moot point compared to everything else I was witnessing.||||My husband returned and we agreed these grills were garbage, I don't care what you clean them with, they had human POOP on them!!!! These grills were not coming home with us. I went to the office and they said they would send Phil, the manager down. ||||Phil shows up and I quickly realize he does not see this as major issue. To Phil, this appeared to be a headache he just needed to keep quite and make go away. He asked me what would it take to make things right, and my husband and I both said replace our grills or credit the equivalent amount back to us and get some rope and section off this whole area where human waste spilled all over the ground. While standing there we looked up what it would cost to replace the grills, it was approx $1,300. As for the waste spilled all over the ground... he couldn't do anything at all about it. No make shift fence, no concern for public safety, nothing, he just did nothing. Phil said he would call his boss and see what he could do. While Phil was gone, My 7 year old daughter ran through the area where wet spilled human waste water was all over the ground. Im now mortified and getting VERY VERY agitated, but I stayed very calm throughout the day, trying, BEGGING this manager to do something, clean the waste, and compensate us and make this right.||||He comes back a while later, offering to replace the griddle on the flat top, which as an accessory cooktop surface... and we said ok great thank you. But we are still throwing the whole grill away. BOTH grills. They BOTH have food prep surfaces that also have waste on them now too. We were grateful for the small progress we were making having them replace the flat top, but this was no where near done. We said over and over we WILL NOT be bringing these grills home. The campground needed to do better. ||||Phil then offered to clean the grills, and also shared his boss told him to "turn up the grills as hot as they will go and cook the human waste off." WHAT?????? THIS IS WHAT PHIL CLAIMS THE OWNER ADVISED????? At first I had no words, I couldn't even wrap my head around what I was hearing. This solution was obviously unacceptable. We kept spinning and talking in circles with Phil who not one time offered to replace our grills. He kept INSISTING he wanted to wash them. Cooktop had been ordered, which again, is just one accessories on a standing 3 burner grill.||||Now hours have gone by and we are mad, annoyed, upset, disgusted, so many emotions. And also the fact that we are no longer vacationing, we are now in a crisis with no resolution in site. After no offer to replace anything but the griddle flat top, and still no attempt to clean the waste off the ground where children are playing, and Phil persistently asking over and over if he could wash the grills for us, my husband finally caved and said "yea, fine, go ahead and wash them, but I'm still not bringing them home." ||||Phil then left again, I assume to get cleaning supplies (even though we have said until we're blue in the face we are not taking them home.) When he returned again, we stopped him and said NO, just no. Washing them is NOT how you get out of this. This is a public health/safety issue, and it's also not the first time we have had septic puddling at our campsite at herkimer, although the management in place then was much more kind and understanding.||||At this point in the day I'm so very over all of this. Im on vacation with my family, trying to make memories and have a lovely time and now I have spent almost a whole full vacation day trying to reason with a man who deems it's ok for human waste to be on cooking surfaces and where kids play with absolutely no sense of accountability, or urgency to clean it up. ||||Phil and I met again, only this time I was heated, the stress of the day got the better of me and I was sick of being treated like this was my fault somehow. Like I was inconvenienceing Phil. He pulled up in his golf cart, and sat tilted in his seat, one leg up in the storage bay, arm leaned over the back of his seat with just the most condescending smerk on his face, as if he didnt give ANY care or concern about what had happened. This man is the manager! This man is the ONLY man whom I have the ability to communicate with for a resolution, and he is laughing at the situation, to not only my face, but atleast 6 other adults, our friends, who witnessed everything.||||He kept saying he had been at work since 6 and he was done with "this," making us feel as though we were totally on our own. ||||I ended up having to walk away several times as i felt like my heart was going to explode from the stress of dealing with this man all day and I was beginning to lose my temper. (This is HOURS later after keeping my composure toward him all day).