The Outpost Resort — Hotel in Town of Lumberland

We’ve camped here five years in a row and have always loved the peaceful charm of this spot. This year, it’s under new ownership as “Outpost Resort,” and while some upgrades are nice (fresh gravel, cleaner bathrooms, new paint), the vibe felt different.

The new LED lighting around the lot and office is extremely bright. While I understand the goal of safety and visibility, walking to our car at night felt like walking into a stadium. Two of the lights shone directly onto our section of the riverbank all night, creating heavy light pollution and making it hard to enjoy the nighttime atmosphere. We mentioned it to staff after the first night, but the lights are all on one system and couldn’t be adjusted during our stay. Hopefully this is something they can fix, because it really took away from the camping experience and was quite headache inducing.

A few policies also felt less relaxed than before: no day passes (our friend had to pay the full overnight rate for a short visit) and very strict enforcement of check-out time. We had been told at check-in that new campers were coming in the day we were leaving, so we made sure to pack up up early — our campsite was empty and clean by 11:30 a.m. Wanting to enjoy a rare sunny moment after a cloudy few days, my friend and I took a couple towels and a cooler to sit by the river on one of the many empty picnic tables, then on the rocks by the bank. Hours went by without seeing another person. Then a staff member pulled up to tell us that check-out time was 2 p.m., meaning we needed to leave — not just our site, but the riverbank itself. When we asked him what time it was, he said it was 2:02. Even though the campground was still practically empty, we were effectively ushered out and ended up finishing our snacks by our cars. I completely understand needing to clear sites for incoming guests (which ours was clean and empty hours prior), but this felt unnecessarily rigid and left a sour note at the end of our trip. Even the most basic hotels will let you check out of your room but continue to use the pool or other amenities for the day — here, we couldn’t even sit on a rock by the empty river two minutes past check-out.

We usually rebook for the following year before we leave, but this time we’re holding off to see how the new ownership settles in. The river is still the reason we’ve returned year after year, and I truly hope the new team can strike a balance between their “resort” vision and the relaxed, accommodating spirit that made this place special. Small changes in hospitality — and maybe a little more flexibility — could make all the difference. My reply to owner:

Regarding check-out, I think you need to clarify what this is upon check in. For many campers, check-out traditionally means vacating and cleaning your campsite, not necessarily leaving the property or stopping use of public areas like the riverbank or picnic tables. Our site had been cleared and vacated for hours, the campground was nearly empty, and we were simply sitting on the riverbank enjoying the weather. Being told to leave because “rules must be the same whether it’s two people or 500” shows your current approach that values rules over common-sense guest experience. It's giving more "cops" than "camp".

Also, just to give you some helpful insight into camping: we woke up and immediately started cleaning and breaking down our campsite, which was quite minimal. By the time everything was in our cars it was 11:30. If we wanted to cook breakfast or were traveling with kids, a noon check out time would be almost impossible. Tent camping is a lot more involved than leaving a hotel or even packing up in an RV to drive away. We paid a couple hundred dollars to tent camp for two nights, and to have the last day cut short when there was absolutely no one around was pretty disappointing. I hope you can take this more-than-fair feedback because small changes in your hospitality can...

We’ve camped in dozens of campgrounds across the country, and this was, by far, hands down, indisputably the single worst camping experience we have ever had. If this review is too long to read, please take away this one point: Beware. Do yourself a favor and do not book here. My wife booked this campground for three nights through Campspot as part of a special surprise trip for my birthday. Although she paid an extra fee to lock in our waterfront, full-hookup RV campsite, we arrived to find our site had been given away to the loudest group we’ve ever encountered at any campground. There were close to ten RVs and trailers occupying what should have been four RV campsites. I was told this was a family reunion, and that we were being moved to a different site that was not waterfront and did not have the full hookups we had paid for. Needless to say, we were extremely unhappy. It was too late at night to find another accommodation, so we reluctantly stayed. Our site, while spacious on one side, was more or less an open field, which made it extremely difficult to level. We also had people constantly walking directly through our campsite, using our picnic table, and leaving their trash behind. I spoke to our direct neighbors, who were nice, but they were also having the exact same experience—having been kicked out of their waterfront site for the family reunion group. There was a security guard who, while nice, refused to do anything or speak to anyone about the noise. So we attempted to relax while the party raged until about 3 a.m. After our second night’s stay, we were told, “Good news! You can move to the site you originally booked!” Golly—lucky us! We told the owner that we didn’t have the time it would take to move sites and that we would just stay put for the final night—at which point he replied that we actually had to move, because someone else was waiting to move into our campsite. So, for clarity: we were kicked out of our originally booked site for a family reunion, and then kicked out of our “backup” site for another camper who was apparently more important than us. If you ever want to feel like you simply don’t matter, this is the campground for you. To his credit, I was able to work out a partial refund with the owner for the baffling ordeal that was our stay—and, impressively, we did so without having to raise our voices. He even wished me a happy birthday. Yay. That said, it still does not make up for turning what should have been a special getaway camping experience into three nights of stress, frustration, and anger. If I’m ever in the area again, I will gladly stay in the parking lot of a Walmart over...

Stayed at one of the lean-to structures over Halloween night. From my understanding, I am here in the off-season so I can't speak about what it's like when it's busy. But right now it is one of the most relaxing campsites I've been to in a long time. It's right against the river. It's got wonderful views. I'm decently sure I seen eagles but I don't know if they're in this area so I don't want to give wrong information.

But about the campground the location was easy to get to. The directions that were giving to me were very clear. The only thing that might be a positive or a negative depending on the person would be cell phone service. There is zero but they do have Wi-Fi spots throughout the park.

I also went to The Outpost restaurant that they have. I had quite a few beers, And got a Reuben and some wings. Both delicious. Although it was a very slow night for them, they were all incredibly cheerful, welcoming to me and we had quite a few laughs before I went across the street and camped for the night.

If I could give more than five stars I would. I will definitely return next time I'm in the area. Actually I might just use this as an excuse to be in the area

Also, apologies for weird grammar and spelling issues. I'm using. Talk to text...