Coyote Valley RV Resort

14 nights June -July, 2019 - $1072.69

Coyote Valley Resort is located on a 4 lane highway with a barricade in the middle, so to enter from the North you have to make a U-Turn about 1 mile south, this is impossible with a full size truck & especially pulling a trailer. Plan ahead to enter from the South. There is no gate into the park and there is no security. There his also no after hours/emergency number for any issues that come up after the office closes.

We checked in on a Saturday, Ashley did allow us to check in about 30 minutes early and did not charge us the early check in fee. She was friendly & helpful. Jeff helped us back into our spot - he is also really nice. The park is clean & well maintained. The road is NOISY. It is a highway, cars are driving really fast - the road is in horrible shape and there are no noise breaks between the park and the highway.

Our first night was Saturday, and we could not drown out the sounds of drag racing. At about 11:00 pm 10-15 young adults pulled up in front of our site to load up a car on a flatbed trailer. They were loud, revving their engines, drinking beer - leaning on our cars & our trailer for about 45 minutes. Remember - no security at the park, so no one to call unless we called 911.

On Monday morning the park’s sewer system started backing up all over our site. and covered everything that was touching the ground in raw sewage. With no emergency contact, after hours number or security guards, my only option was to leave a voicemail for the front office. After waiting for a little more than an hour with no reply, I went to the office and let the front desk lady (I think her name is Kristy) know about the sewer backup and was met with blank stares/eye rolling and a generally uncaring, horrible attitude.

After another hour I was informed by the maintenance guys that the sewage wouldn’t be stopped/cleaned up until sometime around noon, but we were probably going to be approved to pack up and move to another site (maybe, the office hadn’t figured out if there was a site available yet). I let them know that our truck was not available to move our trailer that morning and was told that they could probably move our trailer for us, but the office staff said we couldn’t tell Elaine (the owner of the park).

After dealing with the smell and the grossness of it all for over 2 1/2 hours, I finally loaded up my kids and went to the park for a few hours to escape while we waited for the sewer cleanup to happen.

Jeff went above and beyond to find another guest with an Anderson hitch to move our trailer and the guest was kind enough to move our trailer to the new site. Damon & Jeff power washed everything that could be salvaged. But, our rug, spare hose and fresh water hoses were ruined and we were without water to our trailer until almost 8:00 that night while we waited for Damon to track down enough hose to reach the spicket. Damon gave us a bottle of wine and got approval from Elaine to credit us for 1 night stay and reimburse us for the rug & other hose that were ruined. But, I needed to find the hose & rug then submit a receipt to the office for reimbursement. Again, Kristi in the office had a horrible attitude about the whole situation. I lost my temper and yelled (most definitely not my finest moment). Their sewer backed up and ruined my things, while creating a really hardship for our family after paying $1,000+ to stay for 2 weeks & her attitude was the last thing I deserved to deal with.

Later that day Elaine left me a voicemail thanking me for my graciousness and patience, which was appreciated. I assumed it was all done and we could finally just relax and enjoy the remainder of our stay.

I was mistaken. The very next morning I received another phone call from Elaine that she had been told we homeschool our children, which she does not allow in her park. She told me I needed to go register my children with the school district or we would need to leave. My children are 5 & 2 years old. Neither one is school aged. It was June-July, so summer break and we were only there for 2 weeks. It is absolutely none of her business where, when or if my children attend school & it felt very discriminatory and aggressive after everything else we had dealt with.

While the sewer backup was gross and unwelcome, it is not the reason I have given a negative review as things happen that are outside of the park’s control. The way we were treated and the absence of after hours support is a real problem and completely unacceptable.

One of the reasons we generally eschew RV resorts is that the sites are so close together, and this place is no exception; hence our one-night-only stay. It is, however, very well kept, with well-manicured landscaping (though no privacy between sites), and the laundry, restrooms, and pool area are spotless. WiFi was decent, if not great, and phone service (Verizon and AT&T) was excellent.

Once again, "dog friendly" means different things to different people. The dog walk here is small and barren, but there is a miles-long hiking trail right outside the resort. Unfortunately, early in the morning (when dogs need to go out), both back gates were padlocked (until at least 7:30am), so it was a long and uncomfortable trek through and around neighboring prickly/weedy patches to get to the trail.

Upon checking in, the front desk person goes over ALL the rules, and I mean ALL of them. I understand, it's a beautiful resort, but we had to park "on THIS side of the pad" (they send an escort with each check-in, to "help" you park) and when our truck stuck out about 5 inches over the edge of our space, we had to get special dispensation to keep it that way (it must be said, they were nice about this, at least).

For location, if you're passing through the Bay Area, this is a good place to brace up for the northward trek the next day, or rest up if you've battled the southbound traffic. There is no easy way through the Bay Area.

$79 was the daily rate for a premium site (after Good Sam discount) in April 2015 (premium was all that was available during our stay). The premium site was located right up front along Monterey Hwy. The site was spacious, level, and easy to back in. The campground wifi was usable most of the time but pretty slow. The park is very dog-friendly with large patches of grassy areas where dogs can walk around. They also have a dog park, and a bike/hiking trail near the campground. The resort is very clean and has some very nice landscaping. The major issue we had with this resort is the location. The jersey walls on the Highway next to our site bounced the traffic noise right back to us, plus there is a commuter train with a very loud horn that passes right next to the road starting from 5:30am till at least 11pm. If you're a light sleeper, forget about a good night's sleep. Lastly, make sure you follow the directions on the resort's website to get to the entrance. Due to the jersey walls, you cannot make a left into the resort. If we choose to stay here again, we'd probably try for a standard site located by the back of the resort and only stay for an overnight or couple nights to pass through the area.

Very clean park mostly full of long-term residents. There's a lot of grassy areas and a fenced in dog area. The pool, club house, laundry facilities, and gym are clean and well-maintained. This is a great RV park if you need to commute to San Jose (about 25 minutes without traffic). There is a train track near by that has a train that passes once in awhile in the wee hours (its definitely woken me up before). If you're traveling from San Jose in an RV longer than 20' then I would suggest exiting at Morgan Hill and heading north up Monterey Hill. If you follow Google instructions they tell you to exit at Bailey Ave, but if you do you would need to do a tight U-turn since there's no way to turn left into the RV park. Save yourself the headache and just go past Bailey Ave.

This review is based on the necessity to be near San Jose for work for a week, so consider that. I wouldn't stay here unless I needed to be in this area -- this seems like one of the better options near Silicon Valley. Full hookups, nice clean park and sites, great cell service, laundry, and very near a great bike trail. It's about a 20 minute drive to San Jose, and not a bad commute.

Access is a little funky because you can only turn into the RV park coming from one direction, so pay attention to the directions on their site (not your GPS).