||||I demanded Phil replace our grills or refund us our trip, pick one, and he sat in his golf cart and lied directly to our face, exlaming he offered to replace with grills the first time he walked over and that I was being wishy washy about what I wanted. I DONT WANT ANYTHING except for tbis to have never happened, and to return to my vacation. He NEVER once offered to replace anything more than griddle and made it seem like we were being unreasonable about being upset. ||||LET ME BE CLEAR, all I have wanted from the beginning of this incident, is to not have to tell you as an award winning KOA resort, how to best handle this situation. As a place of business, the mamagement and owners should have easily been able to talk through the situation, on their own, without my intervention, come to my family with some kind of action plan for how to make this right, and this woukd have been done right away. But instead, Phils first approach wasn't one of apologies or compensation, he was on a mission to get out of this with as little effort as possible. My husband looked him right in the eyes and asked him "if my wife hadn't been sitting there and saw it all happen, would you even have told us?" PHIL SAID NOTHING... he just kept smerking. I wanted to cry at the thought of not knowing what had transpired. What if we had ate our dinner off the grills covered in human waste that night? We never would have known. My KIDS health and safety is now the only thing I can see. And I'm MAD. I walked away and Phil eventually drove off. At LEAST 6 other adults watched this entire encounter.||||Now Im well aware that things break. I grew up on a farm, and i have seen all kinds of mechanical, and equipment failures, as well as how much it just plain sucks to deal with. When we first encountered Phil we were very understanding. We recognized it was an accident and it started out ok. But after realizing Phil didn't see this as a health and safety issue, and being on the receiving end of his pompous, condescending attitude when we rejected his offer to clean the grills, I lost all respect as well as all my hope for a resolution.||||The health department will be called on Monday as this is just unacceptable. You simply can not have someone that negligent and that casual about human waste be in charge of not only sanitation on the grounds, but the health and safety of every guest here. ||||It is NOT OK for their to be septic waste spilling all over the ground and you do NOTHING. ||||It is NOT OK that mamagement ruined one and a half days of my families vacation. ||||It is NOT OK to be treated the way we were treated, or talked to the way we were talked to. ||||This could have been resolved so easily with an adult conversation, and a much higher level if cusotmercustomer service. But instead I am left no choice but to leave this review and hope someone in a place if authrotiyauthority can take some action to ensure NO ONE else ever has the same experience we had||||I also tried to reason with the front desk, but quickly learned the women in charge up there is Phil's wife. She was no more help than Phil and was going to agree with all the lies Phil had told her, so I knew I had hit a wall. Phil then tried to scold me like a child, telling me "we are done. You can go now."||||I have called corporate and will be calling the health department. Im also trying to make contact with the owners. As a fellow women business owner, if this had happened at my resort, I would absolutely want to know, and I would want to make some drastic managerial changes very quickly.||||Phil eventually brought me an envelope with $375 cash (a refund for our golf cart) and ordered a new griddle top to be shipped to our home. He also claims to have credited 15% of our stay back to my account but iI do not see that transaction yet. I do not want another DIME from this place. This is not about the money, this is about the principle of the situation, and ensuring NO ONE ever, EVER has the same experince my family had. Human waste is no joke, it is serious, and you just simply can NOT have someone that negligent in charge of ensuring human health and safety. ||||We are so devastated our vacation went this way. We LOVE this KOA and we we travel with a HUGE group every year. The thought of never returning makes us very sad, but unless some major changes occur, we and many of our group will never be back.||||I hope this story offers insight for both future campers, as well...

