Covered Wagon Camp Resort OTTAWA LAKE, Michigan

[Speckul8r]

This was the only commercial site we stayed at during the whole trip. What a dump. The first site assigned to us had a large pile of burned trash in the middle of it and the site next to us had an old hunk of carpet in the middle of that. The bathroom looked like someone had taken several shovels full of dirt and scattered it around. They had just had a large amount of rain and the skeeters were fearsome. The skeetoes will usually get after my wife and leave me alone but they had their way with me here!

NEVER AGAIN!! Live and learn. I'm not used to staying in commercial campgrounds but this taught me several things. Take the descriptions in the camping guides with a big grain of salt and if it takes 5 minutes to get there off the interstate you'll have a lot of road noise.

The 1 saving grace was that there is a Cabelas about 11 miles up the road.

[Bill]

Speckul8r -

Do you have a copy of the Big Book of Campgrounds (either Good Sam or Woodalls)? I can't lay my hands on mine at the moment, but I would be interested in knowing how this campground was rated.

Bill

[commodor47]

Bill, Leon

The 2006 TL rating is 7/5/6 Not a big change over the 2005 rating.

Speckul8r

I hope this bad experience doesn't prevent you from staying at other private CGs. In our cross country travels we've stayed at some memorable and some not so memorable CGs. I remember one in TX (prefer not to mention the name) where we arrived close to 6:30 PM. The office is open from 2 to 7 PM daily so we arrived just before they closed for the night. It was already dark (early January) but the CG owner locked up the office and used a flashlight to guide us to our site (that was appreciated after a long days drive). Before he left us I asked what time check out was. Remember, the office didn't open until 2 PM. He said there was no firm check out time -leave when you are ready. The facilities were rustic but clean, the site was roomy (as most private CGs go) and the seasonal neighbors friendly. The TL rating is 5.5/7.5/5.5 We have found the TL ratings to be pretty accurate and do check it closely. Sometimes the descriptions can be misleading in the sense that one tends associate past experience with what is being described.

[pbuck1]

Speckul8r,

You could add your experience to the others here:
http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/Michigan/Ottawa_Lake.html

I find the regular camping guides are like the hotel rating systems - points are given for the presence of facilities rather than reflecting the condition of them. So I find these online user reviews can be a good supplement to fill in missing information.

-Paul

[Speckul8r]

Bill, The wife picked this one out of the Woodall's Book because of the proximity. and the ratings. Maybe they were just having a bad day.

commodor47, I've had the same experience with SP's, NFS, and NPS although I usually have a better insight towards what I'm getting into B4 I get there.

This is what this forum is for, I think. To praise or warn others as necessary. Then again, your experience at the same place might be totally different. To be fore warned is to be fore armed. I heard that some where.

Paul, ditto what you said.