Jos Motel and Campground

We stayed at Jo’s Motel for 2 nights at the end of July, 2012. We stayed in the Motel. While having no phone or wi-​fi is nice, it is not so nice if you need to contact management after hours. Cell phone reception was non-​existent for a while but there is usually cell reception.
The rooms are very pretty but there are some caveats. We stayed in the guest bed and though it claims to be a queen, she must have been pretty short because my feet were off the end of the bed and I’m 5′-10″ tall. The wood paneling is very attractive and I like the carport for each room. The bathroom is so tiny there is barely room to turn around and the shower nozzle is positioned kind of strange but workable. Our towels were really old looking and I couldn’t find a good place to put my towel when I took my shower. I put it in the sink but the facet dripped and got one end of the towel wet and cold.
The front room of the hotel can be noisy because you need the windows open an night and you’ll hear trucks going by, or the delivery truck. The neighbor dogs can bark a fair amount too.
Be sure to get your ground coffee for the room because the office doesn’t open until 9am. It would have been nice to call because one of the fire alarms started buzzing in the middle of the night. Luckily I was able to disconnect it and put it outside the back door. The kitchen is small but usable (quaint?) and the utensils you need are there, but maybe not in the quantity you want. We had 3 people in the room but only 2 spoons. Some of the bowels don’t look microwave-​safe so we used a pyrex measuring cup for the microwave. It would be really nice if the owners would make sure there furnishings were stocked.
The setting is pleasant and the nearby river is nice, but that invites mosquitoes for much of the summer. Be prepared for them when you sit outside.
They have an evening campfire that you can build and horseshoes that you can play.
In general I thought it was really overpriced for the small rooms and the cheap furnishings we got, about $ 120 per night for 2 people but I think it is a captive market and there aren’t many nearby choices for Crater Lake.
If you want to visit Crater Lake for multiple days, I don’t think you have many choices unless you have your own camping facilities. My wife really liked it and liked the pine paneling but not a lot else.
I love Crater Lake but not this place. It sounds like the cabins are better than the hotel rooms. Be sure to check those out for prices.

Just recently we had gone on a trip to the Napa Valley and along the way we wanted to stop at Crater Lake in Oregon.
It was a long drive and we wanted to make sure that we had a campground there… unfortunately all the campsites were reserved. Damnit.
So i looked around the internet a bit and found this place. It is about 20 miles South of Crater lake, but half that distance seems to be getting from the start of the National Park to where you can actually see the lake.
Anyhow, I believe that it’s just a small nice couple that run this little campground and grocery store. They have cabins for rent as well as camp sites. We got there pretty late and had to settle for an established campsite. There are also campsites next to a river that you have to walk into, but after a long drive, we decided we wanted to camp next to the bathrooms that were very nice. Running water and free showers!
Anyhow, the rates are really cheap. $ 5 per person and there’s a communal giant fire pit with free wood. That we enjoyed for a bit before the mosquitoes forced us into the tent.
Now it sounds pretty amazing right? Well the bad news is that it’s adjacent to a cow pasture. I didn’t get any smells, but the cows can get a bit loud at night. My only gripe really… can’t really ding a place for mosquitoes.
I guess there’s a grocery store as well, but I didn’t get to check it out since we got there after hours and left before they opened. I wish I had time to check out the rest of the property/​campground, but I liked it. If I was ever in a pinch to find a place to camp around Crater Lake, I might head back here.
If nothing else, I was told by the nice owners that they served espresso as well as breakfast. Not a bad little setup.