Cove Resort — Hotel in Leavenworth

My friends and I have visited Fish Lake 5 of the last 6 years for camping and fishing trips over Memorial Day Weekend. This was the first year that we have visited the Cove Resort. ||The cove offers camping sites and trailer parking as far as I know. I've never utilized it as there is free camping directly across the lake if you can find a spot. These spots are gorgeous for tent camping, free, and there are even locations big enough for a trailer if you can make it. There is even a hardstand toilet serviced by the Forest Service. The lake is truly beautiful, with snow capped peaks at sunrise and bald eagles circling the water. ||This year is the first year that we have not been able to bring a boat, so we used the Cove for their rental services. We were told the shop opens at 530 but we were able to get in at 515. It's a nice little collection of everything you could possibly need, both on and off the water. From poles to tackle, you can get it all, and it seemed fairly well priced. I'm not certain if you can get licenses as well, but that would round out the entire package. ||Boat rental was as easy as handing over my license ($16/hr). No long questionnaire, no deposits, no inspections. I was so taken back by this that I was standing there at the counter after receiving my life vests until the attendant said "was there something else you needed?". The boats are in great condition, started easily, and were very comfortable for the four of us (two adults and two boys). There are pontoon boats offered as well ($25/hr) and rowboats that you can bring your own prop. ||For those with their own boats, there is a $5 launch fee. For those afraid of the open water and have their own gear, you can pay $5 and fish off the dock (this is quite popular). Get there early to get a good spot. The Cove has plenty of other amenities, most importantly, a small coffee stand. ||The only downside to my experience at the Cove (we rented for two mornings, total of 5 1/2 hours or so) was the service in the shop. It was slightly passive aggressive, and you could tell there were regulars that got preferential treatment. The gentleman behind the counter was very chatty with folks, which I would normally be fine with, except that I had arrived early to hit the water and catch the morning bite (515 am). Finally he got to me and I was able to get on my way. When I returned the boat, I waited again for a story to be over, and then he more or less bypassed me to serve a regular. Finally, my turn was up and returning the boat was every bit as easy as renting. ||All in all, if you're willing to put up with some inconsistencies in service from the shop, it seems like a clean, well organized place to spend your trip. ||The only other caveat I'll add is that the lake is a stocked lake and there are plenty of fish. The downside is that, as I learned this visit, the lake has been on a Seattle "Best Fishing Lake" list of some sort for the last six years. I believe it because the crowd has gone from 4-5 boats on my first trip, Memorial Day Weekend 2011 to 20+ this weekend. I don't like fishing in a crowd, or surrounded by rental boaters that don't quite understand some of the...

We just tried to spend the weekend here with our VW group that has been coming here every year for several years. We picked a nice spot facing the lake that was fairly private - most of the sites are all wide open. We prefer more private spots since we have an anti-social dog. This spot was close enough to the center where our group was gathering, yet also gave us the privacy we needed for the dog. It was perfect, or so we thought. A father and two young girls arrived 2 SITES down from us with their little yapper dog. We introduced ourselves and explained about our dog. Note: we go our of our way to add extra privacy, sides on the awning etc. and let our neighbors know about our dog. These people said they had a small dog and would keep it away.

On the edge of our site, but clearly in our site was a very large rock, taller than we are. On the other side of the rock, between our site and the next one was a line of shrubs. This family set up camp in the site beyond this one. Shortly after they arrived the girls proceeded to start playing, climbing and hanging out on the rock despite our repeated requests to ask them to leave. By Saturday morning the father declares that the rock is public space and his kids can climb and play and scream and do whatever they want on it. Not only that, they proceed to bring their yapper dog. By this time both of us and our dog are going nuts. Not only was it the 2 girls, but they managed to bring along 5 other kids. There were now 7 kids playing and making all kinds of noise and staring at us, in our site. Yes, there is a playground down the road, way down the road.

When we complained to the management we were told that yes, they can play on this rock, clearly in OUR SITE. At that point I packed up and took the dog home (94 miles round trip) Went back to visit with one friend who had just arrived and to help my husband break up camp to come home.

I went down to the office to see about giving our friend our 2nd nite but in a different spot since we were paid for 2 nites but not staying the 2nd nite and a different person in the office wanted to know why we weren't staying. I proceeded to explain. He stated he would go talk to the offenders. I told him it was too late, since we had already been told by someone else that it was fine for them to invade our privacy and we were packed up and heading home.

We do not recommend this place, management doesn't seem to care about the visitors, nor do they appear to have a set policy. The porta potties are filthy, most of the sites are wide open to each other and bare dirt. We will not...

The Cove is an excellent kid friendly camping ground.

Lots of pros: -the owners, Scott and the woman, are amazingly kind and helpful. You can tell they put a lot of love and work into the place overall. -a playground area that was filled with kids playing the entire time (even past dark!). It seemed like a nice safe area. Just a fyi tho be careful as the playground has rocks instead of wood chips. My daughter fell of the swing backwards and ended up getting some cuts on her face from the rocks. Also, the day before we got there we heard of a boy who fell off the slide and hurt himself falling into the rocks and had to get stitches at the doctors. Honestly tho, it’s a nice little playground. Just pay attention to your little ones when you can. -the shop has all the little things you could think of needing! From drinks to worms to fishing poles to hot coffee to merchandise for The Cove. It’s great! -lots of camp sites. Vary from smaller size to very large. Depends on your needs! Some have power and water for RVs and Trailers. Seemed like most if not all had close water spigots and camp fire pits. -there are trails you can ride or walk through into the woods. -great fishing even off the dock. In one day we caught about 6/7 trout and some perch between our group of adults and some kids. -they offer party boats and smaller boats for renting on the water! -most people were friendly! It’s nice to walk around and just talk to people. -they have some bathroom locations that even include a shower. You pay quarters to use the water. One dollar gets you about 4/5 minutes of hot water. There are also portable bathrooms placed everywhere between campsites.

Only a few “cons” -no one really obeys quiet time here which is from 10pm to I believe 6am. There were people getting rowdy, screaming and yelling even past midnight. Kids at the playground even past dark (where they could barely see) were still running around yelling. I get it tho, we went on Father’s Day and people are having fun. It’s just a heads up. -it was SO windy the entire weekend we went! This isn’t something they can control but by god, it was almost unbearable. The water was so windy, most of the time boats couldn’t be let out. So plan for all kinds of weather especially being close to the water.

We enjoyed our stay here! Would definitely recommend especially if...