American River Resort

If I had the option to do a negative star I would! Planned a rafting trip over the weekend for my children and I We arrived late Friday and were unable to upgrade to a cabin as they were all closed, not booked just closed. We set our tents up in the rain and made the best of it. Then late that evening I got a call that my father had been rushed to the hospital so I choose to stay the night and leave first thing in the morning. I went in as the office opened Saturday morning and told them about the situation and asked if I could simply reschedule the$450 rafting trip I had scheduled for the kids and I. Was told no one is in the office and had to go through the reservation desk on Monday. So we packed up and rushed to the two hour drive home to see my father. Just received a call from Melinda Jones the lead reservationist and was told that they were unwilling to reschedule the rafting trip and I would loose the$450 I spent despite the need for having to leave unexpectedly to see my father in the hospital. What kind of family friendly business is this? Asked to speak to the manager was told this is as far as it goes, asked who made the decision to not let me reschedule and refused to release a name. The spot was beautiful but the customer service is atrocious. I would never recommend this place to anyone because of how poorly they handled an already very difficult situation.

This review is for tent camping, not RVs.

1. Nearly all of the tent sites are tiny and crowded very closely together with no privacy breaks at all between them. To make it even more claustrophobic, many of the near-river sites are terraced into the hillside so you stand at the bottom and look up into a wall of tents stacked 3 high on top of each other. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and most of the sites were full so the effect was like looking up into a packed stadium from the bottom row of bleacher seats. That first night was like a giant tailgate frat party. Multiple groups were blasting music & even though that’s against the rules nobody seemed to make them stop. Thank goodness we were able to move a few sites away, and then everybody cleared out the next day. The best site is #31. If you’re going on a weekend or any time during the summer, don’t make any reservation at all if you can’t get #31. I’m not putting that in my google review btw, that’s only for folks on Dyrt.

2. The facilities have a lot of maintenance issues that just aren’t being taken care of. For example: there are two bathroom buildings, an old one built out of rail cars (?) near the river and a newer-construction one uphill by the RV sites. Both bathrooms have multiple sinks and toilets that are out of order. In the downhill ladies room there was a toilet that ran water constantly and another that wouldn’t flush at all. I actually took that 2nd one apart and fixed it myself. That same ladies’ room had a sink removed completely from the wall leaving hanging pipes sticking out, a 2nd sink that wouldn’t turn on, a 3rd sink with wobbly handles, and a 4th sink that was fully functional. Next to that restroom on one side was what was supposed to be a shower facility but it was completely out of order and locked. On the other side of the restroom there was what was supposed to be a dishwashing station but it was disconnected with pipes dangling and dirt & leaves filling the sink. Why install nice things and then let them fall apart? I don’t understand.

3. They do seem to keep the toilets stocked with soap and TP and paper towels, and there are lots of garbage cans that do get emptied when needed. However, sometimes campers are naughty and leave behind trash outside the bins. This ranges from micro-trash (bottle caps, wrapper ends) to big pieces (foil pans, beer bottles). We stayed there for 2 days after the giant party moved on, but we never saw camp staff coming around to deal with the loose litter. We were pulling wads of fishing line out of the rocks and throwing away other people’s bottles. Blech.

4. There is an on-site rafting company. We took a full-day rafting trip that launched right from the campground & we had a great time.

5. There is a little general store that sells ice, firewood, souvenirs, Tshirts, etc.

6. It is a gated facility so hopefully secure?