Campground Review Summary

• Name: Lemon Cove Village RV Park
• Dates of stay: April 22 – May 6, 2018
• Location: Lemon Cove, California
• Type of campground: Private / Independent
• Cost:  $49.50/night (weekly rate plus Good Sam discount)
• Additional fees: none
• Stay limit: none
• Accepts mail / packages: Not really – see review below
• Cell reception: decent AT&T reception
• Website: http://lemoncovevillagervpark.com/
• Pros: within reach of Sequoia National park, pleasant surroundings
• Cons: pricey for what you get, management issues

Full Review

One of the disadvantages of having a big rig is that you simply can’t camp everywhere. We are limited to those parks that can accommodate our 43 foot motorhome plus large truck. We chose Lemon Cove because it was the closest campground to Sequoia that could accommodate our rig. It is conveniently located about 30 minutes from the park entrance.

The setting for the campground was very nice – mostly farmland. Citrus trees were in bloom during our stay, wafting delicious orange blossom scent through our open windows. Colorful birds twittered and flitted around the campground trees. My window looked out onto a beautiful hill. It was very peaceful and quiet.

All interior roads and pads were gravel, but the gravel was thick and reasonably solid. We had a 50 amp electrical hookup, water and sewer, and a picnic table. The separation between sites was reasonable and the site was more than long enough for all of our equipment. There were some trees in the campground, but were trimmed enough so that we could navigate the space easily enough. The campground had the usual basic amenities including a clean bath house, pet area, and office. Nothing fancy here, but everything worked.

The park was definitely in small-town-land; the nearest supermarket is in Exeter, about 15 minutes away. For a shopping mall or movie theater, a 30 minute trek to Visalia is needed. We could only get about 3 over the air TV channels, but our satellite TV worked fine. The AT&T signal was surprisingly adequate for such a rural area.

The biggest issue we had here was with management disorganization. When we arrived, the site we were assigned was a 30 amp site, not a 50 amp site which is what we reserved and paid for.  We were then told to take the next site over, which was 50 amp. No problem – at least not until the final night of our stay. Our reassigned site was apparently reserved by someone else beginning that night. You might think it would pose no problem, just assign the newcomers another site. However (as I found out later), the office accepted a “drop in” reservation which caused the campground to be overbooked by one site. All we knew was that we got a knock on the door at around 7:30 pm (after dark), telling us we’d have to leave, that someone else was booked into our site! Um, no, that’s not going to happen. You put us in this spot, said nothing about moving, and we paid for this night. Not to mention that packing up and moving out is quite a process and we had nowhere to go! Ultimately, we stayed put and they had to figure something else out, but it simply wasn’t handled well.

Another quirk was the mail service for the park, or lack thereof. Apparently, the park isn’t set up for receiving mail at all. Not even their own. Not knowing that, I had had our mail forwarded and (through tracking) knew the package was at the local post office for pickup. The address I had obtained from the internet for the park was incorrect, and luckily I checked at the post office and retrieved my package before it was mistakenly delivered to the wrong place. I wouldn’t even try to forward mail here.

Bottom Line: It’s a pleasant park near Sequoia, but the management issues discourage me from returning. It’s also expensive for just basic campground facilities.