Cresap Bay Campground — Hotel in Battle Ground

We stayed last night at Cresap Bay, we watched the reservations on the website trying to catch an opening before my husband's knee surgery the first week if August. We finally got 1 night, on a Sunday with a full campground... except it was not actually full. A03, A04, 15, all sites around me are marked reserved but no one was there when we arrived @2pm yesterday and no one was there when we left at 3 pm today (we went out kayaking before we left the park, we have a season parking pass). There were at least 10-15 other sites that were unoccupied last night, I just did not get photos of them.

"Due to high volume of park use, campers not checked in and occupying site by 11 a.m. the morning after the reserved arrival date will be considered a “no show." The reservation will be canceled and all reservation fees forfeited."

If that is the rule then there should be a bunch of available spots open to reserve, but as of 4:15 pm there is only 1 ada spot available.

One of names on the reservation cards at A5 (my spot, didn't have my name on my reservation card), A4 and A3 are duplicates on all 3. My spot says "Stakhov" had my spot reserved for 7/30- 8/6 along with A4. We were at A5 and no one was at A4, so by the rules A4 & A5 reservation should be canceled and available to reserve. Along with A3, "Hess" was not in his campsite last night or today at 3pm.

I wish I had taken photos of all of the reserved sites that were empty last night and today. I brought it up to the campground host, and she got very defensive and said, "Oh no, we are always full with reservations." It is very obvious that certain people are reserving the sites to have access to the boat launch as this is a popular site and if they take the camping spots they don't have to get there early to be able to get in.

We go to Saddle Dam park a few times a week and until yesterday we haven't been able to get in at Cresap Bay because it always has the full sign up, even when we get there by 10-11am. It is really discouraging that there are families who want to go there for day use or to camp but it is always "full" and all the reservations are taken. The parking lot is full because the pretend campers are never using their camp spot to park, just filling the lot up so no one else can go enjoy it.

I'm am sure the park hosts see what is happening and don't mind because it just means less work cleaning up if half of the sites are never used to begin with.

Something needs to be done to stop this from happening. Having a group of people who don't care what it costs to monopolize the camping and day use of the lakes is ridiculous. Maybe just move to a first come first serve on campsites or at least a portion of them? Maybe block people from being able to reserve if they get caught doing this? It seems like there is no reason stopping them right now as their reservation is not being canceled and they are free to come use the park anytime they want because they are reserving a week at a time and multiple sites so they can have multiple vehicles/boats at the park.

I hope this helps get something changed so more people have the chance to camp and enjoy these...

We reserved 3 spots at the campsite one for us and 2 for parents/in-laws who are seniors. One of the spots was tent site. The lady at the front of the park checked them in. My parents had a small motor home and parked at the tent site. I have seen big trucks parked there and vans in the past and since they got checked in around 2pm there was no problem. The next morning at 7:30am we were woken up by a loud knock at my campsite despite the fact the quiet hours are from 10pm-8am. Camp host Sherry with her loud voice started screaming that we have a PROBLEM and that tent site cannot have a motor home there and needs to be moved immediately. She woke up all the kids in my trailer, along with all the other sites that was under my name. My in-laws were not happy either since they were woken up. Who does this? Only a rude/unprofessional person would do this. This camp host lady needs to be fired. She was very rude to barge in like that, as if there wildfire and we need to evacuate. I understand if there an emergency but this was no emergency. She told us to move the motor home to another site. She gave us an option to move it to one site for one night and will have to move again the next day if there was an opened spot but that site was not even available till after 11am. or to site 31 for 2 nights. Okay so what's the point of us being woken up at 730am? How rude to do this to senior who just want to relax and not be bothered. This tent site was at the end of the camp near the boat docks and really not in any bodies way. Apperantly it was in her way since after we moved a tree machine parked there to trim the trees. So maybe she could have explained that they needed that space and needed us moved over. Instead they made it seem like it was our fault for parking a motorhome at a tent site. My parents were all shaken up from being bothered at 7:30am and my mom was not feeling well after that. This camp host needs to be fired. That is not how to treat camp guest especially senior. In the description on our reservation it states " no changes to campsite will be allowed once camper is checked in". My parents choose to take site 31 and they ended up listening to the camp host because they didnt want anymore problems with her even though they were frustrated. She could have been nice about this situation and just tell them to move in gentle voice. She later realized that I was unhappy with her and she didnt even apologize for her actions. I hope campers here have a better camp experience then we did but do watch out for this Keren...

The campsites and lake are beautiful. A wonderful hiking trail offers a lot of enjoyment. However, rules are not at all enforced, and people’s lack of respect for other campers and boaters nearly ruined our trip.

Hosts are currently not enforcing masks, and almost no one is wearing them, not one host was wearing them during our interactions, and no one is wearing them in the bathrooms.

They are allowing the swim area to overflow with people who are parking across at Yale and walking in (meaning they are also not paying). Multiple days they’re where at least 100 people in the little swim area. No one was wearing masks or socially distancing. And yes, they were defiantly closer than six feet. We paid to camp and couldn’t use the swim area even one day because it was so crowded.

A group of teen male jet skiers were very unsafe and obnoxious, refusing to abide by any of the no wake zones, even pulling a skier into the dock at full speed while boats were launching. Neither the sherif or hosts did anything to stop them. They made entry into the dock dangerous for everyone, and multiple boaters ended up intervening and we were ignored.

These same families were up well past midnight with kids running a muck, screaming, and skateboarding around the campsite. This happened all four nights we were there and the camp hosts did not intervene even once. Again, other campers had to tell them to be quite and turn their lights off near 1 am. They also collected drift wood from the beaches to burn in their fires which is not allowed.

Just a lot of selfishness from the group. They should not be allowed to return, instead they were not even talked to or asked to abide by the rules by staff. Although I’ve camped here my whole life, I am unsure I’ll ever return...