quiet, little brook, pretty deep into Kingston Canyon, 2-3 miles of gravel road. Off-roaders came in late, were noisy for a while.
California state park campgrounds are too expensive. If you're paying for beachfront that's one thing, but parking my van on a level spot in the woods with a bathroom for $35 does not work for me. The fine young man at the entrance kiosk told me that a couple of miles back on National Forest land, the signs saying "Camping 14 days max" also signify "OK to camp here tonight". So that's what I did.
A very pleasant campground in the Army Corps style, which is to say well-engineered down to the small details. There is a little network of paved trails over to the Dam Glorification/Dinosaur Museum and through the marshes.
pretty but nondescript little spot in the interior of the state. Really nice fall colors when I was there, big yellow leaves covering everything!
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.
These federal parks along the Current River are national treasures. I had a great time here tonight.
What a great place! Walk over to the golf course clubhouse to check in, she gives you the wifi password, then you pretty much park on the grass anywhere you want. The wifi was great, it happened that I parked 30' from the bathrooms What with food at the clubhouse, good wifi, and a short walk to the shower, I literally could live here a while.
There is NO check-in procedure here, only check-out. Odd. Just pick a site, do your thing, and there's only one way out, so pay at the station when you leave.
It pays to call the ranger! I called about spring flowers on these riverside trails (not yet he said), and as long as I was there asked about staying overnight. He said the all the other parking areas were day use only, but the one at the end of the road - Perry Riffle (cool name!) - allows it. So here I am, feeling very pleased about life.
Funky place on the Russian River, more lo-budget than its fancy neighbors. We got a lovely site surrounded by redwoods, 40 yards from the river.
On Lake Mendocino, off SR 20 a few miles east of 101. Annoying access road with 6 or ten speed bumps, but a very pleasant place once you've been assigned your spot by the check-in. Nice, free showers! The bathroom lights are quite bright, so a spot that looks nice in the afternoon might be kind of annoying at night.
Just a parking lot, but, really very pleasant. The last left before the Fishtrap Resort turnoff. Couple of miles of gravel road, then a left after the nice farmhouse to BLM land. It's listed in my app as Fishtrap, but really what you're looking for is the Hog Lake Trail parking lot.
Small, quiet, well-run, densely packed little campground on the south side of Alturas, very close to the wildlife refuge. I like that he charges $30 straight up, no "plus tax".
The campground is quite nice by western National Park standards. It isn't very exciting per se, but the greater CCC-built Big Meadows complex and Skyline Drive is awesome! The lodge, the trails, the trail signs all have that 1930's feel to them. I love it.
A real find, right on the Missouri River. Right next to the fairgrounds, where there are a bunch of horse trailers with horses. Most of the other people here are with the horses. It's about a mile walk to town, and there is a very nice river walk for most of the way.
Ten miles of washboard-y gravel road off of Utah 121. Not worth it as it turns out. A very full open-top trash barrel in the middle of the camping area and not even a porta-potty. Some cool big boulders at the edge of the camping area, but otherwise nothing interesting. Update: The signs were (IMO) misleading. I am not at the official camping area. In the morning I chose not to subject the van to 10 more miles of this bumpy, dusty road, so I will probably never know what it's really like. :)
This is a California State Park on the western edge of Colusa CA, on the Sacramento River, right where it takes a left turn. Post COVID it is being managed by the City of Colusa rather than the state, and it has a much more mellow feel to it. Anyway ... pre-COVID it wasn't inviting to me. Now it is. Go figure. Bathroom has a key code, shower requires quarters. Over 65 gets $2 off. We are right inside the levee, which is cool. There is a really sketchy trailer park right on the other side of the levee, which is not cool.
Five sites at a boat ramp into the Snake River. A few miles upriver from the very expensive Massacre Rocks SP. Really cool little spot!
If it were 30° cooler, this would be spectacular, but it's just too hot tonight. It's set up as a tents-only area on a little peninsula on the lake, but there's no one else here, so I'm hanging in the parking lot. The bathroom (with shower!) seems to be of recent construction and is very nice. The stifling heat and stillness became kinda neat after a while...