Been here twice, and it was a little bit weird both times. Drive for six-ish miles up the side of the mountain, then get to a quiet campground on the point of land between a creek and a smaller creek. Both times it has seemed gloomy here. Both times I have been really happy driving back down the mountain to get out of here.
The largest of the three USFS campgrounds between Sedona and Flagstaff in Oak Creek Canyon. I think this is the least cool. Manzanita is the coolest but always full (11 sites in this giant tourist attraction0), Pine Flat is right next to this one, and looked to be the second coolest. This one's still pretty sweet though ... although I find myself worrying about evacuation routes if this dry, hot canyon was swept by a forest fire. We would all be screwed I think.
10 site campground on the quiet side of Cascade Lake. 6 miles from the main road (55), which is a feature rather than a drawback once you get here! Site 7 is the bomb!
The most Difficult thing about this place is getting a site! ha,ha. 4.5 winding miles from Aspen make this the budget way for the rest of us to be able to exist for a few days in Aspen.
Glad I stopped here, really nice campground at a cool place, behind a State of Oregon trout hatchery. The campground is pretty deluxe, there are heavy wooden fences lining the roadway and each campsite, I guess to clearly delimit where people should walk and where they shouldn't. So the forest ares are pretty pristine. The campground is either new or recently renovated. The hatchery has been around for a while.
hyper-busy tonight, first night of the season, Memorial Day weekend. It would be restful and pleasant next to the happy little creek most nights I think. As a campground, this is nicer than Sardine up the hill. I walked up to Sardine Lake, which was a very pleasant hike, with some excellent sunset views ... if you don't mind walking along the highway. They raised the price again this year here too.
Small but very handy campground 50 mile north of Susanville. Very near the road, but the road is not heavily traveled. The stream is very small but pretty
Except for a couple of "view lots" - sites 1 and 2 - the rest of the sites are in a compact bunch, nestled in a little canyon. Right across the road from Gull Lake.
mostly fisherman, got a great spot at the dead end right by the lake, a few miles from Terwilliger Hot Springs
on a lovely little aspen-lined creek a few miles above Bishop. You can go even farther up either road and come to a lake, but this is a nice compromise, in the valley below the fork in the road. Save a few miles of driving straight up. Behind a big-ass moraine which cuts the valley in two. It's open and very pretty, with the annoying corporate management that most (all?) of the Inyo Forest campgrounds have.
not too far from the south entrance to Lassen, looked ok.
A lonely outpost of Mendocino National Forest - a little chunk of federal land next to the diversion dam. The parking lots are huge, making it seem like it was full of action back when the dam was being used create the diversionary lake. Emptying the dam a couple of decades ago was sad for the boaters of Red Bluff, but great for the salmon, who were being killed off by the salmon ladder. This beautiful campground suffers from being too close to the town of Red Bluff. The bathroom has a security code to prevent random weirdos from moving in.
About a mile off the highway. Pretty crowded on Memorial Day weekend, considering there's nothing here. I am here because it's only 11 miles from Pagosa Springs.
a real find! On a stretch of road otherwise bereft of camping, maybe 3 rarely traveled miles off the busy highway. Not a soul has been here in my 18 hours or so of residency. Sites are primitive. There is a place to put a kayak into the slough. The site is right on the edge of USFS property, there are barns and farm buildings 1/2 mile away. Bathroom is unlocked!
Small roadside campground. 2-3 sites are right on the river and awesome. The rest are just sites. Pretty close to Jackson WY.
Nice clean bathroom, no shower, near 101 but quiet, 20 yards out of the campground you're in the sand dunes
Nestled between too-busy US 395 and the West Walker River. Everybody is either a fishermen or folks bombing down 395. The first nice federal campground coming south from Reno. This place should be open more days of the year - closes too early in the fall, opens too late in the summer.
On good ole CA 89 a few miles north of Truckee. Drove by here many times, finally staying. Boring but handy! There are two campgrounds here about a mile apart, Lower Little Truckee and Upper Little Truckee. Theis not difference between them.
itty bitty reservoir, campground was unexpectedly full with someone's family reunion, so I drove a mile further on up the road and camped in a meadow. Worked out fine.
At the Rainbow Road exit off I-80. On the South Yuba River. Super nice place, even if the freeway is 200 yards away. If you're familiar with the Bay Area to Reno run on I-80, there's a place where it crosses some beautiful rapids. This is about ½ mile downstream from that.