Bogley

[gardentek]

Has anybody stayed there and had problems with the owners?

[JP]

Howdy & Welcome :2thumbs:

[denaliguide]

i have never stayed there but have stopped by for breakfast many times. gary and tracie have always been very friendly and helpful with any questions. whether they remember me specifically or not i would consider them friends.

[moab mark]

Stayed there years ago and had a great time. But last year came pulling in with my enclosed jeep trailer and truck, I needed gas and the lady came out and would not sell me any. She felt that I was going to fast down her road. I felt I was going extremely slow due to the fact I was pulling a trailer. Needless to say it almost literally came to a fight. I needed gas to get back to moab and eventually she gave in. So maybe she was just having a bad day but I have heard of other people having trouble with her?? But the showers sure feel good after a long day jeeping. So drive slow on her road!!!!!!
For what it's worth.
Mark

[Richard Barron]

We tried to have lunch there one day in November 2002. They refused to serve us, saying we weren't spending enough money to make it worth it to them. Hey, it's their business, and they are free to run it however they want, but I've never been back and won't ever go back.

[DiscGo]

We went the other day and it was packed. So if you want to camp there, go early.

[Sombeech]

Welcome, gardentek! I'll go ahead and move this to the backpacking and camping section for you. :cool2:

[gardentek]

We also had heard about her erratic behavior but didn't think anyone could be that bad and still be in business. We had also heard that they were lovely people and very congenial. She was very nice to us when we arrived. We just stayed there this past weekend. It turned into a nightmare! It was the worst camping experience we have ever had! She had actually given us permission to have an extra person and car in our campsite for just one night and then the next morning came flying down to our site and accused us of sneaking in people and cars. She screamed at us and called us all kind of names - said we weren't following the rules. We stayed 3 nights and she charged us $280 for "impact and service fees".
Not even the worst offender in a campsite deserves that kind of insulting and humiliating treatment.
I got a complaint form from the Needles Visitor Center and when I drove back to the campground she flagged me down. She told us to get out of her campground. I showed her the form I had obtained and she lunged through my car window and grabbed for the paper, ripping it out of my hand. We are filing a formal complaint to the company that owns the land - they indicated they were already investigating other complaints.

If you choose to stay there, be on your best behavior. As for us, we will never return! It's a nice campground and having the showers was wonderful but we would rather see someone a little more grounded and rational running the campground. If anyone would like to file a grievance let me know and I will get you the information.

[Mooseman70]

Maybe she's not playing with a full deck of cards? :ne_nau: To go from treating you nicely one minute to a raving lunatic the next reeks of "ain't just right" in the head.

Sorry to hear about your nightmarish experience.

[shlingdawg]

I think a media hidden camera team needs to do a story on these people. Friggin Nazi's. :frustrated:

[ExpUt]

Wow, VERY akin to my experience.

From my website:
"Gassing up at The Needles Outpost is where things got crazy, try and stay with me here. We pulled into the gas station, apparently a bit too fast for the owners liking. She refused to sell us fuel, she “can’t reward bad behavior” she kept reciting. Now I have to set the story straight, we were NOT driving irresponsibly or recklessly, we likely were not driving the 10mph as posted, but we were consistent with the traffic coming and going. In the end her anger was aimed at just one member of our group, and she decided to sell us anything but gas, despite our best efforts. We decided not to resort to begging, thanked her for the stuff she did sell us and regrouped in the parking lot. The entire time she kept saying, "come back tomorrow, mabey I will sell you gas, mabey, mabey".

Options were slim. We could wait until morning and “maybe” get gas. We could make the hour plus drive into Monticello and top off the tanks, or test our tanks and make a diehard attempt to go all the way to Moab, rationing the spare gas we had onboard. There was no need to make the decision tonight, tempers were high and emotions were all over the place. There is nothing like a night around the camp fire to calm things down. "

She was off the hook, and the more I think about it I just think she didn't have any gas to sell us. She turned away a couple other customers while we were there too? That women is amazing... we had 6 rigs in our group, all that would have filled the tanks, we are talking $300+ in fuel at her prices... to which she said no because we were "endangering her special friends in the desert". Though she didn't take her moral stand when it came to purchasing ice or drinks, that was OK. She had initially told us she didn't have any ice either, just as we were leaving she recanted and asked us how many bags we need. We ended up with half as many than we told her, it was fine we made due.

