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My wife and I try to hit a new campground/RV site in the mountains once a month, and this is probably our 10th spot. I try to give honest reviews, and although there are some good things about this place, this is a campground we won’t be returning to.
The good: Location: This was by far the easiest drive. It’s a mile off interstate 40, and is a straight shot once you’re off the interstate.
Gigis: There is a pretty good restaurant just off the campground that you can walk to.
Bath Houses: Although there aren’t many of them, the ones that are there are very nice.
Support staff: The folks around the facility and who do check ins are very nice and helpful.
Cable: They have good cable.
The reasons why 3 stars is our rating: RV Spots: They’re very small and narrow. Most are surrounded by grass, which is more problematic than nice as I’m about to point out.
Grass and associated grass police: They’re very odd about having things in the grass. Even though they have their own benches in the grass, per their rules, your items are not allowed.
Rules: I certainly understand the need to set some ground rules, but some are bordering on ridiculous. My favorite was dogs are not allowed to walk along the creek.
Fences: Supposedly they’re not allowed, even if you have dogs, but they allowed ours, however did require us to move ours that was in the grass.
Dogs: I think I would more label their campground ‘dog tolerant’ more than ‘dog friendly’. The dog walk is essentially the drainage at the site, and have one area that’s pretty small to run the dogs off leash.
Manager: Kind of set the tone, but when I first walked in to check in, after saying hi to a guest, I was greeted with a ‘what do you want’. And as you might expect, the tone was correlated with the question.
Overall: We really like Maggie Vally, but I’d recommend looking around at other options, because there are...
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Where do I start. I arrived late (about 6:45 pm) due to some mechanical issues with one of the guys in our group (we were on motorcycles). Sat and waited 30 minutes to check in. I had made a reservation for a tent site online and prepaid for my two night stay. I was given site #12 which was an RV site with water, electric and a stone pad. I figured there was some issue and was just given this sight which was no problem. Unfortunately it seems that all foot traffic in the park walks through this campsite which was less than desirable to say the least allowing their dogs to urinate all over the site. I set up my tent on a small grassy area at the back of the site and got some sleep. Up in the morning and getting ready to head out to get breakfast and ride for the day when I was told that I could not put my tent on the grass and it needed to be moved. Figuring that was for this site only I packed up my things anticipating I would be moved to a tent site where I could place the tent on the grass and was told they did not have tent sites at all at this campground. By this time we were running late and could not get into the restaurant without a two hour wait so a great start to the day. I was contacted by the owner/manager by phone who left me a message apologizing stating they didn’t allow tents on the grass and someone failed to let me know this. At that point I made the decision to just head home at the end of the day and forgo the second night. They did refund me twenty dollars for my “inconvenience”. I’ve never heard of a campground that didn’t allow a tent on grass but this is one. I will not be returning here. On the positive side they do have a large barn where it appears they hold gatherings/events which looked nice and clean...
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Horrible campfire smoke. Our friend stayed here the week before we did. She complained the entire time about how bad the campfire smoke was bothering her sinuses. Unfortunately we assumed maybe she was just sensitive. So we drove all the way from Florida to see the fall leaves. I had just recovered from the flu. So I wasn't in the mood to feel sick again. But the campfire smoke was really, really bad. The campsites are so close together that you can't escape the smoke. It will be everywhere. The smoke was WAY worse than anywhere we have ever stayed. We stayed two nights of seven we had paid in advance -- and we only stayed those nights because we couldn't find another campground (we looked). And we couldn't find anything open on the way home. We couldn't get the smoke smell out of our camper despite locking the doors early in the evening (same thing with my friend). I felt so bad that I slept with an N95 mask. It was crazy. We have stayed in a lot of campgrounds with campfires. But this was different we think because the sites are so close together. And they rent fire pits -- which makes it way easier for everyone to have a fire. They even have a community fire. If you don't like campfire smoke everywhere, don't stay here. We also asked for a refund and it was totally refused. They also said basically every campground has campfires -- and didn't care about my point that this was far worse than any other campground we have encountered. And we have camped all over the US. We would not have left this review if we had received a refund, which was the right thing to do. They kept our $400 -- and made us sick in the process. Plus we had to cut our vacation short. It was a very miserable experience. You have...
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