Mathews Arm Campground

Campground was busy, but didn't feel cramped. Site(s) were clean as were the restrooms.

Personnel do a great job at a poor excuse of a national park facility. Tent sites are poorly maintained. Online reservation system is terrible. The entire park is being overgrown. Internet service would save lives… I’ll make a list or I just won’t got back till there’s a change in administration culture.

Personnel do a great job at a poor excuse of a national park facility. Tent sites are poorly maintained. Online reservation system is terrible. The entire park is being overgrown. Internet service would save lives… I’ll make a list or I just won’t got back till there’s a change in administration culture.

Beautiful campground, easy to get to coming from DC area. We unfortunately were next to what seemed like a scene from a frat house with some guys trying to show off to the girls with them by loudly proclaiming how they were going to get passing out, dead drunk. Across the road a toddler screamed their head off for about an hour at bedtime. Thankfully it didn’t keep my kids awake (2 hour hike and didn’t make it to the falls kind of wiped us all out) because there was a strong breeze that acted like a noise machine drowning out the young and well, still immature. Unfortunately both kept me awake. There were signs everywhere for bears but didn’t see any. The hike to the falls is long, very rocky and even though we only made it just over 1 mi in before we turned around another hiker said coming out it was not suited for kids - she said they had started at 1:30pm and they were still a mile from the start at around 5:45pm. She had hiked it with a toddler on her back. Apparently the falls didn’t have too much water then either.

Beautiful campground, easy to get to coming from DC area. We unfortunately were next to what seemed like a scene from a frat house with some guys trying to show off to the girls with them by loudly proclaiming how they were going to get passing out, dead drunk. Across the road a toddler screamed their head off for about an hour at bedtime. Thankfully it didn’t keep my kids awake (2 hour hike and didn’t make it to the falls kind of wiped us all out) because there was a strong breeze that acted like a noise machine drowning out the young and well, still immature. Unfortunately both kept me awake. There were signs everywhere for bears but didn’t see any. The hike to the falls is long, very rocky and even though we only made it just over 1 mi in before we turned around another hiker said coming out it was not suited for kids - she said they had started at 1:30pm and they were still a mile from the start at around 5:45pm. She had hiked it with a toddler on her back. Apparently the falls didn’t have too much water then either.

Camp staff was very helpful. Campgrounds very beautiful in the trees. A lovely stay.

Camp staff was very helpful. Campgrounds very beautiful in the trees. A lovely stay.

Campsites are nice, easy to navigate to and actually have raised flat platforms to set your tent on (just make sure you bring a pad to sleep on because the platforms have a gravel surface). If you like to put a lot of stakes in the ground to keep your tent up, you'll just have to get creative and tie some rope from your tent to the stake so that it can get past the platform and reach ground (tough to stake through gravel). We have a pop up tent and we tied ours to the platform's wood frame, which worked fine for us.

Site had a firepit with adjustable grill grates on top, so we were able to cook dinner on top of it.

Rangers at check out made it very clear to keep food locked in our car when not eating, to prevent attracting bears.

Only suggestion for improvement would be to add shower facilities, even if just cold water showers. They have indoor bathrooms around the campground, but Matthews Arm in particular has no showers.

We knew this going in and were doing an arrive Friday evening leave Sunday morning trip. So we were okay with just not showering.

There's also a roadside camp store about two miles down the road which was convenient. They even have a little restaurant window (doesn't open til 11 AM though, so bring your own coffee to the campground with you!).

Campsites are nice, easy to navigate to and actually have raised flat platforms to set your tent on (just make sure you bring a pad to sleep on because the platforms have a gravel surface). If you like to put a lot of stakes in the ground to keep your tent up, you'll just have to get creative and tie some rope from your tent to the stake so that it can get past the platform and reach ground (tough to stake through gravel). We have a pop up tent and we tied ours to the platform's wood frame, which worked fine for us.

Site had a firepit with adjustable grill grates on top, so we were able to cook dinner on top of it.

Rangers at check out made it very clear to keep food locked in our car when not eating, to prevent attracting bears.

Only suggestion for improvement would be to add shower facilities, even if just cold water showers. They have indoor bathrooms around the campground, but Matthews Arm in particular has no showers.

We knew this going in and were doing an arrive Friday evening leave Sunday morning trip. So we were okay with just not showering.

There's also a roadside camp store about two miles down the road which was convenient. They even have a little restaurant window (doesn't open til 11 AM though, so bring your own coffee to the campground with you!).

It was a lovely spot however, it would be nice if the grass had been better kept. (mowed/weedwacked)