Sun Outdoors Kensington Valley

Awesome campground… gated. Good folks at the front desk! Very helpful. Level gravel sites. Clean bath house with hot showers. The only downside is the 1/2 mile dirt road that leads into the campground and the all the campground roads are dirt. At least it didn’t rain during our trip so this was not an issue….

We been seasonal for 2 years now and I love having a place to go and not have to hook up and tear down every weekend. But my camping experience this year has been horrible to say the least! 1st of this is not a reflection on any of the staff, they have all been great! Its the corporate greed that has made its way in. Last year there were way more cool events and things to look forward to and I was ok with the $300 increase for this season. But everything went to crap very shortly, we were without water for up to 4 weeks then had a boil water alert that lasted weeks. It totally took the fun out. There's no dinosaur park like what was part of the increase. The dog park was a nice addition for us and just a short distance from our site. As previous people posted the roads are horrible with potholes and standing water and mud especially closer to office. Not many activities for kids except a giant bounce pad and a play area. But I come to relaxe so im ok with that. We have fantastic neighbors that dont drink and party all night long. Like the drunks in the village who act like the cl9ck revolves around drinking. Our site is ok but the retaining was has fallen into the lake and I took pictures last year of the rebar sticking out and reached out to corporate for repairs. If someone fell into the water they might end up dead. I offered to clean it up bust office said its a liability? But someone being stabbed by a metal bar isn't? Now here we are coming into renewal season and they jacked up our rates $240 for what? I was expecting a discount !!! What services are being provided to justify this increase? Its just corporate greed! I know there's a waiting list to get in here so corporate does not care that people are leaving but they are pricing people out of having a good time! There's some other close campground that now are relatively cheaper for seasonal and are well maintained. I will say again that staff here are not a problem, even everyone at the gate are very friendly and welcoming! And why can't the road into the park be maintained better? Professionly, not just Andy from lake lucy doing it. Im hoping this review makes it all the way to the new ceo and he cutes our rates and makes some positive changes!! Do better sun outdoors corporate.

Update, a supposed owner responded to my review and praised themselves for supplying bottled water. So 5 weeks without running water and we get a $3 case of water. The price of our lot includes water!!! So we got robbed! Maybe some legal action and possibly contacting all the major news outlets will help them understand you can't rob people! What's next? Stealing my wallet?

God awful, ridiculously slow speed limit of 5.5 MPH! Staff drives their lawn mower faster than you! It takes 20 mins to get to your campsite. I'm not advocating unsafe driving, but 15-20 MPH is what most drivers would agree feels safe, at minimum, during daylight hours. Also the washboard entrance road is poorly maintained. I stayed one night here with family and left the next morning. Beautiful place though.

Perhaps other locations are different, but I can only speak on the Kensington, Michigan location. Sorry, but the website video doesn't give an accurate depiction of this location. We came here just for a 5 night stay. We were put in an interior loop that didn't even have a dedicated trailer location or drive. You just pulled in the grass wherever you want. All the roads are gravel and that causes a constant amount of dust to be flying about. Water and electric hookups aren't even on the correct side of the site. We had to have our water and electric lines run under the camper and across the site just to be hooked up. Then, there is the overall ambiance of the entire place. The majority of all those there are either permanent or seasonal. Driving around the place, you see "stuff" everywhere. People have items strewn about their sites from golf carts, to old boats, old trailers, etc. It just gives a trailer park feel, which is basically what it is I guess (I am used to campgrounds).

When the weekend came around, the influx of cars/trucks was a bit surprising. Many campsites either had gatherings or parties, so you get a ton of people who come in who aren't actually staying there. Vehicles just start parking anywhere and everywhere. The good thing is that none of this lasted late into the night, so that's a positive.

Facilities/bathhouses are a bit old (granted they did tile the showers which is nice). There are multiple fishing lakes on the property. I would love to have had the opportunity to stay on a waterfront site, but those are saved for their permanent tenants apparently. They do have dedicated "beach" locations which I don't care for at all. These lakes are big enough that you should be allowed to enter and swim wherever you want. I am sure they will say you can't do that because they have small motorized boats on a couple of the lakes, but it's all no-wake. I hate having to be corralled into a small swimming area with lots of other people when there is so much space to spread out IF they'd let you. Where I come from, it's swim at your own risk on lakes. Nobody tells you where you can swim and not swim.

Anyway, i'd have to say I won't be returning to a Sun Valley location, it's just not for me.

Great stay. Very easy in and out and the campground is very roomy. There is a boil water notice in effect, so the front desk provides you with cases of water for drinking. The beaches on the lakes are very nice and our kids had a blast playing in the water.