Thousand Trails Bear Cave — Hotel in Buchanan Township

My experience at this camp site was horrible. I was with a group of about 15 people including kids and 3 dogs. We checked in on Friday evening about 6pm. The lady at the front gate was rude from the greeting. She was very monotone and stern in her explanation...and short with answers. She then rode around to our site as we were setting up and made it clear that "they took crap very seriously around here", so please clean up behind your dogs and yourselves. Let me be clear, she clearly noticed the Rottweiler, Pit Bull, and Shitzu all leashed to trees and stakes. She then pointed out where we could find the showers and toilets and departed. Later that night, after the adults in our group had a few cold ones and a little music, she came back, but this time she was militant. She began to yell, "do you people understand that I do not appreciate being woken up when I have to be up at 6am? Do you understand, do you understand, do you understand, do you understand....?" A couple other friends in the group responded "yes" and she continued on to ask "do you understand" so I replied, yes maam you are understood and good night. She then left. Well, the next day we all had breakfast, cleaned up camp and left for the Michigan Dunes around 10am. We left a friend behind with the dogs because he chose to go fishing. When we returned around 5:45pm, we were greeted by 5 squad cars and officers at our site complaining about a fight amongst us all? What, we were gone all day and only left one guy here with the dogs? Then the response was, "well management is not comfortable with the Pit Bull. Really, 24 hours later? They knew we had the dogs when we got here and never explained that their policy (which does not state anything about types of dogs) did not allow Pit Bulls. The dogs all had crates and were on leashes for entire 24 our period. Not only we asked to leave at dawn after a long day in the sun with kids, we were lied upon by the staff at Bear Cave Resort. Was it the dog, or the diverse group of adults and children who were simply out trying to enjoy a weekend of camping? Requests for refunds were abruptly denied and the lady in charge actually asked us to leave and she did not want to discuss any type of refunds again or she'd call the police back? We packed, we booked another site, and carried on. This place is a total disgrace when it comes to customer service. If you have pets and children that you love, this is not the place for you. Oh and finally, the pool was closed or broken... some...

The only reason I am giving Bear Cave 1 star instead of 0 is because 2 of the staff members (out of 4 that we saw) were friendly during our stay. Out of the 2 weeks we stayed, the bathrooms were only cleaned ONCE! After staying 4 days, I complained about the bathrooms not being cleaned and a worker did go over and clean them. After that, they had never been cleaned again. Not to mention a sign in both bathrooms were posted by the EPA warning campers that the water was not safe for human consumption (8/5/2015) due to unacceptable levels of bacteria found in the well. The showers were cleared for showering, but nothing else.

Additionally, the game room was filthy and had never been cleaned, the games were broken and a metal strip from a sit-down arcade game was laying on the floor where the children walk around in. The hot tub area had a weather worn tarp laying across it and was never in service and the dumpsters were overflowing with trash just like the bathroom trash cans. The pool was filthy and I cleaned it myself with the pool net, of which another camper thanked me for doing. Also the floating docks were dilapidated and totally unsafe to even be on if docking or going out onto the river. And don't even waste your money or time going into the actual Bear "Cave" if you want to call it that! The price isn't too steep at $3 a person, but it's just a covered up hole in the side of a hill with exposed wiring with dripping water all around and the cave takes about a minute to walk through.

And forget asking the front desk woman for any help as she is absolutely disinterested in helping you or answering your questions and is too busy watching Saved by the Bell on her I Phone every time you go into the store (which is also the entrance to the "cave". Now the history of the cave is interesting, but to save you money and a trip to the doctor (because of unsanitary bathroom, game room and water conditions), just Google the history of Bear Cave and go...

Love this campground! The staff takes real good care of it, even short staffed as they are. The camp hosts are so friendly and helpful. When we got there it was late in the afternoon and they didn’t have a site to accommodate our rig, so we boondocked in the storage lot for the night. The next morning we moved into a vacated site. Cell data (Verizon & Sprint) is almost non-existent, so if you want WiFi you need to subscribe to the campground WiFi service. It’s mostly good, but would disconnect every time the electricity went out on the older part of the campground, which it did a few times. We telework, so an internet connection is essential. When the WiFi was down we went to Panera in St. Joseph. In case of severe weather, the bathhouse and lodge are storm shelters…a tornado watch at 1:30 AM made us head to the bathhouse. Rain created potholes on the gravel Bear Cave road where it meets Red Bud Trail, they were very deep and numerous when we left. The water from the faucet is a bit soft. The cave is small and doesn’t take more than 10 minutes to walk straight through. Bring a flashlight, the cave is lighted, but a flashlight will help you see more. From a bird’s eye view, the cave is shaped like a “6” and there’s only one place where you’ll have to bend over to walk through…or you can turn around and go back the way you came. Three short flights of steps going down and one short flight halfway through. There are some signs to point out features, but nothing to really describe what you’re looking at. There’s a bench at the river where you can sit and relax or sit on the back deck of the lodge. It’s a very...