Stayed at Herkimer KOA in the Solar Kolony 1 cabin from 8/7/21 - 8/11/21 with my partner and 2 kids, ages 13 and 2. My In-Laws stayed at the Treehouse cabin from 8/8/21-8/11/21. I’ve stayed here before at Caesars Palace (the woof cabin) and the apple orchard, but years ago.||Obviously I like this place as I knew what I was in for. So this isn’t a glowing review of what there is, you can read that in the description. This is about what is not mentioned in the advertising.||My 13 y/o loves mining for crystals aka Herkimer Diamonds. So his activities were really just mining and then examining his finds. Mine is $14 pp and is open 9am-5pm with very little shade before 3pm. The 2 year old really just ran around picking the little white flowers that are weeds. We bought two tubes from the on-resort store ($30 each) and tubed the river, which was fun once you got the hang of it, which is to stay to the right and get off earlier than you expect.||I’m not a tent camper, have tried it and RVing, don’t love it, but this is very much like RV camping. The cabins are essentially trailers. Very compact. And its very mosquitoy outside as it’s in the woods, so… expect that.||Solar Kolony 1 says it sleeps 6 as there is a full size futon in the living area, a queen bed in the one bed room and twin bunk beds in the other. The twin beds are more narrow than an actual twin and the entire room are the built in bunks with 3 drawers under the lower bed with about 30 inches of floor clearance. The mattresses are plastic, they do provide a pillow, sheets and a thin blanket. We moved the mattress from the top bunk to our room and put it between the bed and the wall for the two year old, we brought pillows and blankets for him. 13 y/o hated the mattress so we wound up getting a blow up from Walmart and blowing it up in the floor space which meant he couldn’t close the door and had to use the bottom bed as his clothing storage. The queen bedroom did have storage (almost like built in kitchen cabinets) and the bed is accessible from either side. There is no way anyone should sleep on that futon.||The ventilation for the bunk room is a cut out in the wall near the ceiling, same for the queen room though that has a ceiling fan. So no noise privacy. There is an installed AC unit, but also a window unit right next to it. We bought two little fans from Walmart to move the air into the bunk room.||Paltry AC issues.||There is a small table with umbrella outside with 4 chairs and another two chairs with a side table. In the cabin is a table with 3 chairs and a coffee table in front of the futon. The TV in the main area didn’t work, we told them, they never came to fix it. The kitchenette is a good size for a compact kitchen. There is a mini fridge (no working freezer) and a 4 burner stovetop. Coffee maker. Toaster. No microwave.||The kitchen supplies are a mash of mis-matched glasses/cutlery and pots/one pan. They did give dish soap & sponge, paper towels & TP. they do have bbq tongs & spatula. The mini fridge means there has to be a cooler going for beer purposes. For a cabin that allegedly sleeps 6, the mini fridge and camping are not symbiotic.||At a couple of points some of our electric went out, not the AC though.||The bathroom has a shower stall and had a soap dispenser seemingly on the wall that had fallen and left a gooey mess in the stall. As there is no housecleaning service we just cleaned it up. Then the shower backed up and we cleared the clog ourselves. The towels provided are terrible and teeny. Bring your own.||The place was definitely cleaned between campers, but hasn’t been actually cleaned in a long while. The ceiling fans are caked in dust, as are the decorations and the baseboards are filthy. But this is more like camping then not. Paid WiFi ($12 for 3 days for 3 devices) was impossible to use in this cabin. Cabin is $219/per night.||My in-laws stayed at the treehouse, which says that it sleeps 4. The treehouse is the most novel cabin and featured in their cover page. It’s definitely cute. But it’s a small cabin sitting atop a hollow outdoor unlit room with a hammock in it. The queen sized bed is immediately there when you walk in and sits next to the kitchenette. There is a decorative trunk at the base of the bed where you would rest your bags. No storage at all in the unit. There is a table with two giant heavy wood chairs. A twin bunk bed built in to a ‘room’ but that’s the entire room with actual floor space of about 24” x48”. They used this as their closet. The furniture was all huge and designed to be novel, but my MIL literally couldn’t move a dining chair. Their mini fridge was missing a bunch of the racks and wire compartments that would render it useful. They had a microwave. This unit is teeny. No couch or sitting other than the bed or the two giant dining chairs. Outside is a table with 4 chairs and an additional two. Same mish-mosh of kitchen ware. Very very dusty decor, and lots of it (giant axe, deer head, guns, pot rack) Very dimly lit. Excellent source of exercise though as the staircase was pretty steep. The treehouse maybe soundproof- it’s close to the main road and the pavilion and they didn’t hear a thing, though they are almost 80. Cabin is $268/night.||The grounds are good, loads of goose droppings and mosquitoes. Sucks that the restaurant ‘the mining table’ is closed Monday-Wednesday and only open 4-9 Thur-Sunday. The pool is cold, the playgrounds are ok. The resort activities seem best aimed at the 4-10 year old range. The KOA is not responsible for the river despite their signage and the currant in the middle can be tricky. There were a lot of tent campers and RVs when we got there- very full. Which means noisy at night. We did not have garbage issues on the grounds or safety issues, and the 13 y/o...

