Brown's Millpond Campground

Easy access to the freeway, the area is quiet, albeit when I was there they had a large party of campers . The price was a bit too much considering they didn’t have a dump or sewer hook up on-site. No Wi-Fi either. The showers were not kept up all too well, definitely needed flipflops to shower. They lose a star for lack of dump and lose another for the dirty showers. Would I stay there again? Yes

To begin, I opted to stay at this Brown's location because Brown's Town Campground is very noisy/busy (it's right on US-395) and Brown's Owens River Campground was not yet open for the season. It was a good decision for an April visit! The Millpond location is just north of town, adjacent to the Millpond Recreation Area, and far enough from US-395 to provide a peaceful night's sleep. The staff at the Millpond Campground were very accommodating, allowing me to change campsites to be nearer to the bathroom/shower building (I was in a tent). The sites are spacious enough, but provide little privacy from your neighbors. A small stream bordered by shade trees runs through the center of the campground, so try to book one of these adjacent sites. The sites along the river are regularly watered and are a lush green - very nice for tent campers. Each site has a spacious fire pit and a picnic table, too.

There's one central bathroom/shower building. Shower tokens are $2 and each provides 7 minutes of hot water. The bathrooms are cleaned daily. Although I didn't use the laundry, I noted that there's only one washer/dryer. On the side of this building is an outdoor sink with running water for cleaning fish.

The nearest gas station is located about two miles south at the Paiute Palace Casino. Vons grocery store is just a mile or two beyond, on the north end of Bishop and they also have a gas station. Eastside Sports in downtown Bishop has all your hiking and camping necessities. There are several others which cater to fishing supplies.

Did I mention the view? Yes, the lovely Sierra Nevada Range provides the backdrop for this campground. I'd definitely stay here again.

We picked this CG because Pleasant Valley was too dusty and Horton BLM was closed. We read the other review so I sent the hubby inside to get a spot. The campsite #s are a bit confusing and we were in the wrong spot but no one came over to say anything. We were told our spot was next to the other camper so that’s where we parked. The hookups were in the very corner which wasn’t really convenient. The sites are wide and short so the tow vehicle needs to be parked to the side. There is no dump station, which for $35 is surprising. A fellow camper told us about going to the Brown RV place south of Bishop to use the dump for $5 instead of $12. That wasn’t mentioned to us. The grass area looks really nicely cared for and is probably quite pleasant during the summer when the trees are full. Note that the power lines cross close to the edge of the park and you can hear the crackling, if that bothers anyone. We didn’t use the bathrooms but our neighbor took a shower every morning. There is a laundry on site. The recreation area is next door. When full, the place might get really noisy as they pack in the sites in on both sides of the creek. Next time we need hookups, we might choose the Brown’s for the dump access.

Communication seemed to be an issue because we showed up, settled into the wrong spot(unknown to us until another camper told us rudely to pack up and leave their spot at 8:30pm while my girlfriend and I were trying to put 5kids to sleep). Unable to reach the owner or see our names on the camp bulletin board, we eventually begged the other guests to let us stay until morning.

The next morning, we were moving locations and the owner came over all pissy, not flexible by any means, started telling us we paid for 2 sites for 1 night even though we actually paid for 1 site for 2 nights and then we were never told there was an ‘additional $10 charge’ for the 2nd vehicle(even though it fit on our 1 site). $43 vs $33 makes a difference to us.
That conversation and her speedy return to retrieve extra $ was all just BAD VIBES in the middle of our family breakfast... all just because she wanted to nickle & dime us on fees.
Our goal was to have quality time outdoors but from the very start everything was drama and she was unkind.
We did end up settling in soon after that and enjoying the nearby amenities but I got a sick feeling in my stomach while supporting that kind of business operation.

She could have posted our name on the ‘reserved’ board, put a name on our site, given a paper or digital reservation for the details or even SIMPLY APOLOGIZED for the inconveniences but instead she bragged about how she had been running the place for 60yrs(or some loooong period of time) and blamed issues on other people. I only remembered her arrogant nature and refusal to admit she was wrong in any way which made me feel uncomfortable.
I was told later she may have MORE ISSUES with women, than with men, so maybe send the hubbies to deal with her if you do have issues? I’m a single Mom so didn’t have a choice. Maybe she was just having a stressful day🤷🏼‍♀️