Riffles RV Park on the River

Appreciated the rest and peace being at a campground, as well as a shower.
However, showers require quarters so don’t forget
And there’s only one, and it worked the first time didn’t work the second.
Worst thing, the keypad door doesn’t matter cause it doesn’t actually lock, to say it shortly.
However, one of the two places in town that doesn’t discriminate against rigs over 10 years old, so it still worked for us. But worked is about the best word I got unfortunately.

When we arrived, my husband was told that we were at the wrong place and that the campground was at maximum capacity due to a wedding. He told the women that we had a confirmation from Walter and she reiterated we were not on the right place as didn't know any Walter. My husband came and got me and when I came with the confirmation in hand for three sites, she laughed and told us to park anywhere because nothing was numbered. We were able to get the bathroom code from her either and told we could not go to the river access. On the upside, whoever the man and women were working the wedding venue side, they were extremely friendly every time they came by and even brought us some fruit salad from the wedding.

Pros: tent camping spot was nice. Walter was nice.

Cons: spaces not numbered, so it was confusing. Sprinkler going all night. Many mosquitos in the morning. Road noise.

For the price it's definitely 5 stars the shower is more like a locker room but the location is perfect, the people are quiet and the host Dana makes sure no crazy people ruin the experience for level headed guests

The site was beautiful, directly over the river where you can watch the sunset every night. It is right next to river access where we spent our days and had a great time. There is a huge grassy, shaded section in the middle of the property where you can camp and there are some residents as well. Everyone there was very friendly. The river front spots are actually up top of a parking area and beside a wedding/event venue. The boat ramp/river access is inside the event area, but there are other paths to the river toward the opposite direction. We camped here for three nights. The river had some of the best SUP and it was amazing just to float to beat the heat.

The only reason why I say I am mixed on recommending this site is that there is an issue with transients. The worst interaction was when a woman (who was very strung out) sat in our campsite yelling and talking to herself which frightened my kids. One of the residents there was extremely attentive and got her to leave our site, but it turned an incredible trip into a questionable one.

It was a very nice place to stay. Beautiful shady trees nice accommodations. Thank you!

The location was convenient and lovely camping sites, the showers require payment in quarters which is reasonable, just know that ahead of time so you are prepared. Enjoyed our stay and would return!

Setting the stage. We’d planned a camping trip for the upcoming weekend and waited till the last minute to make a reservation. We had several FCFS options, but I didn’t want to have to think and be stressed about fighting over spots. By the time I got around to looking for places to stay, our options we few… then we spotted Riffles RV Park on the River.

Let me quote a few of the selling points that caught my eye…
“Paddling. Numerous places on the Feather River, we have a boat ramp on the property.”
“Swimming. We have a boat ramp into the river on our property.”
“River, stream, or creek. The Feather River is our property line to the West.”
“Swimming hole. Feather River with our boat ramp.”

We were blown away to see that they had ZERO other reserved dry camping spots for the nights we were staying. Water access, good prices, nice photos, we reserved the spot and on the road. *We should have read other reviews first.*

Our first impression-AMAZING. We received a welcoming text with details from the property owner with the access code and directions to access our campsite. So far, so good!

We arrived and followed the instructions that we’d received, advising us to head up the hill, enter the code at the gate to access our camp site. To our surprise, we were chased down by a crazy lady on a motorized cart, aka the property manager, demanding to know what we were doing there and yelling at us for disturbing the area that had been booked for a wedding. The area that we had paid to book was “in-use” for a wedding the next day. She directed us to pick any camping spot in the midst of the RV campers.

Instead of the camping spot that we’d paid for… the one that was less than 200 feet from the water, with boat deck & river access… we were told to pick any spot we wanted from a very empty, very weedy RV lot, with very broken picnic tables. We settled on a place that we thought was out of the way and would be the least disruptive to the RVers that were clearly long-term tenants.

Well once we settled on a spot, the manager came chasing us down again, demanding to know if our dogs are friendly… further explaining that they have a cat colony living on the property and the spot we had selected was right near where they tend to prowl. We elected to stay in the spot, figuring it wouldn’t be that big of a deal…

We didn’t know that the manager would drive her cart back and forth for 20 minutes at feeding time - trying to LURE THE CATS ACROSS OUR CAMP SITE. Yes…. She was on her cart on the road, driving back and forth and calling to the kitties that it was dinner time, while our dogs were tied up but visibly reacting to both her and the chaos she was creating with the cats. If she’d told us that was a BAD spot, we would have moved - but she mentioned the cat colony as a “just want to let you know…” type of thing. This cat colony was NO JOKE… these cats prowled around our camp for 2 days, super creepy staring at our every move during the dark hours. These 5 giant cats made it clear that we were on their territory…

Well, since the original camp spot was unavailable, we’d asked the manager how to reach the river access that their post ranted about… She LAUGHED AT US and told us that there was a WEDDING that would prevent us from having access to the river AT ALL until Sunday (We arrived Friday afternoon, with plans to leave early Sunday)- we would not have access to the river through their property until SUNDAY…… So much for those selling points, eh?

Throughout our stay, the local tenants introduced themselves. NOT ONE OF THEM had anything nice to say about the manager. The LOCAL TENANTS provide the toilet paper and hand soap in the bathroom - because the manager doesn’t refill it and they see a lot of paying guests unhappy. THAT was really unfortunately to see and hear, but says a lot about the really friendly people that live there long-term.

The sprinklers were running 24/7, and the manager manually moved the hosed sprinkler around the property. It was AWFUL to have them running almost directly next to our camp site ALL NIGHT LONG.

In the end, we had a bathroom and a shower. NO POTABLE WATER access as promised. We were kind of worried that we would be harassed more if we asked. We had brought our own, so it wasn’t a big deal.

This property has a LOT of potential. It’s beautiful. We saw the river access and it would have been perfect for what we had hoped to use it for.

Failure to supply river access on a property that advertises it so heavily, failure to supply potable water, and rely on it’s long-term tenants to supply toilet paper & bar soap in the restroom, definitely would not recommend.

We camped, we experienced, we left, we reviewed.

Will not return.

Do not recommend under current management (Dana?)

Lovely green space with gorgeous large trees. There was a very nice caretaker, Craig or Greg, who told us a little about the history of the place and the Feather River. It was a lovely stay. The showers require quarters, but there’s hot water in the sink. Might be hard to get into the bathroom if the place is crowded. We appreciated the help of Craig/Greg and would recommend!