Armitage Park Campground — Hotel in Eugene

I've now stayed at Armitage Lane County campground on 4 occasions in the last year, so I feel qualified to right a review. First, the good. This is a well-kept facility, close to I5 and convenient to Eugene. This was my primary consideration for staying here as I was attending events my high-school kids were involved in. The campsites are nice, the restroom and shower facilities are clean and seem newish, there is also a laundry room. There is Wi-Fi, but the bandwidth seems low and the signal is weak in many parts of the park.||||Now for the less than good. There is something a bit sketchy/borderline creepy about this place. My first reason for this feeling comes from the camp host. This person has been the host all four times I have stayed here in the past year. This guy, sad to say, has a real attitude problem! He should not be in a customer service position since having to interact with people seems difficult for him. The first time, I put this down to him having a bad day, but I've seen this grumpy, unfriendly, borderline hostile attitude on every subsequent visit! He acts like it is a real inconvenience when you stop by his office to register or ask for the restroom door code, or... ask any question whatsoever. This is unacceptable, unfriendly and completely unwelcoming.||||Other factors that contributed to the vibe I get from this place are, when taken alone, not a big deal. Taken together, they've shaped my attitude about this place. The campground exists in close proximity to a large metropolitan area. It also has a day-use area, picnic tables and dog park. I've seen homeless-looking folks hanging out and also seen some fairly decrepit-looking vehicles parked in the campground and in the day-use areas as well. This past Friday January 12th, as I waited in the day use area, a woman approached me, mumbling to herself, and asked for a ride to "the mission". Friday night, in my campsite, sometime after 9 p.m. I heard someone knocking on my camper. This was disconcerting at night in a darkened camp. The individual claimed he'd found a wallet in the restroom the night before and was looking for the owner. This just seemed off to me, although given the attitude of the camp host, perhaps this guy thought it best to try finding the owner on his own, late at night, by creeping around darkened campsites! ||||Saturday night, around 8:15 p.m., I heard several dozen gunshots, not in camp, but close enough to recognize the sound as gunfire. Now granted, the surrounding area is rural, but target practice after dark also seems a bit off.||||On my prior visit, in late October or Early November, I had made a reservation for Armitage campground for a Friday night. I was unable to arrive until late that evening, probably around 10 p.m. As I slowly drove around the camp loop, looking for my site, I was dismayed to find it occupied. The campground was full, so I went and sought out the camp host. The office was closed, but the light was on in his trailer. He came out and eventually assisted me, but he did make me repeat my story a couple times, checked the reservation list in his office and asked me to provide ID. His attitude let me know this was an unwelcome intrusion. As an isolated incident, this wasn't handled badly, but it just seemed like another factor that has helped form my overall attitude...

This review is strictly as a tent camper for one night in September. There are two distinct tenting areas (1-4 and 8-10); my impression is that sites 8-10 are the quieter ones, away from the water. Our site #10 was level, and showed evidence that it had been freshly raked. The bathroom is nearby, but not too close. Since it’s mainly an RV park, the bathroom wasn’t heavily used. There is a fire-pit but we didn’t use it. There was blackberry bush nearby with fresh blackberries as a bonus. One issue is that parking for these sites was not as close as we'd prefer.

The overall park is clean and maintained, and the RV owners we saw walking their dogs were courteous and picked up after them. As others have mentioned, you do hear the I-5 highway noise, but it’s ok. We seemed to be on a flight path (possibly for fire purposes) and at least three times in the night helicopters flew over the site. And in the morning, lights from cars going off to work were visible. (A possible drawback to being in a tent spot closer to the road.)

Two major gripes — there is no water for tenters. All the RV spots have hookups with water, electricity, etc, but there’s no central water available for tenters. (There looks to be one near the north tent sites, but that area looked really dirty.) I used an unoccupied RV site for our water needs. Second gripe is that the mens bathroom doesn’t have a door to the only stall. (The women’s bathroom does.) So no privacy at all.

Two stars off for lack of water and no bathroom privacy. There weren’t too many other options for us that were closer to where we...

Just recently bought a Lane Co parks pass to give us (my dog & I) more options for walking & exploring. Park appeared clean, not strewn trash around or abandoned poop bags, like you’d see along the Ruth Bascom river path. I also liked that you could access going down to the river’s edge (rock hounds probably could find agates). I didn’t give it 5 stars due to:

1. I was looking ahead when we 1st got on the descending paved path along the river & it had a moderately lg spot where the path had sunk/dropped off. I fell to the ground pretty hard. Rather dangerous (+ a liability) & neglectful to not have that repaired. The rest of the path’s paved areas were fine.
2. Not as much area to explore as I’d thought it would be so it was a much abbreviated walk than our normal (~20 min vs 60+ min).
3. Then walked east to try to find more pathway - it was REALLY loud with I-5 traffic. Not a place I’d frequent to exercise my dog due to I-5 noise and minimal exploring options.. The park IS fairly accessible, tho, if you’re looking for a nearby place to camp, picnic, have a group gathering. Adequate shelters with tables, bathrooms (although I hadn’t seen their condition), picnic tables out in the open fields, a horse shoe pit, volleyball net, lotsa parking, trash bins/dumpsters. But honestly, the interstate traffic noise would deter me to go somewhere that did not have that traffic noise. A plus is since it’s not free, it’s not a place you’d come upon shady characters hanging out or camping in the bushes & their trash all over,...