Smith's Trout Haven — Hotel in Soda Springs

Customer Beware* We recently planned a getaway and reserved 4 spaces right next to one another for a family get together. We all arrived at different times. ONLY giving one star because of the amazing young man and woman that checked us in.|First, all dogs must be on a leash!! We get to our spot about dusk. We run and stake our dogs down so we can set up the camper. LITERALLY, as we got set up and were taking our dogs into our camper, the camp host came over and told us all dogs must be on a leash and she had been watching and our dogs were not on a leash. She did have her husky with her on a leash (about the time my dog runs out the camper door because my husband opened it to see what was going on). First our dogs were staked on 30 feet of line. They were running around but on a leash!!! Bad taste right out the gate. Next morning our party is making breakfast between the 4 sites we have. No one behind us or to the side of us or in front of us. From across the park, we see the camp host's husky literally in the pond without a leash, then came over to our camp begging for food, and aggressive towards our dogs who were on leashes. We were afraid they were not going to be able to protect themselves with how aggressive this husky was being towards are leashed dogs. We hurriedly put them back in the campers. That evening as we had a lot of family meet us in Lava for the weekend, they came over to have dinner with us, probably 40 of us. Literally during dinner, the camp host began texting us that we had dogs again running around our camp and they needed "checked in". All dogs were on leashes! However, one person in our group did not know if they were bringing their dog and did not add them to their reservation. While it's obvious she was watching our family eat and enjoy one another she kept texting to take care of the extra dog we had during our family dinner. Mind you we paid well over $600 for these 4 spots for a couple days. One would hope to have a little respect, and privacy and would have absolutely paid the extra dog fee when we were done eating dinner with family that traveled several hours to all be together.|10pm is quiet ours. By this time there were probably about 10 of us around a campfire, roasting marshmallows Half probably under the age of 10. Not being loud. Yes, talking in regular voices to one another but in no way being loud. Creepily she sneaks into our camp, stands right behind one of our chairs and reminds us its quiet hours. The younger kids didn't understand why they couldn't finish roasting their mellows and tell stories with their family around the fire. Very sad.|Fast forward to the next morning. Again, the husky is running around without a leash, a bit later the camp host literally stared at us with her dog while we cleaned camp to get out of there as soon as possible. We understand rules we have all been camping for years. We always respect our neighbors and leave camp cleaner then when we got there. For what one pays to stay here, do yourself a favor and book somewhere else if you want privacy and to be able to actually enjoy yourself. Leave your animals at home as the husky that belongs to the camp host is not always on a leash and is aggressive. Especially to smaller breeds.|The camp host is creepily too involved with what the campers are doing and inserts herself into spots you have paid for. She does not stay on the roadway, or even approach your camp from the roadway, she walks straight through to your camp. We frequent Lava, and have family meet us there often, hundreds of people at one time, sometimes. Us or any we know will never waste our...

We were all very happy with this campground. We had a few minor things we would have liked improved.

Let's start with the criticisms. Water is the number one thing we would have liked to see more of. The water is a bit far away. Basically none of the sites have access to water directly. We managed pretty well with a few trips to the water. My mistake was not bringing something large to carry it in so we had to make more trips than we would have wanted.

I think it could use a few more shade trees.

That's all I can think of. On to good stuff...

We had pavilion 7 during weekdays. That left us with pretty close to half of the entire campsite all to ourselves. The kids in our group had a lot of room to run around. They brought us a teeter totter. We had a swing set nearby.

We basically had a lot of room. We had room for our tents and RV, room for a lot more than we had. We setup some lawn games. It was great.

We also really liked the lawn. It meant a lot less dust and mess to deal with. Especially with kids.

Location is just about perfect. The campground sits just about 1 mile from the middle of Lava Hot Springs. It means you can be away from the busy area but close enough, really, to walk there if you wanted. Because we were mid-week we didn't bother as parking was available.

The owners are very friendly. They stopped me one day on our way back from town just to see if I liked the spot they gave us and to see if we needed anything.

They also run a small store. They sell ice for a very reasonable $2 a bag. Ice cream novelties for $1 each. So, basically, in a town where things might be price hiked they are just being reasonable.

We did a little fishing. It costs you by the inch. But, they put larger size fish in the pond. We caught a few 10 inch fish. But we saw some that were easily 16-18 inches. It was very exciting.

Finally, the price. We rented a pavilion, paid for 2 family sized tents and had 1 RV with power. We ended up paying about half of what any of the places closer to town would have cost us.

I fully recommend Smith's Trout Haven. I will be staying...

We stayed here a couple of nights with family, all in tents (not RVs like most campers here).

Pros: -super close to Lava Hot Springs. Like 5 minute drive. -lots of space for big groups -swings and teeter totters for kids. Nothing fancy. Imagine the swing set that's been sitting in your grandma's backyard for the past thirty years and you've got the idea. But the kids had a blast! -big areas for playing things like soccer or football -fire ring with grill and picnic table at all (most?) sites. -porta potties were quite clean and well maintained. And plentiful! Our tent site had four in close walking distance. -we didn't even go over by the pond, but if you're into fishing it could be fun. -the store sells ice for $2 and wood for $6.

Cons: -no bathrooms. Just the porta potties. -no sinks -only potable water comes from two spigots near entrance. Bring a bucket or something to carry water for washing/teeth brushing. And it is cold. Good for drinking, not so fun for face washing. But no weird taste! -you are literally camping in a field with hundreds of other people in tents and RVs. There are less than ten decent shade trees so don't count on shade. -no privacy. Nothing to block light/noise from neighbors. No firm boundaries between where one site ends and another begins. -we stayed over a weekend, end of June. It was packed. And loud. Our next site neighbor blasted their music literally all day for two days. Quiet hours allegedly start at 10, but you can still hear people for another hour or so. Someone did come by and ask kids to be quiet and RVs to turn off generators, which we appreciated. But if you are hoping for a quiet experience in nature, look elsewhere. This felt more like an all day tailgate party. -you pay per car. One (but only one) is free. Any others are $10 per night. We thought since we paid for two tents (12 people) that we would get two cars in free. Nope. Seems like it would be a good idea to make one car free per tent since you have to pay per tent already.

Overall, seems like a great place for RV camping. Not quite as awesome if...