United Campgrounds of Durango. — Hotel in Four Corners States

I've stayed here twice, for a total of roughly 25 days.

This is a well kept park. The facilities are clean, the sites are clean, and everything overall has a tidy appearance. That much is indisputable.

This review gets progressively saltier.

While some sites are level, some aren't, but not egregiously so.

Management regularly place guests in the smallest possible site for their rig. My first stay was May 1st, 2023, opening day, and I stayed for one week. During that stay, I estimate United averaged 1/4 capacity, and I can't imagine having been placed in a smaller site.

The pool is nice and warm.

There's a decent amount of road noise overall.

The WiFi is not to be relied on for even the most basic usage.

There's at least one member of staff here who is very pleasant. I have a feeling she's an owner, because she's very kind to guests, speaks to them like adults, is knowledgeable, and knows how to get things done efficiently around the office. She is everything I enjoy in a staff member/owner. As for the rest of the customer-facing staff (not grounds people, they seem to work really hard and do a great job), I offer you one generalization and two anecdotes.

Generalization: They're unfriendly to the point of seeming mean.

Anecdote #1: As I said, I was probably guest #1 here in May, 2023. I had just finished tuning some things up on my mountain bike, so I took it for a spin around the park. As I was riding, I came across two people who I assume are staff. I smiled and waved. Their acknowledgement to that smile and wave was "are you staying here?". I cannot overstate the "you don't belong here" energy with which that question was asked. I responded with "I am", and went on my day. Internally stewing at how odd an interaction it was.

Anecdote #2, late June, 2023: I ride my gravel and mountain bikes ~150 miles per week on average. They're not cheap, and bikes require a lot of maintenance when they're ridden so heavily. The cornerstone of that maintenance is cleanliness. A simple misting/spray/wipe down after every ride is absolutely essential to stave off thousands of dollars in premature maintenance over their life time. I had just finished a dusty 50 mile gravel ride and I'm giving my bike a quick spray and I start hearing someone yelling to get my attention: "SIR!". There's an irrigation stream running by my site, and I'm somewhat hard of hearing, so maybe they thought I was ignoring them. Benefit of the doubt. "YOU CAN'T DO THAT NO WASHING VEHICLES HERE!". I assumed they thought I was washing the back of my RV, where my bikes are. I said, "Oh, I'm just spraying off my bike". "YOU CAN'T DO THAT WASHING VEHICLES IS NOT ALLOWED!". Now I get that bicycles technically are vehicles, but when you read the park rules and see "Please don't wash your RVs or vehicles", I think it's reasonable to assume they're talking about automobiles and not bikes, which require all of one or two gallons to spray down. I can only imagine that I take 15 gallon showers on a cool day. Anyway, this is already far too long and I apologize. So I went to the office to verify that this was indeed their policy, and it was! I explained that I can't stay here again if I can't maintain my equipment during my stay. (Fun fact, there are car washes in town, but no bike washes that I'm aware of). The employee didn't have much to say about that and kind of gave a shrug and an explanation that the owners have to pay for water. Let me be clear -- the no RV/vehicle washing is a common and arguably reasonable policy. But I think this no bike washing policy is absolutely bananas. With that said, they're entitled to make up all the silly policies they like. What I'm bothered by is being yelled at, like a child, for doing something so inoffensive and lacking ill intent. And let's face it, I don't know a soul who colloquially refers to bikes as vehicles. But let's say I did know that bikes were included in United's no washing policy -- just be nice about informing guests of policies; it's not that hard. This person is everything I loathe in...

I grew up here. People need to remind themselves that this campground was opened in 1974, the bath house down by the tracks was added later around 1979. So yes as with all things they need attention. There are a lot of the older generation, (boomers and gen x) that stay there. My grandfather had a vision and Tim Holt has held the same vision and helped my grandfather's dream come to life. You need to know a little bit about the background of this campground before you can make an unprompto decision. I born here and this will always be my home. My mother was raised in the log cabin on the property and had to farm, ranch, ect... to make it through. My grand father and grandmother scrapped, saved, hunted and fished off this land that y'all are staying on just to feed us in the winter months. Yes it is seasonal and yes it could use updates but really People? You all that leave 1 star reviews are the type that think it's all about you and your kids. I rode my bike through the campground all day, I walked bare foot, rode horses and caught fish, crawdads out of the ditch, I had a pool that I had to share, made friends only for them to leave a week or 2 later. But I never treated anyone bad or disrespectful (as I was taught better). Think about the history before you bash someone's home away from home. Kids and families were raised there. I was instilled with morals,values, and respect. I was not coddled i was raised. I miss my home more then anyone knows, so please do not bash it. It truly hurts my heart even though I do not own it(I wish I did) . But any human can only do so much with what they have. So think hard before leaving bad reviews. I absolutely love this campground and wish I could go home again. We had very little back when we started this campground and everything we earned went back into it. You truly don't know. There were nights that all we had was the fish we caught or rice and beans or just vegetables out of the garden, everything else went into this campground. I know that I don't have the biggest fans in in a lot of the family but they were not there in the very early days, some promised to keep true to the family that my grandfather had and even told him that it would be as he wanted, then they tossed us out. Please still respect the owners and their love for this land and campers. I still love my family there very much. Thank you all for the great reviews and this is mainly aimed at...

For what we look for in an RV campground, this one rates 5 stars. Others would likely rate it lower. For tent campers, this place would be glorious. The tent area is spacious, grassy, LEVEL, shaded, and quiet. We stayed in 30A back-in RV sites 10 days in Sept/October, 2023 and 24 days in June/July 2023. Both sites were located just below the irrigation ditch behind the office. The campground sits below the bluff, which cuts a lot of the US-160 noise. Sites are close together, but the big cottonwood trees help a bit with privacy and offer some great shade. Pull through sites offer less privacy and to my mind aren't as attractive as the back-in sites. Sites require a bit of leveling work, but we have seen far worse.

Where this campground really shines is in management and maintenance. The grounds are well managed and very well maintained. Utilities are excellent. The LAUNDRY IS ABOUT THE BEST ANYWHERE, BAR NONE. There are a lot of washers and dryers plus a big table for folding clothes. The machines take quarters. There is a change machine that always works and a detergent vending machine that is always stocked. The restrooms and showers are always clean and very well maintained. The driveways are all pea gravel but are watered regularly to keep dust down. There is zero dust problem despite the gravel roadways.

The location is great. It's just a few minutes to downtown via car, and there is an increasingly good selection of restaurants and coffee houses close-by on north Main Ave. The Durango trolley stops 3x per hour right at the top of the driveway. It is a 10-minute trolley ride to downtown. It's a 25-minute bike to downtown from the campground via bike path. The bike path that runs all the way through town and south to Walmart and Home Depot starts at Oxbow Park, 3/4-mile away on Animas View Drive. There is also a kayak put-in on the river at Oxbow park.

Verizon service is poor. 0-2 bars of 4G. Verizon broadband with a booster antenna was 4.5 mbps download and 1.5 mbps upload with 45 ms latency. Starlink internet was serviceable after some searching for the best sky access under the tree canopy. I also tested ATT broadband boosted and got 250ms latency/12.5 download/4.5 upload...