My husband and I run a mobile non-profit animal rescue. When we are in town having animals treated for cancer at CSU, we've been staying at Riverview RV park. We've stayed around 4 months total during late winter, spring and early summer.
Up until recently, we'd had a great experience but the owner and his mother have made it their personal venture to be a thorn in our side. I'm honestly surprised they have such a great staff (pretty much the only redeeming factor here) in spite of their horrible behavior, attitude and approach to handling things they consider to be an inconvenience.
Since we do travel a great deal, we have both our Ford F350 for towing and we have a 1966 VW Beetle that's cheap to fuel for errands.
During the 2023 Memorial Day weekend, on a Saturday at 2pm, my husband started our bug and left it to idle while he checked the throttle cable. It is an old car and, like all old cars, they need a little warm-up time and they do require maintenance to keep them running perfectly. In spite of it being 2pm on a weekend, over a holiday when there was plenty of noise because the park was filled to the brim, the owner came out of the maintenance area and berated my husband for having our "loud" car running. My husband kindly shut the bug down until we were ready to leave. In spite of there being absolutely no rules regarding car sounds during normal hours, he was told we were not allowed to do anything but start the bug and leave. This was the first time we'd ever had an arbitrary rule made just for us, so we checked in with the office to see who this rude, strange man was. Turns out IT'S THE OWNER who apparently lives on the property! So, we asked the office to move us away from his area so this wouldn't cause further issues while we warmed the bug up for travel. They were happy to do so and found us a spot near the front of the park rather than the wagon wheel.
That following Wednesday, at 7pm, we turned the bug over and prepared to leave for dinner. Both my husband and I were buckled up and ready to leave when an elderly woman walked out of the same area this time SCREAMING at the top of her lungs, arms raised above her head, making threats. Again, we had no idea who this person was. We checked in with the office again and were told that this was THE OWNER'S MOTHER! Apparently she raised her son to mistreat people in the same fashion that she finds acceptable. I asked her to identify herself and held up my camera. When she realized that she was going to be videoed, she turned on her heel and retreated.
The office staff was kind enough to move us AGAIN, this time to the furthest corner of the park, so we didn't have to deal with any more drama from either of them.
In all of this, the staff has been wonderful and has done all they can to keep us in the park (free days, refunds, moving spots repeatedly, etc). I'm honestly not sure how they're keeping patrons there when the owners are being absolute assholes. We're not difficult people and the staff claims to love us staying there (and our bug!). A text, email or even a knock-and-talk works fine if we're doing something wrong. We even offered to park at the very front edge of the park, hundreds of yards away from our spot, to avoid disturbing people---but the only people who ever complained WERE THE OWNERS. Lots of patrons have come over to chat us up about our vintage car with no complaints about noise. We don't hot rod the bug, we're gentle drivers and we try to be respectful of others.
I absolutely adore the staff and don't have a single complaint towards them. The owners, though, are their own problem. I'm afraid that we're going to have to look at patronizing a different park since these owners cannot be sensible in their approach to handling inconveniences. Having spoken with the office staff, this is apparently a fairly common concern. The owners have a strong preference toward silence in the park and any vehicle that makes any degree of noise becomes an irritant for them. If this is the case, they should state this in their rules or at least on their website. We've stayed in more than 30 parks across the USA and they are the ONLY one to have raised any concerns about this. As such, I am apt to believe that this is not a concern regarding the sound of the vehicle or our compliance, but rather their own unwillingness to calmly discuss concerns with patrons, be honest about their expectations and to be respectful toward other people. As such, we will only be returning if we have no other option. There are plenty of other RV parks, campgrounds, etc. in the area. I would suggest that others skip this park over and look elsewhere.
In the photos attached, you'll find the owner's mother walking away from us after her rant. I'm also attaching a link to listen to our bug run. You decide for yourself if this is something that warranted this type of reaction from the owners: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dyCCR0xHAoM read more