Aspen Campground — Hotel in Payson

The environment is wonderful, the location convenience of wood canyon lake being walking distance was great! Had a great time kayaking and fishing with my daughter and family! However apparently "Walt" whom works for Aspen Campgrounds, along with the management whom I spoke with, have no consideration for the handicapped! As my family and myself returned from Woods Canyon Lake we were discriminatined against and rudely harrased by "Walt," one of the campgrounds crew members. As my family backed into our designated camp site for the weekend, after adventuring for the day, the nose of my truck was sticking in the roadway about two feet... My apologies "three feet!" To quote "Walt," as he snapped at me. Mind you there was still plenty of room for any vehicle and or truck with a trailer to pass. At any rate, I stuck out in the roadway about 3 feet, as we unloaded a handicapped gentleman in a wheelchair to our campsite, seeing as its not handicapped accessible we were limited to unloading room for the chair this is why my nose stuck out the 3 feet. Also keep in mind, it takes less than 5 minutes to unload and finish backing in. As we began to unload this gentleman "Walt," approaches and began to state, "you can't block the roadway." My engine was still running and in reverse with the brake applied as the gentleman was being unloaded. I had every intention of backing up all the way. After explaining that "Walt" insists, " At NO TIME at all are you ever allowed to block the roadway and stick out." Whereupon I state again I understand and momentarily I'll be fully backed in. Whereupon "Walt" begins to get aggressive and state, "Do I need to call a sheriff and have you escorted out?" I'm appalled by this statement seeing as we are unloading a handicapped gentleman. I then say, " by the time you go out of your way to do that I'll be backed in already?" Whereupon "Walt" replies, "I'll take a picture and have you kicked out!" At this point I'm beyond blown away and a little upset and frustrated. I would understand if I was blocking the entire roadway obstructing traffic for 5-10 mins but this whole process takes 2 maybe 3 minutes the conversation was about a minute with "Walt," halfway through being finished with unloading said gentleman! At that point I say "Ok I'll circle around the campsite and back in considering they are basically done." As I drive away I say to my mother, "What an a sshole no consideration for the handicapped!" I pull around and back in. 2 mins later "Walt" approaches our campsite in an intimidating manner stating "I ought to have you kicked out of here for your language towards me!" I then say, "I appologise for anything you may have heard and taken offense to, have a good day though sir. I've obeyed what you asked and it won't happen again I'd appreciate if you allowed my family and myself to enjoy our weekend now." Whereupon "Walt" just gets more intimidating raising his voice and stating again how he's gonna call the sheriff and have me escorted off the campgrounds!" Whereupon I apologise again and turn to walk away from him to tend to my daughter. "Walt" continues to be intimidating following me to my campsite and antagonizing the situation trying to get a rise out of me. At that point I felt as if I was being harassed and asked for his name. He refused to tell me. I had to wait for a manager and sheriff to arrive in order to finally realise his name was "Walt". Management was terrible at handling said situation and seemed heartless and not caring over the mis treatment of a handicapped customer! They seemed to brush it off and asked if I was willing to just let it go and go about our day! The environment scenery and wildlife is always amazing in this area I've been camping in this area for over 15 years. However do to the mistreatment, discrimination and harassment all because I was unloading a handicapped gentleman, made this the single most memorable and worst experience ever! All thanks to the wonderful staff at Aspen Campgrounds! Absolutely appalled by the behaviour & way the situation...

Peaceful and clean campground near woods canyon lake. You can walk to the lake if you’re camping near the entry however, the campground is huge so if you’re deep in it, walking will take over 30-45 mins. We stayed at site 107 which backs to the rim so no neighbors behind which is nice but the outhouse is directly across the street which we smelled throughout the day depending on wind direction. I recommend a site away from the outhouses. We went monday thru wednesday so it was mostly empty. Later part of the week thru the weekend will be packed. I do not recommend. Sites are clean and all seem to have picnic tables, grill, and fire pits. It does get windy so place your cooking area away from the fire pit to avoid eating too much ashes. The squirrels do not give a damn about people so do not leave any food items out. Put it in containers, coolers, car, tent, etc. or they will get to it. Also, the giant crows will swarm your site when you leave. Not even sauces are safe in containers. They will bite thru things and relieve themselves all over your stuff. Put things away when you leave or sleep. There are clean drinking water spigots everywhere to fill your containers. Hosts are amazingly helpful. Ice is available for $4 per what looks to be about 7 lbs bags. The general store has all the convenience store items including ice for $3.50 per bag. People there are also amazingly helpful. Bundles of seasoned wood is sold for $8 per at the site. Showers are available about 10 miles east for something under $10 per person however, as of this review, there is road construction and it will take you an hour and a half round trip so my boys and i did the baby wipes shower instead after we got done from the lake. The lake itself is the best part. No motorized boats allowed. Only small electric motors. So all you will see are paddlers and small boaters fishing or just paddling. We took a blowup raft which we inflated in the parking lot. Again, this was monday thru wednesday. If you go thursday thru sunday, you will have a difficult time finding a spot to inflate anything near the ramp. You will have to park about 1/4 mile away and walk down. You will need fishing licenses to fish for anyone under 12 if i recall correctly. Use the laptops by the counter. Its a clunky and tedious process but hang in there. Store is open 8-5 daily. Go early, pick a spot by the lake (put some chairs at a spot), and get your licenses. There is plenty of trout and crawfish along the shore. Larger trout in deeper waters. If you need assistance, ask anyone. Many people are very helpful to one another. One more thing about the campsite, there is large jet air traffic throughout which you will hear. The crows are also very very loud very early in the morning. If you’re sensitive as i am, take earplugs. It will...

The area near Woods Canyon Lake has multiple campgrounds and is a very popular summer getaway because of the cooler weather, lake access, beautiful views, and hiking trails. Because of this, the campgrounds are usually full on the weekends and I highly suggest reservations on recreation.gov. Aspen in particular has 148 campsites of which only 27 are first come first served. The closer sites in Aspen are about half a mile walk from the boat dock and store while the farthest are around a mile walk. There is parking at the lake but it is always packed so plan to walk or use the overflow parking lot, which is about a quarter mile away. The roads and the driveways are paved which makes parking, driving, and walking through the campground very easy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that even with 148 sites most of them had a decent amount of space in between. We camped with friends and reserved two spaces hoping to have some space for the kids to play without disturbing the neighbors and we could have easily only reserved one. We found very little trash on the ground from the previous occupants and the sites seemed to have fairly level clearings for tents. Each site had a metal fire pit with a fold over adjustable grill grate. There was also a standalone BBQ and a picnic table. Most of the driveways were surrounded by large boulders so depending on the length of your RV or trailer you should pay attention to the length of the driveway when you make reservations as you may not have room to hang over the end or bring an extra vehicle. There were bathroom buildings and water faucets throughout the facility and there was hardly ever a line. The bathrooms have both a men’s and women’s side and were always stocked with toilet paper and relatively clean. Aspen has a weird design and there is only one single lane to exit the campground. This is also where the dumpsters are located so on our way out on Sunday morning there was a line of cars parked in the road blocking traffic while they threw out...