Shadow Mountain RV Park & General Store

Poor sites so unlevel there was no way to get level. Poor organization, got there and my assigned site already had an rv in the site. Had to wait and help with reorganizing where I was really supposed to be. Some of the other campers were of the sort that you dont dare leave your stuff unattended. Bathrooms were “under construction but operable”. I guess this was their way of saying disgusting don’t go in there. Grateful it was only a one night stay. Extremely overpriced considering the lack of quality.

It’s very rare that I feel compelled to take an RV park to task but, Shadow Mountain RV Park has earned my disdain. Under no circumstances should you bring a trailer or coach longer than 30 feet into this park. I can’t recommend this RV park for several reasons:

1 The campsites are not even close to level, particularly on the newer upper section. I had to put multiple wooden blocks under my tongue jack to raise the front of my trailer 44 inches to get it level. I have never had to raise the tongue of my trailer that high in the decades I’ve been Rving throughout North America. Grading a site to be mostly level isn’t difficult; it just requires attention, training, and experience in the operation of a bulldozer or a tea or and a box blade. All the sites were uneven and nowhere close to level front-to-back or side-to side; there were large holes and depressions, as well as unexplained humps, in many of the sites. The south side of the upper newer section slopes from front to back, making leveling very difficult. A trailer or fifth wheel has to lower the front of the trailer completely to the ground, and even then the trailer isn’t level. Motorized RVs that back into these sites must lift their rear wheels (the ones with the brakes) completely off the ground to attempt to level; the rig is unsafe because the brakes aren’t being used on a wheel that is off the ground. The exact opposite is true for the north side. The sewer hose runs uphill from my trailer to the sewer pipe; this should never be the case. The campsites are mostly dirt, not gravel. The campsites are very close together; if you extend your awning, you will likely hit your neighbor’s rig; the very epitome of “awning camping.”.

2 The park appears to cater mostly to seasonal and permanent tenants, many of whom have multiple vehicles. The roads are narrow and the turns are tight. It’s difficult to maneuver your RV around so many cars, particularly when they protrude into the roadway; you are forced into the trees to avoid the cars. There is very little room to park your tow vehicle or toad near your campsite without blocking someone else in or making making maneuvering of another rig overly difficult or impossible. Tree limbs overhang and protrude into the roads, guaranteeing your rig is going to be scratched coming in and going out. How difficult is it to trim the trees? There is a total fire-ban in effect throughout the Clallam County but, the park is apparently ignoring the ban and selling wood and allowing campfires, putting everyone at risk.

3 The park uses Campspot.com to handle reservations. One of the features of Campspot is that you can reserve, or lock in, a particular campsite for an additional fee. The park doesn’t honor this feature, telling you when you arrive that they have put you in a different campsite. We reserved a particular site hoping for a less obstructed view of the sky so we could use our Starlink satellite internet; we were unable to use our Starlink because of the site the park staff put us in. They refunded the lock-in fee that we paid. However, the park should not enable the lock-in feature on Campspot if they have no intention of honoring the reservation.

4 Cellular service is very weak and spotty throughout the park. A cellular booster (e.g., WeBoost) helps. The park has a wifi system installed but, the system only covers a small fraction of the park and was unavailable to us at our campsite. Because of the campsite the park selected for us (ignoring the Campspot lock-in feature), we could not use our Starlink. It was difficult to do routine things like check email, make phone calls, and surf the web. Streaming or trying to work from your rig is simply not possible.

5 The park advertises to be big-rig friendly; it is not. Roads are narrow and uneven, turns are very tight, cars protrude into the narrow roads, the roads have dips-almost guaranteeing bottoming out, and low tree limbs encroach on the drivable roads. In the newer upper section where the park puts the larger rigs, maneuvering is extremely difficult because of the confined space. I’ve watched several rigs bottom out making the turn from the top terrace road around the corner to get to the upper newer section. Some have had to go back down the hill and come up the exit road to make the turn. If the sites are full and vehicles parked, there is no room to turn around a rig longer than 25 feet. Several campers, including me, have had to move our vehicles multiple times to allow room for the next poor guy to get his rig in. I’ve never been in a park where multiple people had to move their vehicles nearly every time a new rig shows up so the new rig has room to maneuver and park. It’s ridiculous.

