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2025

Spots with keyword: lake

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  • Devil's Lake Campground
  • Oregon State Park, Lincoln City OR
  • in the heart of Lincoln City, tucked away on the northeast corner of the bridge over the teeny-weeny "D" River. Site assigned by front office guy. Sites are close together with little shielding, but everyone is mellow and into their thing, so it's cool.

  • 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.

  • Gold Lake Campground
  • Plumas National Forest, Graeagle CA
  • In the Lakes District between Graeagle and Bassett. The other campgrounds on this road are $20-24, but this one is $10. It has no water, and is pretty rough around the edges, but it's on the lake and pretty sweet. The boat launch area is in the campground. There are a few select campsites right on the lake, but they are close together and crowded with big rigs, so I elect to go down the road a bit. By rule all sites are on the away from the lake side of the road; but the lake is still very close. I did not check it out, but I think there is a trail all the way to the Gold Lake Highway, and maybe even all the way around the lake.

  • Amanita Campground
  • Boise National Forest, Cascade ID
  • 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!

  • Doris Campground
  • Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, Lawton OK
  • Very hot right now, but what a cool place. Tucked away in the scrub oak forest along the shores of this little CCC-made reservoir. Few campers because it is so insanely HOT. The shade is a real attraction in this area. Also the shower!

  • Monument Lake Campground
  • Big Cypress National Preserve, Ochopee FL
  • 26 sites around a little lake. very pretty, lotsa bugs. Fee station was mysteriously closed,

  • Lake 13 Campground
  • Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge, Maxwell NM
  • Took me a bit of wandering down unmarked gravel roads to find the camping area, but I'm very happy I did. There's a toilet and a picnic table. Drive a little, there's boat access, a couple of trees, and a grassy area which I think is the official camping area, then the road wanders half-way around Lake 13. Nobody used the grassy area. The rain had made it a mosquito-infested bog. I parked at a wide spot in the road by the entrance, and at least one bunch of fishermen spent the night on the far side of the lake. Super nice place!

  • Grant Village Campground
  • Yellowstone National Park, Grant Village WY
  • Huge, the overflow lot for the Yellowstone camping system. Annoying check-in procedure where you wait in a long line to be assigned one of 300-something spots by a functionary who does nothing but that all day.

  • Summer Lake Hot Springs
  • private business Summer Lake OR
  • no assigned sites, just a big field. hot springs are in an old barn-like structure, very pleasant

  • Tioga Lake Campground
  • Inyo National Forest, Lee Vining CA
  • Elevation: 9,700 ft The first campground after leaving Yosemite at Tioga Pass. You see the lake pretty much when you leave the park, and the campground is near where the lake level used to be before climate change and the LA Water Authority stole all the water. There is a spectacular view up the valley and some way down the valley. It was full at 5:30 on a September Monday, Most of the sites are paired up, their two parking places together then separate paths to the picnic table and tent area for each. Not the greatest for van living, although the parking spot net to #2 is good.

  • Sardine Campground
  • Tahoe National Forest, Sierra City CA
  • 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.

  • East Totten Trail Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers, Coleharbor ND
  • Right on the lake! Spacious, level, wide-open sites. Stupid reservation-only Army Corps sign-up. Bar and Grill 400 yards up the hill.

  • Convict Lake Campground
  • Inyo National Forest, Mammoth CA
  • Large campground at the foot of Convict Lake. Really cool place, mountains on three sides, nice little bite-sized hike around the perimeter of the lake (2.6 miles). Quite popular, but it's a big campground so there are usually open sites. Downtown Mammoth is fifteen minutes away.

  • Kyen Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers, Calpella CA
  • On Lake Mendicino, a little closer to 101 than Bushay Campground where I've gone before. Kyen is much more accessible, no three mile, 9-speed bump access road, but it's also much noisier and busier. Tonight I just want to park and crash, so it's working for me. It's in a manzanita scrub forest that's very, very pretty. The shower has the insanely heavy flow you expect at a reservoir campground, but in an historic drought, maybe a little too much. I again protest the arcane self-pay procedure by not doing it, and again I escape unscathed. I have a pleasant night and leave!

  • Boice Floras Lake Campground
  • Curry County OR, Langlois OR
  • Real name is Boice Cope Campground, but that hides its coolest feature, that it's on a sweet little freshwater lake! Site T-2 also looks awesome. Turns out you can park on the grass. This place is crazy popular with kiteboarders and windsurfers, of which there are many in Oregon. Floras Lake is a pretty little jewel of a freshwater lake separated from the Pacific by just one little sand dune. Crowded though the place is, I am angled away from it all pointing at the lake so I can pretend I'm all by myself.

  • Orland Buttes Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers, Orland CA
  • Due west of Chico, about 12 miles on the west side of I-5 is Black Butte Lake. It has two ACE campgrounds, this is the secondary one, it closes in early September. It's a few miles closer to Orland and on a bluff 100 or so feet above the water. Very pleasant.

  • Pothole Reservoir Campground
  • Pothole Reservoir State Park, Othello WA
  • Near the lake, short drive to the fascinating potholes

  • Crab Orchard Campground
  • Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge, Marion IL
  • real nice find! Crab Orchard is a pretty big place, with four campgrounds. The other campgrounds have full hookups for the big boys and cost more. But E Loop is the oldest and has become the bastard stepchild in the corner. Electric only inside the loop, no hookups outside. Its bathroom is kinda gross, but hey, $5 for overnight and a shower ain't bad.

  • Meeks Bay
  • Lake Tahoe Basin, Meeks Bay CA
  • On the lake side of 89, a little harbor and campground next to the Native American-owned resort next door. The marina is closed because of the lake level. The highway to the south curves around the campground, so you are closer to the noisy trucks and fleets of motorcycles than you would at first think - not a good thing.

  • Doe Point Campground
  • Rogue River/Siskiyou National Forest, Medford OR
  • Right on scenic Fish Lake. Very pleasant. Next time I will try Fish Lake Campground, which is very close and only a few hundred yards from Fish Lake Resort.

  • Acorn Campground
  • Army Corps of Engineers, Valley Springs CA
  • On the road Maps sent me down there were no signs that campgrounds existed, and the first one was closed, which gave me a little fright. The second, Acorn was open, so all is well. Army Corp campgrounds all seem to rely on having a person at a check-in gate. The gate wasn't manned so camping was free.