What a wonderful place to stay. The staff is friendly, the rooms, cute and clean. The restaurant has wonderful food at reasonable prices. We were traveling with 2 small children who loved looking at all the fun cabins around the property. They loved it when we found the bridge over the stream. Great location - close to Bridgeport, Bodie and Lee Vining. We had a great mini vacation exploring the area. We stayed in Room 5 on this visit. Not a lot of room with a queen bed and 2 twins but enough for a family of 4. On our first visit we stayed in Room 1 - lots of John Wayne memoriabilia. (He supposedly stayed there when making some of his films in the area). Both rooms were clean and comfortable. Try the restaurant - you won't be disappointed in the food.

Two months before a planned trip from Reno, NV to Palm Springs, CA, we made reservations at Virginia Creek Settlement. We were going to travel down 395 and going to do some sight seeing along the way. Since we were taking our dog with us I found places that would accept him. I loved the idea of a private cabin along a creek, and booked the reservation. I called two days before leaving to confirm and also to ask some questions about weather and what we would need to bring. We arrived about 3:30 pm after a long drive.

The office/resturant had a closed sign on it. We looked for more entrances or people to talk to but couldn't find anyone. I walked down the driveway and my husband drove down. We saw several cars/trucks parked and a cabin with alot of wood stacked on the porch. We hollered "hello" trying to find someone. We thought this might be the owners house, but as we approached, a large black dog got up and seemed to be guarding his property. We got back in our car and drove around to where the cabin was that the lady had told me we would be in. I thought it might have been left open for us. It was locked and the outside porch didn't look as though it had been made ready for us. We drove around again and since we couldn't find anyone, we left. It was after 4 pm. We needed to find a place for the night that would accept our dog. We stopped at the RV park down the road to ask the lady if they would take a dog in their cabins...but they don't like to. She was very helpful and tried calling Virginia Creek Settlement for us, but they didn't answer and she got their voice mail and left a message. She said this had happened quite a few times before and that these were new owners. We had to drive quite a ways back to the town and stopped at the first motel we came to. Luckily they accepted dogs. Not only that, but our room backed up to a nice grassy area with a BBQ, picnic table, and was right along the river!

The next morning on our way out of town, we stopped at Virginia Creek Settlement to register our complaint. The man, the owner, was rude and not at all apologetic . He said he didn't know we were there and couldn't answer the phone because he had his sons in his arms. He also said he'd had a sign in the window telling people where to go to get a room and showed it me. It was a very confusing sign with rectangles and arrows all over it, and wasn't very clear. He said he didn't know how much plainer he could make it. I told him we had gone around back where the sign indicated and we thought we had found his house but was afraid to approach because of the large dog on the porch. He said his dog wouldn't hurt anyone. I said we didn't know that and weren't going to take a chance! He stated he wouldn't have left the dog on the porch if it was viscious. But again we didn't have any way to tell if it was friendly or not, plus our dog was in the car and we didn't know how this dog might react to ours. I had given our visa when I first reserved with his wife and I wanted to be sure it wouldn't be charged. He said he hadn't put it in yet. We left without even an "I'm sorry this happened". It was a bad experience and we will never go back. Instead we would stay at the nice motel we found along the river.

If it isn't mealtime, it's easy to pass by thinking this is just a roadside eatery. Yes, it is a fine Italian & American restaurant. But it's also a motel with rustic Western-style rooms and a campground where you can either pitch your own or rent a tent cabin. The fake Old West town that the folks from London enjoyed is really a cluster of tent cabins, designed like old stores, saloons, even an undertaking parlor.

The campsites all have stoves and picnic tables. The tent cabins have a sleeping platform with a mattress, a table, chair and some shelves. Since you're camping, you won't find glass in the windows or locks on the doors, but there are screens so you can enjoy fresh air. For campers, there is a bath and toilet building with coin-op showers. You can buy soap or rent linens and towels for a small fee.

I arrived early enough to get the sheep herder wagon by the creek. It was great! It was a bit dusty and I had to shoo out a few flies and brush some dead ones off the mattress cover, but hey, this isn't the Bellagio and it costs $25 a night. I had several hours of daylight to read and enjoy the surroundings, and I saw people fishing right from the campground (cleaning stations are provided). The creek helped mask the sounds from Highway 395, which is nearby and carries a lot of truck traffic at night. There isn't a lot of bright light to disturb you at night, and I went out a couple of times to star-gaze.

The restaurant is very good. It's decorated with local artifacts and historic pictures. They serve breakfast and dinner, and the dinners are both American and Italian. I had a NY Steak that was done as perfectly as any steak I've ever had. If they offer you a choice of baked sweet potato, take it!

I've stayed here once, but I had previously stopped just to look it over and even then, found the staff to be courteous and friendly. It's a good place for families with kids, but I think honeymooners with an adventurous spirit would enjoy it too.

The Virginia Creek Settlement is 5 miles south of Bridgeport and offers accomodation ranging from suites to a campground. As a party of four adults and three children, we took two of the double log cabins backing onto a fishing stream. Although the blurb describes them as spacious and charming, we found that having two beds in the cabin didn't leave a lot of room for anything else. The cabins were comfortable, however, and decorated in a fitting style, e.g. saddles, blankets, guitars, framed photos of old stars of westerns. The outside area was equally interesting, especially for the kids, with old wagons, fake blacksmiths shop and real llamas! Unfortunately the cabins were fairly close to the road and although the traffic was infrequent, it still woke us up. There is a good Italian restaurant on site but be prepared to wait for a table in the summer, it's busy.