In the style of Inyo Forest campgrounds(*), this one is hard to find(**) and kind of shabby and rough, but it's in a really beautiful location. This one is on Lee Vining Creek, in the aspen/pine forest on top of the glacial till. It's the first campground on CA 120 west of Mono Lake heading up to spectacular Tioga Pass. It's pretty cool. It's very popular with fishermen. (*) Except the Inyo campgrounds around June Lake/Mammoth. They are run by a concessionare. They are a little nicer, cost twice as much, and have three times as many rules. (**) There is an arrow for "camping", but you must turn off the road to see the "Lower Lee Vining" sign.
Real good find! I thought these county parks were spendy, but $10 seems like a pretty good deal to me right now! On one of those little "creeks" LADWP sculpted out to constrain "their" water. Wide open sagebrush on one side, a column of willows and cottonwoods following the creek on the other. Very quiet and pretty today.
Very handy, right off US 50 on a really long, really boring road with the only other option being roadside pull-offs. Far enough off the road to be very quiet. The short petroglyph trail takes you to a west facing view over a the Big Smokey Valley, and a nice sunset.
A great find! Very nice BLM campground right off US 93 between Phoenix and Kingman
busy but pretty quiet, very scenic. nature trail. a short hike past the swimming pond to a great sunset over non-swimming Sardine Lake, shining off the Sierra Buttes to the left.
Never been here because it involves three miles of gravel road while the others are off paved road. My verdict: not worth it. Nice little creek, but very dusty, and sites are NOT level.
right outside Ashland, dusty little hippie place near the fancy Lithia Hot Springs Resort. The pools were excellent and clean, as was the pavilion area with wifi and electrical outlets. But the rest of the place was third world and had a weird vibe.
National park campgrounds with check in are the worst. The campground is by definition huge, or else they wouldn't pay a staff to check you in. It takes forever because they have to explain the world to each and every guest and it creates a high stress level that is the opposite of what you're there for. However ... once that's over, it's a nice campground! There three different hikes to take from the valley where the campground is back up to the mesa. There are free showers, wifi and food at the check-in place, which is pretty far from the campsites.
Another Inyo County campground along one of those "Creeks" controlled by LA Water Authority. Dusty and low tech, but very pretty. If you come on a summer weekend you run the risk of real asshole neighbors.
It's actually free, but there's a suggested donation of $5. Climb >4,000' of narrow curvy road out of Bishop to get to the Bristlecone Pine Forest, and your bonus is this sweet little campground. There are no numbered sites, it's all kind of freeform in a nice way. Short walks get you spectacular views west to the Sierras across the Owens valley, and east into the interior of Nevada.
Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, there were a few sites available at 3pm. I got what I hope is the least nasty. Bless my van for being tall enough to generate its own shade.
Far from everything, in the high desert of southeast Oregon, a few miles east of Lakeview.
A washboardy, dusty couple of miles off 395. I clocked it at 2.7 miles. Very cool little spot once you get here ... in a lonely, boring kind of way.
A really low-tech campground, a handful of sites carved out of a gully right next to the highway.
bad: right next to a dusty, gravel road good: right next to a happily burbling brook I am here because the campground a mile away is closed for the season, so my hope is there won't be much traffic on this road tonight.
Only thing going between Lone Pine and Death Valley. It looked a lot more alluring when driving past than it does now that I'm staying here. Maybe when I get a beer and hang out on the veranda I'll like it better. It does have showers! Register at the gas station, not the restaurant as you might expect.
At 9,300', so a short season. A dusty, cramped, low-amenity national park campground that's in a REALLY cool place.
Kind of a shabby little place. But very handy on the Pagosa Springs-Durango run. I'm hatin' because I think $18 is too much, but that's Colorado.
Looked good on the internet, and probably is good if you're a fisherman with a boat and a huge-ass RV as big as a mobile home.
Coming north on Utah 95 from Blanding you drive through a deep cleft in the rock, and when you emerge is a breathtaking panorama. That is Comb Wash. It is BLM land, there is a dusty road down it's length, and it is ok to camp there.
A dusty little municipal park conveniently located right off I-25 in a sad-looking part of New Mexico.