Pemi River Campground — Hotel in Thornton

This rating is based on the staff at this camp ground. The camp ground itself is pretty nice...especially the sites on the river. However, this place should be advertised as an RV park instead of a camp ground. There are multiple "seasonal" campers. My husband, myself and a friend stayed on sites 35 and 36. We stayed on our own campsites and were enjoying ourselves until the people, who we have never met, who were camping next to us and across from us randomly came over to our campsites, stating they liked our music. Shortly after they came over to our campsite, someone from their group proceeded to set off a very loud fire work. My husband, myself and my friend did not know these people before coming to this camp ground...we did not know they even had fireworks. After the firework was set off a very aggressive man came over to our campsite and accused my husband of setting off the firework. My husband very politely stated that we did not set off the fire work. This guy, whoever he was, kept going around and accusing my husband of setting off the fire work and we kept telling him it was not us. Next thing we know a mob of people came at us aggressively telling us that we needed to leave. A man who identified himself as the owner started screaming in our faces telling us that we had to leave. Accusing people, who have been drinking, in an agressive manner of doing something they did not do does help an already tense situation. Things got heated and next thing we know the police show up and tell us we need to leave by 9am the next morning. No one listened to our side of the story and the people who did set off the firework should have come forward and confessed. Our camping trip was completely ruined by one person's actions, who by the way, was too much of a coward to come forward and take responsibility for their actions. We are very respectful people...we may play our music a little too loud sometimes but we turn it down when asked. This whole situation should have been handled more professionally by the camp ground staff. If they had approached us in a calm manner and on their own and not with a mob of people, the outcome could have been much more peaceful. But now we are all left with bitter negative energy surronding this RV park and its staff. Such a waste of energy...So, if you want to give your hard earned money to unprofessional and aggressive people, this is the RV...

My husband and I went tubing with our two adult children. (We did not stay at the campground.) Water was crystal clear and weather was perfect. In spite of the river being slow, we had a terrific day. As others have said, the woman at the front desk appears to be in a permanently sour mood but we didn't have a terrible experience with her either. Mostly it was frustrating that she didn't share any of these key pieces of information (either on the morning or on the day before when I called to ask what we should bring): (1) Bring water shoes; they have them for sale if you forget them (2) when the river splits around the small island, go left - otherwise you'll be walking on the rocks for quite a way (we watched two groups ahead of us and were able to switch to the left when we saw that group sail smoothly down while the other group picked their way through slippery rocks) (3) there is only one 'risky' fast-current spot; a fallen tree on the far right (roots facing upriver) where the current will suck you in to the root ball if you don't make a VERY CONCERTED EFFORT to move left before the current pulls you in; luckily water wasn't too deep and we could stand after being flipped out of the tubes but I was stuck under our pile of tubes briefly before my son pulled me up - a bit scary but easily avoidable if we had been prepared for it (which is on us for not taking the risks of the water seriously enough) (4) ask for paddles/oars if the river is slow; it would have been so much easier to get ourselves through the slow parts of the river if we had had paddles; two would have worked since we hooked our tubes together in a group (5) get very precise directions for how to get to the river from the drop-off spot; "follow the path" is insufficient as it does not lead directly to the water - it leads to a swampy area where we wandered around, thinking that it connected to the river but it didn't; we finally figured out that we needed to walk across a rocky swath of land to get to the river. Otherwise it was a wonderful outing, took us over 4 hours end-to-end (and we did not take any stops to swim) and we'd all gladly do it again (esp. now that we know...

After making a last minute plan to head north for the weekend, I made a call to Pemi River Campground and was pleasantly surprised to be told they had one open site. I was warned in advance that the site was "Very open - not much privacy", but beggars, as they say, can't be choosers. So I asked them to hold it anyway. Upon arrival, we were pleased to be offered the choice of a site further from the beach, but much more wooded and private. Score! The following day, we spoke to one of the camp's operators about shuttling our kayaks up the Pemi for a paddle. He was very helpful, and told us the driver would pick up our boats at our site. And the shuttle charge was only $5 per boat, paid straight to the driver. Sounded good to us. Boy did I feel a fool when the shuttle van arrived and the driver noticed we were short one paddle. Fearing his response, but willing to pay anything, I asked if he had a paddle for rent. With no hesitation he began rummaging about under the rear seat and came out with a paddle. Sweet! Down the road at the boat launch, the driver still said nothing about a charge for the paddle. Because he was so helpful with the paddle situation (rookie mistake!) I offered a $20 - $10 more than we owed for the shuttle - and he tried to turn it down! That's the kind of helpfulness you can expect from the owners/operators of this place. From my first call, to the day we left, the staff were great. As for the traffic noise, it was always somewhat audible in the background, but really not a problem for us. I imagine that light sleepers might have an issue, but it seemed to fade into the background pretty quickly. The only marginal experience we had involved the shower and toilet facilities. We noticed consistent cleaning taking, but we did have to take a hairy shower, and had one empty toilet paper holder experience. These are somewhat unavoidable experiences with shared toilets, but did lead to a point off for facilities. Overall, we had a great experience and would recommend the Pemi River Campground to our...