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2023

Spots with keyword: vista

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  • Toulumne Meadows Campground
  • Yosemite National Park, Lee Vining, CA
  • At 9,300', so a short season. A dusty, cramped, low-amenity national park campground that's in a REALLY cool place.

  • Travertine Hot Springs
  • Humboldt Toyiabe National Forest, Bridgeport CA
  • There's a very nice tub at the parking lot, holds 1-3 folks - adjustable temp, great soak. Down the hill is a travertine mound that starts with a pretty hot one person tub (109°-ish?) on the uphill side, which feeds into progressively cooler tubs as the water flows clockwise around the mound downhill. The last two have a spectacular view of the valley, but are too cool and have creepy stuff growing in them. This place is too accessible from 395 and too well known. It's usually busy, and sometimes straight-up creepy with weirdos straight off the highway. The camping spot is handy even without the hot springs. When the hot springs road turns left, take a right and park at any of the several rough camping spots.

  • 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.

  • Cayton Campground
  • San Juan National Forest, Rico CO
  • Elevation 9,500. Weather is very gloomy, so I'm not seeing it at it's best. Site 22 is very nice, level, large, with an excellent vista looking over the wide, green valley with the busy highway on the other side. The camp host says she saw moose tracks at the next campsite!

  • Ruby Lake Campground
  • Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Ruby Lake NWR, Elko NV
  • gotta drive 20 miles of gravel to get here. Right across the road from Ruby Lake Nat'l Wildlife Refuge, on a hill looking over the whole Ruby Valley.

  • 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!

  • Whitmore Tubs
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Mammoth CA
  • Hot water pops out of the ground at numerous places around here. Get the Cal/Nev Hot Springs book for details. Today I went to the first one off Whitmore Tubs Road, called "Hot Tub" in the book, "Rock Tub" on the PDF. It was just excellent for one or two people. This is BLM land so I think you can camp. I did not this time.

  • Water Canyon Campground
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Winnemucca NV
  • Lovely, quiet campground in an amazing location, tucked in a little valley six miles south of Winnemucca. You can hike up,up,up the creek, or hike up the side if the hill for an epic view north to the Jackson Mountains.

  • Grandview Campground
  • Inyo National Forest, Bishop CA
  • 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.

  • Travertine dispersed
  • Humboldt Toyiabe National Forest, Bridgeport CA
  • I have used the hot springs without camping, and lately I have been camping without soaking, so I'm breaking them into two spots. This is the camping spot.When the hot springs road turns left, take a right and park at any of the several rough camping spots. The hot springs is a little less tan a mile further on.

  • Echo Bay Campground
  • Lake Meade National Recreation Area, Overton NV
  • Omigosh! Google has shrunk their map of Lake Mead so that Echo Bay is like 10 miles from the lake now! The water level must be really low!

  • Bear Lake State Park
  • Idaho State Parks, St Charles ID
  • About 25 miles off the road to anywhere, but pretty cool once you're here. I'm here on a cold day in October and it's almost deserted. Bear Lake is beautiful

  • Badlands Interior Motel and Campground
  • private business Interior SD
  • Cedar Pass CG in Badlands NP was full on Friday night, so here I am. It is in the town of Interior, at the edge of the Badlands, so the name makes more sense than you would think at first. Six rows of sites, the hook-ups for the big boys are on the inside and the tent sites are on the edges. Some sites have picnic tables, some don't. I decided I'd rather be on the edge with an unimpeded view of the Badlands than in a couple of rows with a table. The shower was nice and very welcome. Things are well-worn but well maintained also. Nice place, and a godsend when the Park is full.

  • Saddlehorn Campground
  • Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO
  • Amazing location, on a bluff overlooking Grand Junction and the wide Colorado River Valley. Loop C is the tent sites, no doubt the oldest part of the campground. Parking for the sites is cramped and tricky to navigate.

  • Aspen Campground
  • Inyo National Forest, Lee Vining CA
  • The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite. As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to. Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.

  • Green River Campground
  • Dinosaur National Monument, Jensen UT
  • Very hot here, tried to choose a site for morning shade. There is a nice trail up the river. Sunset against the mountains across the river is beautiful.

  • Wild Horse Resevoir
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
  • didn't stay here, but looks real nice, on a point of land jutting into the reservoir. There is also private camping for $6 all over the place, where you can camp right up to the water's edge

  • North Campground
  • Bryce Canyon National Park, Bryce Canyon City UT
  • The other campground at Bryce, open longer into the fall. I like this one better, more convenient to the Lodge and Visitor's Center (wifi) and right next to the Rim Trail, which is what Bryce is all about.

  • Guadaloupe Mountains NP
  • National Park, Carlsbad NM
  • Your two choices are tent camping and parking lot. It's a small lot, and everybody but me was running their generators till 10. Whatever is special and interesting about this park is not apparent from the road.

  • Independence Creek Campground
  • Inyo County Parks, Independence CA
  • 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.

  • Pikes Peak Campground
  • Iowa State Park, McGregor IA
  • Beautiful location high on the bluffs above the mighty Mississippi. Nice set of trails with awesome vistas on the river bluffs