Merced River Resort

We arrived to a locked gate waiting behind a UPS truck. He was finally let in so we followed. Office woman, Kelly, was super super friendly. Site was pull through and decent with plenty of shade. Couldn’t use the cable hook up because we didn’t have our own cord for it. Then came night time. There’s highway noise and trains all night along with a steady rumble from maybe the plant close by. To top it off we’re awoken by a crew with a chainsaw literally working two feet from our camper taking branches off the tree above our camper. One branch hit our camper which really set us off. They continued working all day on the tree above us with branches flying everywhere. We go to complain but the office door is closed because there’s some meeting in progress. Lots of full timers here and some with crusty rigs and junk spread out all over the place. Thought about kayaking in the river but with a steep decline to get there and garbage in the river we decided not to. Bathroom was dated and dirtyish. They call this a resort? Where are all the amenities?? At $55/night we expected more. Avoid at all costs! We sure wish we did!

Lots of big shade trees. Also mostly permanent residents, pretty dumpy. Voltage was to low to safely run equipment (it was summer). Check in didn’t go well, but we eventually got someone with our reservation to show us to our site. Restrooms closed indefinitely- pandemic excuse. Pool hasn’t had water in it for years, we were here pre-pandemic . It was dry in need of maintenance then. Some spots are ok, but don’t expect much.

We stayed here overnight on our way to Sacramento. The park is located at the end of the appropriately named Campground Road, where the road curves as you descend a brief hill and reach the entrance gate. We arrived on a Sunday just after the office closed (a sign said honk to have the office open the gate for you), and we didn’t have a gate code, so it was a good thing we had traffic exiting the park to activate the gate for us. A campground map with our site number was waiting for us on the clipboard outside the office door, and the gate code was written on the back.

Our site was A15, one of the few pull-through sites in the park. Sites A15 and A16 are situated under a huge tree, which provided a lot of shade but had branches low enough that they put a crack in one of our fan vent covers. It looked like we might hit even lower branches if we pulled out of the site, so we left by backing out and coming through the vacant A14 site. Our pad surface was gravel and our patio was a dirt surface with patchy grass. A few sites, like A14, are covered entirely in mulch. The spacing between the sites is typical of private campgrounds. We did use a board under one set of tires, but otherwise the site was fairly level.

Our site was near the bathhouse, which had several individual bathrooms as well as a laundry room. Next to the bathhouse was a propane refill station enclosed by a wooden fence. Walking between those structures took us to the dog park area. There is a huge section for dogs over 25 pounds, and a smaller adjoining one for dogs lighter than 25 pounds. Both parks had grassy surfaces and a few shade trees.

Near the front of the campground, across the road from the office, is a group pavilion, a single basketball hoop with an asphalt playing surface, and a large playground. And beyond those amenities is a huge flat open field, big enough to host a casual soccer or flag football game: not something you see very often at private campgrounds. The campground is next to the Merced River, and there are a few picnic tables next to the elevated bank that overlook the slow-moving river. Like many of the California campgrounds we’ve stayed at, there is recycling, though it is limited to glass and plastic containers as well as aluminum cans.

In terms of cell service, the best speed I got on my Verizon Jetpack with MIMO antenna the afternoon we arrived was about 5Mbps down and 4Mbps up, but the bandwidth itself wasn’t great: we couldn’t stream video and we had long wait times loading images and websites. It must have been a congestion issue, though, because early the next morning I saw 45 down and 5 up. The speed test I did with my AT&T phone showed 15Mbps down and 1 up, and I had an easier time pulling down webpages that evening when using the phone as a hotspot.

We would stay here again if we were only staying overnight.

Nice host. We showed up after hours and they gave us their last spot. Kinda wished we'd just boondocked somewhere. The gate and entrance looked nice and the check in area was nice.our spot was in the very back row amongst sketchy long term people with their weight room and stuff all outside. I was very uneasy there. The river wasn't a draw. Kinda dingy and grody looking. Nice Big grassy area and playground. Good Cel reception. Good lighting at night. Lots of branches in our site we had to clean up before pulling in. Mounds of dirt and debris. Hadn't been touched in a while and tight trees on both sides pulling in and out. A little smelly. I was worried someone's rv was going to blow up but I think now it was just the air pollution. Maybe a different spot would have given us a better experience. Quiet mostly. Some train noise. No many choices in the area though.

The area could be very nice but there are so many long term residents that it is more of a trailer park than a resort. I get it...it’s easier to have long term than short term turnover but then name it a trailer park NOT a resort. People who run it are very nice and it could be a really nice place if it got cleaned up. Just know what you’re getting - that’s all.

We arrived after the office closed (5:30) but called a number and staff came out to show us to our site. Large playground and grass area for romping around in. Most sites had large mature trees for some shade during the day. Many of the sites were long termers- only some of the large park seemed to be for short-term, overnighters. A large fenced, dog park area was available for dog use. A road ran alongside the Merced river, which was down an embankment of 8-12 feet, so no opportunity to camp right next to the river. The highway noise was audible but not overmuch. It was easy to find from the highway (just one turn off the 99) and the roads in the park were gravel/asphalt and wide enough to get large rigs in. Laundry facilities and a pool, although both closed while we visited due to COVID concerns. Most sites had picnic table, and portable fire pit, upon request. Hookups worked great.