Pendleton KOA

{Date Stayed: April 24-25, 2023} After a couple left/right uphill turns we pulled into a very nice paved RV Park. Some sites were concrete others asphalt-gravel. Not as tight spaces as some we've stayed at but kinda close; at least we had a picnic table! We were first assigned space 44 but because the length was a bit short for both our truck-trailer (64' total) and we were only there for a 1-night we petitioned to move which we were granted space 48. Facilities were really good - restrooms-showers-laundry; staff were real good to work with. Nice little store for essentials. Had we not been on a time crunch we would like to have stayed and toured the area more. Perhaps a visit when the Rodeo comes to town - "they have both kinds of music, country & western"!!

We were traveling on I84 towards Idaho and needed a place for the night. Due to the first winter weather of the season moving in (this was late September) we wanted to avoid sub-freezing temps and possible snowy roads at the higher elevations to the south. Pendleton was about the only option but it worked out OK. Like I said in the title, the park appears to have been built for smaller rigs; getting a 40' class A with a towed vehicle into the park is not going to happen. Unhooked up front and was able to get into a back-in site OK. The area is scenic, but we didn't have time to check out the town. FHU and concrete sites, no problems there. A large % of the occupants looked to be semi-permanent. The rate seemed a bit high, but since the park was full maybe I'm out of touch??

Nice long level gravel spots with grassy area and table. Spots are a little tight but still lots of room for slides and awnings and room to sit outside. Laundry is nice as well as shower area. Dog park right across road from us with grass. Playground area for kids. Most of park is back in but about ten are pull through. Pendleton has quite a few parks to walk and kids can run around in. Pendleton Wool store/factory is nearby as well as an Underground tour. Lots of grocery stores in town including a nice sized Walmart. Great WiFi too.

If you want to stay in Pendleton this is about your only choice. I gave it 3 stars because I am not so against it that I would avoid it at all costs, but the only reason I would stay there is that there is nothing else in the area.

We usually aren't big KOA fans as we find them overpriced and this park fit that bill. Our rig is 35ft long with only two slides (Both on the same side) and we barely fit. Our pin box was at the curb, and the back of the trailer was over the line that separated the sites (Back to back sites).

They have a separate pad next to the RV with a picnic table, but we had to move the picnic table to park our truck there.

There was a tree in our space but it was miniscule, I think it needed another 15 years of growth before it provides any real shade.

They do have a fenced dog area (like most KOA's) which was the only good part as Tess liked being off leash. I think she was a bigger fan of the park then us.

I love Pendleton so I am sure we will be back, but if any other RV park opens up in the area you can be sure that one will get our business.

Wifi was spotty but cell coverage was good (though I didn't write down how many bars or if it was Verizon or AT&T that was good).

[Actual stay was 09/03/15]

Good stuff: It's clean, well-maintained, there are trees in every space, and it's level. We reserved 50A and got it, which is good because it was hot in late July and we really needed it.

Bad stuff: There's really not much to this park. It's a parking lot with some trees. No green space for the kid and I to throw the football around. Nowhere really for kids to congregate and hang out, other than a minimal playground. No pool, of course. Not really a hospitable environment for an evening stroll nearby.

Bottom line: For an overnight, it was fine. Didn't look like there was a better option in town, but we would try to find one if we could.

I'll start with the basics, then a little about our experience. The majority of the sites that we saw in this park are quite tight, with ones in the center being back to back sites. We had very little room to park our truck and just barely fit into the site assigned to us. There was very little shade, we had a single tree next to us that our slide pushed into to get it open. Parking the truck required moving the picnic table almost into our neighbors site, but it was way too hot to sit outside anyway. I used the laundry and other than being hot it was clean and convenient. If you have to be in the area, I don't think that there is much else to choose from. The location is an easy drive into downtown Pendleton and close to the highway. Now, here is what happened to us.

We booked this in a panic, needing a place to stay for the Fourth of July. We selected a back-in, full hookup 50/30 amp site, it cost a little more, but we thought the few extra dollars would be worth it. I remember it saying we would have a view of the mountains from our site. We checked in and were directed to our spot, which is in the middle of the park, with another site directly behind us. The staff was very nice, trying to make it easy for us to get into our spot, even changing it to the one on the backside of the one originally assigned because it has more shade (highs have been in the hundreds, even a little shade is welcome). We unhooked, leveled, and I went to plug in and the site only had 30 amp, with the heat we really wanted 50 amps to run both AC's, plus we thought that we had reserved a site with 50 amps. We double checked our reservation and all it said was full hookups. We went up to the office and they only had one 50 amp site for our stay (just a couple of days, but over the 4th), so we went and looked at it. It wasn't a great location and looked awkward to get into, plus we'd have to take our bikes and bike rack off the RV to fit in. Considering we were planning on leaving early, and putting the bikes and rack back on early in the morning would be difficult (and would probably require blocking the road to make it happen), we decided to see if we could live with 30 amps for a couple of days. Ends up, we can run both AC's and a fan on 30 amp, just nothing else.

This was a learning experience for us, we thought if you reserved 50 amp that you will get it. We have learned that is not always the case. It's especially frustrating because, before our arrival, I tried to get the days leading up to our stay but they only showed 30 amp available, which led us to believe that we really had 50 amp. It's the ultimate in bait and switch. We don't often stay at KOA's, if we can help it, but we hadn't experienced this problem before, so we really were upset about it. At least the staff attempted to be accommodating, and they weren't upset when we told them we backed in to the picnic table and bent it. They said it happens all the time and people usually don't bother to tell them.

Overall, we survived and we're glad that we cut our time there short. If you need to be in the Pendleton area, by all means stay here, just don't expect a bunch of room and be prepared to not get what you expected if it's a busy weekend.