Golden Beach Resort was the park I chose to celebrate my 50th birthday! Why? Well, it offered a great place to launch our boat on Rice Lake and Rice Lake had been on my bucket list to fish for years! When Dave asked me how I wanted to spend my 50th, I told him camping and fishing of course!
We reserved a pull through for our stay and hoped for the best as there were no photos to tell us what they looked like. I did call to book which gave us the ability to tell them the size of our fiver. Well, despite all that, it was a very tight fit! I’ll start with a couple photos of our site!
We had three way hookups at Golden Beach, which was a nice bonus! The park was busy at least until Sunday as is typical on an August weekend. Our journey to the park started on Friday morning and all went well until we got on the road the park entrance is located on. It turns out there are two entrances to the park. The first is the park model entrance and the second is to the campground. Well guess which one I picked? Yup I pulled our fiver into the road with security gates and nowhere to turn around. When I used the intercom they told me I was at the wrong gate and would have to turn around. Well, there was nowhere to turn around. I had to back our 36 foot fiver back out onto the road and continue on. I do fairly well backing up, but it was a little stressful. Fortunately a kind motorist seen my dilemma and held traffic his way. Dave backed out with the boat and held traffic up that way. I found the campground road a short distance away and pulled up to the gatehouse. As I was driving to it, I passed what I thought was the overnight area thinking oh boy, hopefully they have a way to go back around or I’ll be backing up again! Sure enough, no go. I had to back up down the road, in front of the busy restaurant and office on a Friday afternoon! I got it done and we finally got parked!
I must say the staff were awesome and helped out quite a bit watching traffic, kids and people while I backed up. They took us to our site, got us settled in and were very helpful with where to put the boat and finally helping us find our dock. The site was a little small for our fiver but we fit. It was grassy and level and as mentioned had three services. We had to back out when we left on Monday because we couldn’t swing out from the front.
We rented a slip for the weekend so we could just launch and go fishing anytime we wanted.
We did go out a couple times but didn’t really catch any fish during our times out. It was fun though on a hot summer day to go for a swim from the boat. I was very fortunate to have my youngest daughter Katey camp with us for my birthday and my niece Tara and her boyfriend Gregor. We all enjoyed the weekend and the time on the boat.
The sunsets at Golden Beach were AMAZING! We wandered down to the beach every night to catch them and were rewarded with some pretty spectacular sights!
We celebrated my 50th with good company, a campfire and drinks. It was an awesome celebration. I couldn’t have had a better time anywhere else doing anything else!
The kids headed home on Sunday morning and Dave and I stayed behind for another night. We had until Monday at the park. The weather was just fantastic for our stay and we enjoyed every aspect of the trip.
Now for a review of the park! Golden Beach is a full service campground with full launching services and docking facilities. They offer a range of accommodations from roofed to full service campsites to seasonal campsites. They offer different packages for accommodations as well. They have a very well stocked store at the office with everything from food items to souvenirs and clothing. There is also a nice restaurant – The Boathouse Cafe that offers live entertainment on some nights during the summer. The weekend we stayed there was a wedding reception being held at the Banquet Hall. They also offer some beautiful places to hold an outdoor wedding as per their website.
They offer canoe, kayak and paddle boat rentals and sell fishing gear in their store. They have a great boat launch and offer rental of boat slips too. The beach is very nice and as I mentioned the sunsets are killer and you’ll always find a spot somewhere along the shore to enjoy the view!
The park has lots to do for families with playgrounds, boat rentals, a restaurant, a nice beach and fishing from shore if you don’t have a boat. Of course there are boat rentals if you’d like to take a paddle onto Rice Lake. If you’re interested in visiting in the off season, they do offer winter accommodation packages too!
We would return to this park but get a larger site next time! Here are some links to their website!
http://www.goldenbeachresort.com/about-us
http://www.goldenbeachresort.com/camping
http://www.goldenbeachresort.com/fishing-amenities-and-recreation
Sue and Daves RV Adventures 