I was actually quite embarrassed to tell anyone about the incident, she seemingly gets along with alot of other travelers, I didn't want our group to come across as a bunch of assholes. Turns out there are plenty that have had unpleasant run ins with the lady.

Another gentleman in a local Land Cruiser club wrote this:
"In our case we pulled in to the station at apparently acceptable speed. My offense was hesitating at the pump when I was momentarily confused by the fact that the pump was already on when we pulled up. My instinct was to shut it off--then considered the volume/$ still registered on the pump--didn't want to erase it if she needed to read it.
Anyway, she came out all fired-up and ranting about how I was molesting the pump--physically swatted my hand away and gave me a nasty look with a me-so-loco glint in her eye. Started to accuse me of pumping the gas that was still showing on the meter. I was able to play dumb and naive (genuinely was feeling that way after her flying out of the shack the way she did), which soon calmed her down and prevented me from being charged for somebody else's gasoline."

[gardentek]

Well, I'm glad to hear we weren't alone. There was much more to our story..... she seemed very put out that my adult children ordered hamburgers and almost didn't serve them. We also observed her drinking during two of our several incidents. When she asked me to leave the campground, I refused, saying that she had said we could stay Sunday night. She called me a liar! I still refused and she said she would call the police. I said "bring them on". The County Sheriff was apparently called (I talked to him yesterday about filing assault charges against her) but my husband was asked by a NPS Ranger that was there to leave and just keep the peace. We only left out of respect for the Park Service.

Is it ok if I copy your comments and send in with my formal complaint? It would be even better if you would write up your experience and send to the land trust that that owns the land. They told me that if there were enough complaints they would not renew their lease. Then we could get some decent people in there to run the campground.

I know I sound vindictive but, even now 3 days later, we are all so upset about what she put us through.

She charged our credit card twice and we are disputing her charges. Before we left she refused to give us an itemized receipt of our charges.

Sorry for venting so much!

We had a great time in the park. Conquered Elephant Hill with our Nissan Xterra. It was awesome!

[ExpUt]

Feel free to use my comments...

She must have the Sheriff on speed dial, she threatened to call him no less than a dozen time if we didn't immediately turn around and get off her property.

Please PM the owners info if you would, while I don't think I'm interested in a formal complaint, I think some of the others in our group might.

[moab mark]

You can use my experience. It's to bad, but I feel better that I am not the only one that has had trouble there. If we could get them removed I will send in a report. We do elephant hill alot coming from moab and returning to moab the same day. Those who do not trailer their jeeps need gas sometimes to get back to town. We have started hauling a few cans in my enclosed trailer because we can't trust the nazi lady that we will be able to get fuel. I have wanted to do the Lockhart Basin trail but have not dared because you would definately need fuel and well we all have found how that might go. If you have a outpost store, the store has to be reliable if you are banking on it and this one is not. Oh we also have a story about the shower valve breaking one time but that's another story. Lets just say we loaded in our jeeps and got the #$%% out of dodge before she got to the showers.
Mark

[gardentek]

Re: Needles Outpost
Gary & Tracey Napoleone

Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration
217 East Center
Suite 230
Moab, UT 84532

If you wouldn't mind, could you email me a copy of the letter you send? I am going to ask the Administration Director to let me know if and when any action is taken.

My email is pac53@comcast.com

When Gary came to our site to write down our license plate number for the County Sheriff, I appealed to his common sense and he said we were lying about the number of people we had in the site. I told him I could give him a list of all our children but he wouldn't take it.

I told him that he had "messed with the wrong person" because I am known for my tenacity in pursuing what I think is an injustice. One of my better successes was with the Social Security Administration who had been telling my aunt for 11 years that she didn't qualify for Medicare. I not only got her Medicare benefits, she also now receives a monthly check of $1000. It took me many hours of phone work but I succeeded.

I am going to pursue this situation on behalf of all those who have been wronged by these people.

How do I get all this feedback and information on the other forums, particularly the "off-road 4x4 forum" so we can garner as much support as we can to keep this lady from harrassing, humiliating, & insulting those whom she should be "serving."

Thanks :2thumbs: