Meandering Life Rating: [usr 3.5]
CAMPSITE REVIEW: Willow Campground, Willard Bay State Park, 900 W 650 N, Willard, UT 84340
Cost: $30
Hookups: None
Dump/Water On-site: Yes
Amenities: None
GPS: 41.420822,-112.0603633
We stayed three nights in the beginning of June 2018. The park is right off Interstate 15 so there was road noise in the evenings. There is also train tracks nearby and you could hear the trains during the day and at night. We typically sleep with a fan running so did not have too much problem as it was enough to drown out the noise. They have several fresh water spigots throughout the campground and a dump station as you exit. The Willow Campground is dry camping and is $30/night for a single site. A double site is $50/night (double the cars and double the people allowed). The Cottonwood Campground is full hook-up and is $40/night. They also have camping at the South Marina (different exit entirely and you cannot get to it from the main park) and the North Marina but I’m not sure how much for those. I believe they are both full hook-up though. You can reserve sites online, but it must be reserved more than 48 hours in advance and we missed the window. We arrived right at check-in time at 3:00 to see if they had any first come first serve sites. The staff said they had one more left and we snagged it. This was spot #38. We should have instantly realized it was not going to work for our rig, but we tried it anyway. After a few tries, we realized we were not going to get in the site properly and it was going to be impossible to level. Also, that particular site was very shady which is great for most people, but not us, who rely on solar. Some of the staff came by and we told them the site was not going to work for us. We were planning on heading out to a different park, but they indicated another site was available. Apparently, the reservation group thought it was taken, but it was open. We promptly moved to the new site and it was much better. This was site #26 and was a bit more open for solar and was better for leveling. If you are reserving online, make sure you look carefully at the site if you have solar. There were several in the shade, but there were many in full sun. Most of the spots were pull-through which was nice. Overall, there is not much to do at this park. There are no hiking trails. Its claim to fame is Willard Bay and the beach. Great for boating and fishing. We biked and did some birding (which was decent). But for us, it was not worth the cost. Internet access was good. We got 3-4 bars 4G for AT&T and 3 bars 4G for Verizon on the hotspot. The mosquitoes were out in force, but nothing a little bug spray could not handle. Overall it was a nice stopover, but we would not stay here again simply because of cost. $30/night with no hookups is a little much when the park does not have a lot to offer (at least for us).