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2025

Spots with keyword: gravel

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  • Drinks Canyon Campground
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Moab UT
  • Heading north out of Moab, take a left before the Colorado River and head upstream. There are a string of BLM campgrounds along the river. This is the third one, about six miles out. It is three sections, the pay station is in the middle. A campsite consists of a picnic table and a fire pit close to a busy road, that's it. But you are on the Colorado River!

  • 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.

  • Mecca Flats
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Warm Springs OR
  • Adventurous spirit and 2 bumpy miles of gravel pays off! All to myself on this warm Friday night. Beautiful spacious canyon and a fast flowing river. Reminds me very much of the river and canyon outside Yakima WA. Similar climate and similar geology (400' thick basalt lava flows as far as the eye can see). We are on the Deschutes River - a Wild and Scenic River at this point, right across the river from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.

  • Dixie dispersed
  • Dixie National Forest, Panguitch UT
  • 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.

  • Spencer Hot Springs
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Austin NV
  • On the eastern side of the Great Smoky Valley,You could probably see it from US 50 if you knew where to look. Turns south off 50 onto 376, and almost immediately there is a turnoff to a pretty good gravel road heading straight as an arrow south into the flats. Follow that 6-ish miles, and you will find the hpt springs!

  • 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.

  • Baker Creek Campground
  • Great Basin National Park, Baker NV
  • 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.

  • Cisco Beach Campground
  • Bear Lake State Park, Utah, Laketown UT
  • 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.

  • Rock Corral
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Milford UT
  • 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. :)

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • Bridge Hollow Campground
  • US Fish and Wildlife Service, Maybell, CO
  • Right on the beautiful and swift-flowing Green River. Migratory birds. Winter grazing for big game (elk, mule deer), the occasional moose they say. Biggest thing I saw was a dragonfly, but the place is beautiful and remote. Getting here entails about 20 miles of gravel road, most of it pretty nice. The rest is rough and washboardy.

  • Little Heart Bottoms
  • County Park, Bismarck ND
  • It would be an insult to campgrounds to call this one. it's just a gravel road in the bottomland (right inside the levee in fact), with turnouts where you can pull off and park. Random OHVs roar past well into the night. It is the road to the Little Heart Gun Range.

  • Myre - Big Island Campground
  • Minnesota State Parks, Albert Lea MN
  • Not real happy here. I am tired and there's no other good options around here, but this is a lot to pay for a place to park. Once I get past check-in, it turns out that the mosquitoes are almost too vicious to deal with. Despite the heat and humidity I live with all doors closed. On the other hand, it's nearly full moon, and along with mosquitoes they have fireflies! So I bundle up i my long pants and hoodie and go on a delightful moonlight walk around the gravel roads of the park. Staying in the open fields of course - the bugs are truly unbearable when you venture into the wooded areas.

  • Odessa Campground
  • Fremont Wimena National Forest, Klamath Falls OR
  • a real find! On a stretch of road otherwise bereft of camping, maybe 3 rarely traveled miles off the busy highway. Not a soul has been here in my 18 hours or so of residency. Sites are primitive. There is a place to put a kayak into the slough. The site is right on the edge of USFS property, there are barns and farm buildings 1/2 mile away. Bathroom is unlocked!

  • Arch Rock Campground
  • Keyhole State Park, Moorcroft WY
  • Keyhole State Park covers quite an extensive corner of the Keyhole Reservoir, and there are 6-ish separate campgrounds. The main road is paved, but the campground roads are gravel, leading me to deduce that the bigger the loop, the more gravel dust will cover you as the diesel trucks go round and round. So I am at Arch Rock Campground, the first loop and one of the smallest. Also, no boat ramp means fewer trucks.

  • Colusa Casino
  • private business Colusa CA
  • RV parking is way in the back of the parking lot ... That part of the lot is still gravel there and quite muddy in the rain. Casino is cozy and not unpleasant. Restaurant and bar are just fine. Wifi is terrible except close to the coffee shop.

  • Kelly Island Campground
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Ririe ID
  • Planning works! This is super sweet BLM campground three miles down the road from Heise Hot Springs. There is a pleasant day use area with river access. The host closes the gate at 10 pm, which is a factor if you have driven back to the hot springs in the evening.

  • Glass Creek Campground
  • Inyo National Forest, Mammoth CA
  • Campground is less than a mile off 395 on a good gravel road. It's free and the campsites are quite spacious.

  • Williamson River Campground
  • Winema National Forest, Chiloquin OR
  • 1.6 miles of unpleasant washboardy gravel road. The same turnoff as Collier State Park - cheaper, and you get what you pay for! Flat, featureless, 3' tall undergrowth and 60' tall ponderosa pines scattered about. There is a trail to the Williamson River about 1/3 mile away.

  • Ramhorn Springs
  • Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Ravendale CA
  • 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.