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2023

Spots

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  • Oak Flat Campground
  • Richardson Grove State Park, Garberville CA
  • next to the site of Reggae on the River, on the Eel River. Priceym because it's a Cali State CG, but very pleasant

  • Salton Sea State Recreation Area
  • California State Parks, Bombay Beach CA
  • On the east side of the lake, making for spectacular sunsets over the water every night. Very quiet and beautiful and delightful. The big north-south highway and train tracks are pretty close and carry big noisy trucks and trains respectively.

  • Sunset Bay Campground
  • Oregon State Parks, Coos Bay OR
  • really nice park, secluded, very quiet

  • Suwanee River State Park
  • Florida State Parks, Live Oak FL
  • A sleepy little campground in a sleepy little park. Pleasant and quiet. The Suwanee River is pretty, it would be fun to kayak it. The bathroom/laundry had a little book exchange!

  • Fort Buford Historical Site
  • North Dakota State Parks, Williston ND`
  • 12 miles south of US 2, the east-west highway I've been driving for five days. Totally worth the detour.

  • Berlin Icthyosaur Campground
  • Nevada State Parks, Ione NV
  • pretty setting at the edge of the huge Ione Valley, short walk from the fossil site. Morning talks at the fossil beds

  • Barnwell State Park
  • South Carolina State Parks, Barnwell SC
  • pretty but nondescript little spot in the interior of the state. Really nice fall colors when I was there, big yellow leaves covering everything!

  • South Llano State Park
  • Texas State Parks, Junction TX
  • nice campsites, couldn't hike near the campground because it was turkey mating season. A herd (flock?) of wild turkeys came through in the morning, very cool!

  • Fahnestock State Park
  • New York State Parks, Cold Spring NY
  • pleasant but too close to New York. Check in was confusing and a pain. You know you're too close to civilization when there are pizza delivery numbers at the campground office.

  • Willow Creek Campground
  • Williard Bay State Park, Williard Bay UT
  • On lovely Williard Bay, the northeastern, freshwater(!) arm of the Great Salt Lake.

  • Harris Beach State Park
  • Oregon State Parks, Brookings OR
  • deluxe state park. Almost close enough to walk to town, beach and tidepools and trees and grass, pretty much everything

  • Natural Falls Campground
  • Oklahoma State Parks, Siloam Springs OK
  • The park is pretty cool. It's an easy walk from the campground to the little waterfall, and the boardwalk makes some quite dramatic bridges over the chasm. Yes there is a chasm! Oklahoma State Parks did a very nice job with this. And across the chasm is a frisbee golf course!

  • Cathedral Gorge State Park
  • Nevada State Parks, Panaca NV
  • Pleasant, quiet state park campground. In the flats at the bottom of the gorge. The gorge is an easy hike away.

  • Grover Hot Springs
  • California State Parks, Markleeville CA
  • The springs at Grover gurgle out of the hillside into a beautiful U-shaped alpine meadow. So it should be a groovy, enchanted place, but sadly it is managed by the State Parks system, who do their darnedest to make it prosaic and institutional. The pools are a couple of rectangular concrete tubs - a big one with lukewarm water, and a shallow (3 feet) one, maybe 40x20 which they keep at a pleasantly toasty 104°. You can look over the fence on the uphill side and see the water burble out of the ground and down a sluice to you. There are showers and cubbyholes to store your stuff. There is a campground, which I have never used since it's CA State Parks expensive and there is boondocking three miles down the road.

  • Richardson Grove
  • California State Parks, Benbow CA
  • In the redwoods where 101 narrows and winds through the big trees. Next to where Reggae On The River used to happen. The campgrounds are west of the road, the Eel River is to the east. Once you're past the kiosk and in the park, there is an underpass to connect the two. The coolest part of the campground used to be over a little bridge on the Eel River on the east side. It seems to be closed permanently, which is too bad.

  • Kankakee Campground
  • Kankakee State Park, Kankakee IL
  • large and pleasant, had to check in with the host

  • Point Abalone Campground
  • California State Parks, Westport CA
  • A big shadeless rectangle of land on the top of a bluff overlooking the Pacific. The southernmost of three campgrounds at Westport Union Landing State Beach.

  • Lower Wind River Campground
  • Boysen State Park, Shoshoni WY
  • Boysen State Park takes up much of the land around Boysen Reservoir and the river creating it. There are many campgrounds spaced far apart. This is the second or third on the river instead of the lake, and the last one heading towards Thermopolis, right on the edge of the Indian Reservation, where the fishing rules change. Nice shady cottonwoods to hang out under. US 20 is too close and tonight there are way too many bugs.

  • Standish-Hickey State Park
  • California State Park, Leggett CA
  • Stayed here twice. Once for a quaint little folk-rock/garage-rock festival across the road (Hickeyfest!), and once on a sultry August night returning from Eureka to Reno. The South Eel River is 200' below, US 101 is about 100 away, and quite loud if a loud truck or motorcycle goes past.

  • Memaloose State Park
  • Oregon State Parks, Rowena OR
  • On a gentle downslope between I-84 and the railroad tracks and then the mighty Columbia River, between Hood River and The Dalles. They have a ton of tent sites (80-ish?), so I easily got a nice spot at 4 PM on Fourth of July Friday - woo! Downhill I can see the river between the trees, and hear the train when it comes through, and uphill is the constant sound of the interstate - as regular and monotonous as the Pacific surf I tell myself :)

  • Farm Island Campground
  • South Dakota State Parks, Pierre SD
  • Nice place. Expensive, but nice. Only about 4 miles from the sports bar where I spent the afternoon. Both Dakotas do this trick where the campsite is $22, but non-residents must also pay the $6 entrance fee. I don't like it. The Swimming Beach is really nice. A huge area to swim in, shallow to enough to stand up 50' out.