We stayed as a family in the three new Deluxe Mountainside Cabins, which are more like tiny homes than traditional park models. Some camp maps say there are more in another section, but they made those into glamping pods so these are all that are currently on site. They are tiny houses with one bedroom, a hall with two bunks and a bathroom that's closed off from the other two sections, and a living room/kitchen with a pull-out futon. TV's in the LR and BR. Beautiful rain shower, though pressure was low. Blinds in all the low windows, and then high windows to let in light (that you cannot cover). Air conditioning units in LR and BR. Two-burner stove top and microwave, half-size fridge and dishwasher. No oven but there is a propane grill and a fire ring, picnic table and two-seater swing. No dining room table in cabin but there is a granite side counter with three stools. table is on small porch (with overhang). Two of the cabins have side-by-side outdoor areas (351, 352), the other (350) is more private. The ground is covered in sharp gravel, and there's been significant rain run-off near 352 especially that's undermining the walkway and creating little cliffs; the hill is taped off to keep people from walking down there and making problem worse. The whole area is wooded and isolated, with a view of the crest of another nearby mountain, along with it's wind turbines. I thought it was beautiful and the set-up was great. ||The main--and significant--problem is that this half of the campground is unfinished. There are nice, sunny landscaped pull-through RV sites that are stacked close to each other like a parking lot. There were so few campers they spaced themselves out , because almost every amenity the campground has to offer is at least a half mile away, on the other side of a major roadway, so you have to drive to get there, and there's limited parking. There is one stairway you could use to walk there, but it's unmarked and overgrown so hard to find unless you come up from the bottom first (that stairway is very visible, from the mining parking lot). The only things to do on this side are fish (there are two nice little ponds, no one caught anything though, they say they're empty) and a tiny playground (basically a sandbox). ||At the bottom of the hill near the sluicing comtraption is a snack bar open for lunch, we ate there, it was good. In the same parking lot is the Miner's Table, which gets very mixed reviews. They're deserved, but I'll put that in separate review. Across the road is the real playground, the pool, gaga ball, a big pavilion for bingo and crafts, volleyball court, the beer and ice cream garden, and a second sluicing machine if you buy a bag from the store. Also, the tubing, which again is a mixed bag. It's free, it's generally fun, and a lot of people spend all day at it (including those who watch from the banks or sit in the water in the shallower sections, having a party). It goes the length of the campground, a 10-20 minute ride depending on current. But there is no easy way to exit at the end, it's hard to get a footing on the slippery rocks, and if you miss the rocky exit, then you have to get yourself to the side downriver and walk back against the current, with you tube. Not fun. Last year we had a fairly terrifying time trying to get to the exit section from the middle of the river and needed some rescue. This year we rescued a few kids in similar situation (adults can just flip out and crawl, it's not that deep). To avoid trouble, STAY TO THE RIGHT, even though you'll bump over some rocks and it's not very fast. Also, wear water shoes with grip. And tie your tubes together if you have kids so you don't have to hold onto them, when you get out it's really difficult to pull in the right direction and hold on to each. ||There are sections of the tubing run, this year, that are so low that kids can just go out in a life jacket and splash around. Last year, in August, there weren't. You have to be mindful that they release water upriver after heavy rains, which can flood the whole area fast. But either way, the "beachy" rocky riverside spots are hard to get to unless you have those sites (on riverbank, deluxe cabins and then RV sites leading up to exit) because otherwise you're cutting through their site. ||For the mountaintop sites to work, they need a well-maintained forest walk, a nicer pool and playground, and a food spot, ideally a coffee camper serving breakfast (because this can be found no where else in the campground). Until then, for the convenience and the fun, I'd stay riverside unless these particular cabins really...