Mardon Resort — Hotel in Moses Lake

We reserved an RV space next to friends for a week. Our space was over of the better locations with an elevated view of the reservoir. ||This is a family friendly resort in a semi-arid desert location on the bank of a reservoir in the middle of an agricultural area. There are kids and dogs so if you don't have a high tolerance level for either, this is not the place for you. Both were fairly well behaved in my opinion considering the relaxed environment with swimming, fishing, boating, a restaurant, mini golf, paddle boarding, kayaking, a little store and the ice cream was popular on a hot day. A few miles down the road is a gas station/grocery store/deli and an 18 hole golf course. About 25 min drive to Othello or Moses Lake. Not much else nearby but we did go see the basalt pillars and Drumheller lookout on the wildlife conservation area.||The resort has been expanded along the shoreline which basically creates a really long narrow resort along the shoreline with the bulk of the action (store, restaurant, marina, swimming area) at one end of the resort and the variety of rentals (cottages, RV sites, cabins, tents, etc) extending from there. I saw 3 public bathroom facilities. The first is close to the office and shares space with the laundry facility and has bathrooms with 2 showers for men and women. This was by far the cleanest and most comfortable of the 3. The second one is centrally located and closest to the swim area. Each of the 4 rooms contained a toilet, sink, and shower. I think if they had been configured differently, it would be easier to keep them cleaner but they get the swimmers tracking in water and sand and then when using for showers, one has to track across the dirty floor to get to the dry towel and dressing bench - bring shower shoes and something extra to stand on when getting dressed. The 3rd one was at the location farthest from the office and did not have showers - probably because it was expected the RVs researching those spaces would already have built in showers. These were kept clean but hot on a summer day.||Because it is on a lake, one may find that on hotter days there is more algae near the shore of the swimming area but we found it would also recede as the weather cooled. This is not something within the control of the resort and if you need chlorinated pools this is not for you. It is just a part of swimming in a natural body of water and one just needs to wade out a little farther to get to clearer water. On a hot day, the water still feels great!||We were here the first week of August and it was around 95° for most of our stay. It would cool down in the evenings with an occasional mild breeze.||Overall, we really enjoyed our stay. I think it just helps to understand where you are staying. This is a little beach resort where families go to hang out and relax and not a 5 star all inclusive resort...

Not a good option if you’re used to tent camping at state parks or backwoods. This is a place for families to get drunk and play music until 1am, for kids to run through your campsite with flashlights all night, and all the sites are right next to each other with little to no privacy. The quiet hours are apparently a huge joke.

I made a reservation for two nights. Arrived after dark on the first night and despite a map of the resort, could not find my site. I went back to the office and they couldn’t stop laughing about how bad my initial directions were (from an employee). They gave me new directions and I found my site...or so I thought. At 9:30, I had started a fire, set up my tent and bed, and was eating dinner. A maintenance guy called and was wondering why I wasn’t at my site...turns out I WAS at the wrong site but they’re not all marked so I didn’t realize it. There was about 30 min of back and forth with the office about whether I could stay in my site and they kept saying they “weren’t sure” so I finally decided I’d rather just move and get on with my night.

My actual site was horrible. Groups were playing music loudly until after 1am, kids playing and yelling until at least 11 including running through my site with flashlights, and then woken up by another group loudly getting ready to go fishing at 5am. I got up with them, packed up and went for a hike.

I called around 10 and told them I needed to move sites because of how loud it was the night before. They said no problem and assigned a new site. But when I arrived at 11am, there was a family already set up. They too had arrived the night before the in dark, couldn’t find their site, and an employee had actually escorted them to the wrong site. They refused to move and after another hour of waiting, back and forth, and being yelled at by this other camper...I had enough.

They gave me a refund and I went and...

I am retired, and love to fish. Although I do not own an rv, I booked an rv site so I could supposedly charge batteries, and beach my fishing boat near me while truck camping. I didn't mind that #172 turned out to be a dry, dusty, and grassless spot. When I came back in the afternoon after a great first day of fishing in the hot sun, I find a rainbird hooked up to my water outlet to water a tent campsite next to mine. I didn't think much of the overshooting water that was gently lapping the side of my pickup at the time. At this point I was grateful for the extended water that was keeping the dust down in what felt like 100 degree weather. I admittedly even moved it around later that evening to keep the road dust down from all the golf cart and rv traffic. The next day, I had hard water scaling so bad on the that side of my pickup that no amount of elbow grease could get it off my driver side windows, chrome and paint. The side where maintenance set up the rainbird. I talked to management about it twice, and have yet to hear back. The staff tried to put the blame squarely on me at every turn, so, in turn, I will spend my money elsewhere. There are other places a person can camp at Potholes Reservoir. I would suggest the state park. In regard to social distancing and mask wearing, the staff is trying, but few people are following safe guidelines in the common areas like bathrooms and boat...