6 The laundry washers and dryers are filthy; it doesn’t appear the machines have ever been cleaned. The dryer vent screens were matted with what appeared to thick black pet hair. Clearly, the park allows campers to wash their pet bedding in the community laundry machines, which is complete unsanitary and disgusting. The men’s restroom and showers were equally dirty; paint flaking off the floor, brown stains inside the showers, toilets that have to be flushed for 30 seconds (according to the sign) to flush properly, mold on the shower curtains.

7 The owner, Jeremy, is very difficult to get ahold of and evasive when you finally connect with him. He blames all the difficulties that his poorly designed and maintained park causes campers and their rigs on the ineptitude of the camper/customer. Jeremy’s poor work-campers take most of the heat from upset customers. The work-campers that we spoke with were clearly frustrated with the owner and his poor and customer-unfriendly business practices. They volunteered that Jeremy uses several reservation systems that create overlapping reservations for the same campsite, requiring them to sort out the results. They further volunteered that they have asked Jeremy several times to disable the campsite lock-in feature on Campspot; he has chosen not to. There are only 3 RV parks in/around Port Angeles. Apparently, Jeremy likely knows he will get business no matter how bad his park is; the other nearby parks are booked up for weeks, so disgruntled customers have no alternative but, to stay and and suck it up.

The park owner/Jeremy needs to make some investments in the infrastructure and maintenance of the park. Grade the campsites so they are level. Limit vehicles to one per campsite, and make sure the vehicle has adequate room to park completely off the road; force additional vehicles to park near the general store. Trim the low hanging tree limbs and keep them trimmed. Grade the roads and increase the radius of the turns so larger rigs can safely make it to and from their campsites. Redesign the newer upper area so it is flat and there is room to safely maneuver larger rigs and park tow vehicles without encroaching on other campsites. Space the campsites out a little so campers aren’t on top of each other. Invest in a high performance wifi system that serves the ENTIRE park. Honor the Campspot campsite lock-in feature or disable it; nobody likes surprises. Buy and spread enough of gravel to cover all the dirt in the campsites and roads. Stop admitting vehicles and RVs that you don’t have room for; 30 feet should be your maximum. Take a few courses or read a few books on how to create happy and satisfied customers. Take ownership and responsibility for the poor design and condition of the park and do something about it; stop blaming your customers for your failures as a business owner and your lack of investment. Or, sell the park to to someone who cares and isn’t just milking every dime of profit out of the park until it collapses from neglect.

wonderful and helpful people worked here. we complained about the picnic table at our site and they quickly brought a nice one for us. however . . . the park needs a lot of work. concrete blocks do not a firepit
make . . . several machines in the laundry room did not work and the ones that worked did not work well. The washer that I used to do two loads took an hour and 10 minutes to do each load . . . weird. They had wifi, but only at the general store. No wifi was available to us at our campsite. It was nice to have a store on site for many of your needs since Port Angeles was 20 min away. Weirdly, they had a freezer for ice, but they did not have ice for most of the 11 days we were there. There were many full time occupants there but it was not noisy except for the highway noisy which was surprising since the highway was not close. Probably the logging trucks that were running down the highway. Also . . . we love to hot spot from our devices and watch Netflix. The AT&T there was barely strong enough to get a text message out. Usually only 1 bar.
Whoever said there was 3 bars there was well . . . we never saw 3 bars.

Unfortunate that such a beautiful camp site has such ill-tempered owners. Managers will look for any excuse for an angry confrontation. The google reviews about this place have several examples of customers being treated in an inappropriate manner. For us, a simple and tactful request was responded to with shouting and early termination of our 3 month reservation which left me with no other place to stay in the area while on my 3 month assignment as a travel nurse. It's funny that every other RV park in the area is booked solid all summer, but this one has lots of open slots.

Across highway 101 from Lake Sutherland, a mile east of Lake Crescent and 10 miles west of Port Angeles, you can see most of the Olympic Peninsula from this little park.

Very basic with spotty WiFi, a small laundry and bathhouse. Playground, large dog play area, miniature golf, general store and gas station on site. Store has some hot food during the day and a decent variety of beer and wine.

Sites are tight, gravel and on tiers. They all seem pretty level and there are trees at each one with nice new picnic tables and fire pit (burn ban while we were here). We were between two long-term campers but they were quiet and their sites nicely maintained.

Park for sale as of time of this review. Includes a park model home and a couple golf carts. Sweet spot for those who love to the outdoors. Lots of fishing spots nearby.