Pretty, spectacular view down the length of Walker Lake. You can hear the neverending semis on US 95, but they are pretty far up the hill. You come to the main campground first. I find out later this is the only unlocked bathroom. It's nice enough, but the sites are not level. After you wind down a few more hundred feet, past the boat ramp, there are more camp sites, a couple of which are nice and level. If only the bathroom door was unlocked...
Expensive, but oh so cool, on the bluffs at Cardiff CA. The town is right across the highway, great bluff-waking for miles northward, Cardiff Beach and beach side restaurants southward. Mornings and evenings are often pretty gray and damp. Nice firepits.
Typical National Park campground, the parking pads aren't even close to level, the roads are very rough, but they're amazingly low cost and you are in a spectacular place! This is the place you go when you know the main part of the park will be full by 11. At the east end of gorgeous Two Medicine Lake, spectacular mountains all around.
shady, the camp is quiet, but there is an extremely busy highway right across the Snake River. Kind of deluxe and kind of expensive, as state parks tend to be.
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
Nine miles south of beautiful Utah 12. Yet another scenic red rock wonderland. Basin Campground is the main one, with a paved road, hookups and running water. This one is a short ways off on a gravel side road, pit toilet and no other amenities. But it's quiet and very pleasant.
A must stop for me if I am in the area. There is a nice auto tour around a little lake. My impression is that the Sand Cranes are the star attraction here.
Finally staying here after driving past so many times. Quite hot even in mid-October. It's not open in the summer it's so hot. Just a big parking lot with a bathroom at one end. there is also a store and oh glory, a nice bar (and restaurant) across the road.
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.
Down Horsfall Road off of 101 are OHV camps and trails, equestrian camps and trails, day use areas, and general use camps and trails. Wild Mare Camp - set up for camping with horses - was empty and very, very nice, but the mosquitoes were just brutal, so I moved to the OHV camping at the coast, where the breeze keeps the little buggers moving. Very pleasant here. Just a parking lot with large camping-only RV sized slots on three sides and parking for the beach on the side next to the ocean. I've stayed here three times now, and there's always a few OHV folks. Their pleasantness or rudeness and the amount of general hubbub varies greatly. The general rules is that the warmer and nicer it is, the more constant and unending and annoying will be the sound of unmuffled small engines.
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.
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!
Lovely campsites right off the busy highway, next to NWR water - either a small lake or a large pond. Idyllic except for the noise and headlights of the constant semis 300 yds away.
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.
Close to Lone Pine, really excellent view of Owens Valley south over dry Owens Lake, The last 2 miles have many brutal diagonal speed bumps, beware!
Conveniently located next to Interstate 5, which somehow adds to the experience. You can see the semis rocketing along less than a mile away, but you're in another world. There's a nice hike through the marshes and along a tiny creek, and a very nice auto tour with a viewing platform stop in the middle. Sometimes I do the drive then the hike, sometimes the hike then the drive. Sunset looking back across the marshes from the viewing platform can be spectacular.
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.
A really interesting place. The entrance and Visitors Center are five miles off the highway, then it's another five miles to the payoff, the lighthouse and actual Gulf of Mexico. The Visitors Center looks quite deluxe, but both times I have been hurrying to make sunset at the beach, and both times I forgot to return in the morning.
I came here 15 years ago with abalone-diving City friends. I'm not even sure that's a thing any more. Anyway, the campground is still here and it's still awesome. They have spots available when no one else does, and it's the simplest check-in ever: Pay them ($5 off for cash!), they give you a receipt for your windshield and tell you to park at any picnic table/fire ring that's not occupied. The rest of the world seems to get more complicated and bureaucratic, but this is the easiest damn check-in I've ever experienced. Checkout 2pm. Ocean Cove Bar and Grille is a sweaty uphill 3/4 mile walk away. Basic bar food, but great view of the ocean and campground.
Bike one way to a lovely lagoon, walk the other way to to beach, nice sites high on the bluffs. A really nice campground.