Martis Creek Lake Campground is how everyone refers to this park, although the official name is Alpine Meadows. Campground is run by the Army Corps of Engineers. There are no hookups, but each site is spacious, with a fire pit, barbecue, picnic table and iron hook to hang a lantern. Most sites are at least partially shaded by pines. Campground is available only on a first-come, first-served basis; no reservations. Lots of space available during the week; fairly full on the weekend. Ranger hosts Sat. evening presentations in the amphitheater. Location on highway 267 is convenient to town (about 4 miles)and proximate to lots of hiking and biking. Loads of off-leash room for dogs to run and splash in the lake. Our dogs thought they died and went to heaven! About 1 1/2 miles off the highway, so no traffic noise. Sites are described as limited to 30 ft., but we were able to camp here in a 40 ft. motorhome. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Clean park and nice management. My two observations here were that campers before us must have left the cable attached to their rig and drove away: ripped it totally off, leaving us with no cable TV the first night. Second comment was that spaces were very, very tight. We had a tent camper and we were cramped: very awkward parking our Chevy Tahoe on either end of the camper. Office was closed at 5 PM, just a few minutes after we arrived, so no way to talk to management about cable or parking. It was not an emergency but definitely a weird feeling with two questions within first hour of arrival and no one to talk to! Had a wonderful time though. It's a beautiful park. We would definitely return. We camped here in a Tent Trailer.
Enjoyed our stay for 3 nights and four days. No street or freeway noise. Park is older, but everything, including the bathrooms, were immaculate. Park also has permanent residents, but it was quiet and peaceful. Would go back again. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Review Rating
[ 8 / 10 ]
May 2009
$44
Beautiful park surrounded by forest. Staff very helpful. No highway noise. Wi-fi works well. Restrooms were very clean. Beautiful clubhouse. A little chilly for our first camp out of the season up in the mountains. They usually have open sites for this three day weekend. Great for hiking and close to Lake Tahoe. We will camp there again and again. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
This park is clean and basically well-kept, although there are some units in the back rows that are showing some serious age. The rest room and shower were clean; but, with only one shower and toilet for each gender, they were seriously inadequate for Memorial Day Weekend. The line-up (when all the families were visiting) was impressive and maddening. On-site Wi-Fi is advertised, but it doesn't exist. At least not for the back rows of the park. You can get a signal in the laundry room, where I spent a lot of time...and where a lot of other guests came by to see if one "really could" get Wi-Fi here. But the thing I liked least about this park was the unhelpfulness of the staff. When the Wi-Fi issue was raised with them, they basically blew us off. Then when I lugged my laptop and dirty clothes to the laundry room, only to come up 2 quarters short for the washers, and asked the staff if I could have quarters as change for the 5 dimes I had with me, they said it was "inconvenient" for them to accept dimes and I would need to come back with dollars instead. Excuse me....inconvenient??? Who is paying whom here! So, I lugged my lap top, laundry soap, dirty clothes, etc., back across the park to glean quarters from other sources. Business at this park must be very good; although I did note that it was far from full on Memorial Day Weekend. Gosh, I wonder why. We would not stay here again. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Still like the staff and the setting. They continue to keep the park maintained well. But I had to bring the rating down this trip due to the lack of a proper place to walk our dog. The "designated pet area" is an area where they pile dirt and limbs and leaves. My dog went in there white and came out brown. An RV park guest should not have to bath their pets every time they go for their walk. I raised my concern with the staff. I hope it gets passed on to management. We will consider another park next time because of this issue. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Nothing better than the smell of the woods and mountain air! Beautiful location but need a bit more activities here. Can get pretty cold at night. Lots of pets here and dirt. Very nice people and quick trip to the dump station. We camped here in a Motorhome.
I spent only one night here, but found the setting serene and pretty, after several days traveling across the Great Basin. No complaints. Cool temperature at night. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
First, let me say that we are in a Class B RV. This is a park for big rigs and long-term living units (the kind with wooden panels built below--not mobile). The good things: very convenient location off I-80 and Donner Pass Road. Can get to everything easily using freeway or local road. I didn't find the highway noise bothersome--more like white noise in the background. Lovely shade trees--really feel as if you're in the north woods. Excellent laundry facility (as one would expect with all the long-term folks). Nice front ofice staff. Great wifi (which I'm using now to write this). The negatives: Quiet hours till 8AM--kind of late (we're early risers). Only one women's toilet and shower. We did experience a wait. And while it was marginally clean, it needs maintenance (water under the floor tiles, poor shower head, no storage for shampoo et al in shower) and a rubber mat in the shower area. Bigger problem for us is the dirt around the sites--no grass or gravel even. The dirt blows everywhere. The dog sits in dirt. Dirt covers your hands and feet. No way to avoid it. And finally--not much to do here. No where to walk, really, and no pool. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Nice clean well-maintained campground with many seasonal units but very quiet during the week. CaTV and WiFi worked well, but my site was also close to the front office-- not sure how it'd do from further away. Bathroom was clean and never saw another soul using it, which was good because they only have 1 toilet/shower per gender for the whole place. Convenient location & very friendly staff. Would stay here again. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
Really nice park. Nice staff, well maintained grounds. Down graded it only because of price. Although you are parked "side by side", you are parked in opposite directions, so your door faces a large greenbelt with a table and trees. It was nice. Close to freeway, but heard very little noise. Trains were infrequent, but have to blow their whistles, which is disturbing. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Great park in the mountains with pine trees all around. This is our second visit and there has been a lot of work keeping the sites up-to-date. Staff is terrific and helpful. Close to old town, shops, and restaurants. We camped here in a Motorhome.
Nice level sites; about half the park has asphalt sites and half are dirt/gravel. Sites are double-wide so you share your site with another RV (facing opposite directions). Free Wifi and Cable TV. One shower is a drawback. Quiet at night. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
Paved roads & shaded sites. Nice place to stay amongst tall pine trees - 40 minutes from Reno and 20 minutes from Lake Tahoe. No playground for kids, but has a large grassy picnic area and basketball court. Kid's enjoyed riding bikes around campground. Would stay there again. One shower only in bathroom was the only negative. We camped here in a Motorhome.
We were packed in pretty tight. We did have a couple of trees in our area. The guy next to us had been there six years. This campground caters to year round campers. So some sites looked pretty cluttered. The power, and water, and cable hookups were excellent. The place only had one shower and one toilet for use while we were there and the toilet was broken. It was ok to use as a home base to come and go, but for hanging around the campsite, I would not recommend it. We camped here in a camper.
Dry camping for tents or for RV under 24'. Very tight turns. Big boulders. No directional signs for one-way roads in order to back-in. Crunched up our Airstream on a boulder trying to turn around. Our fault, should have driven around again! Nice trails, lots of room around each site. Must unhitch to fit vehicle into the concrete pad, which is very wide and level. If you don't have a problem with rig size, it is a very pretty park, high in the Donner Pass area just west of Truckee off I-80. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.
This is a typical National Forest camping area. Sites enjoy a view of the Truckee River and good fishing abounds there. Nice area for a couple days. No hook ups. Dump station a few miles away. We stayed in a 32 ft 5th wheel. We camped here in a Fifth Wheel.
This is a nice National Forest campground along the banks of the Truckee river. Most have shade though those closer to the highway tend to be open. Sites are paved and fairly level. Dry camping but there are water spigots scattered around. Good fishing. Fire rings and a table at each site. We stayed three nights and would return again. We camped here in a Travel Trailer.