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.
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.
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
Pretty big campground as these State Beaches go. There is another smaller campground over near the beach. There is a road straight to the beach that doesn't pass the Ranger kiosk, so you can use the beach w/o paying park fees. A mere 2.5 miles north of Fort Bragg.
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.
Driven past many times, finally stopping! Good news: It's in a lush, peaceful crevice in the mountains along a little burbling stream which opens onto a driftwood-strewn beach 1/2 mile away. Bad news: US 101, also runs through the same narrow crevice so you rarely hear the burbling stream. You hear semis rocketing past 40 yards away all night. In the summer, you can camp in the Lower Loop, 600 yds from the beach. In the winter you have to walk (or bike!) an extra mile from the Upper Loop.
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.
Elevation 9,800' No wonder I'm a huffin and puffin A real gem of a campground, at the edge of a high mountain meadow. Today there is one a-hole running his totally unshielded generator all afternoon. Other than that, a really, nice, almost perfect campground. A google comment says the Continental Divide Trail runs through the campground. Explains those two "Trail" signs.
National park campgrounds with check in are the worst. The campground is by definition huge, or else they wouldn't pay a staff to check you in. It takes forever because they have to explain the world to each and every guest and it creates a high stress level that is the opposite of what you're there for. However ... once that's over, it's a nice campground! There three different hikes to take from the valley where the campground is back up to the mesa. There are free showers, wifi and food at the check-in place, which is pretty far from the campsites.
on the steep hill overlooking the Columbia River. Kind of a gloomy spot, but handy in the heart of the gorge area
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.
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.
next to the site of Reggae on the River, on the Eel River. Priceym because it's a Cali State CG, but very pleasant
I had an initial bad impression because not only do I not get a shower for $24, I don't even get a flush toilet! There is water for RV hookup, but no indoor plumbing, just a clean, unisex outhouse. The lady makes the very good point that everyone is here for the hot springs, and they have showers. On the other hand I am in a nice, grassy, spot a three minute drive (or a long walk) from the Lava Hot Springs pools. So all in all, pretty good. There are some heavily used, long haul train tracks a few hundred yards away that shake the earth a couple of times in the night.
A very handy, odd little campground. Two miles off of I-5, right up against the (quite tall) levee on the San Joaquin River. You can see and the interestate far off in the distance across the farmland.
Only thing going between Lone Pine and Death Valley. It looked a lot more alluring when driving past than it does now that I'm staying here. Maybe when I get a beer and hang out on the veranda I'll like it better. It does have showers! Register at the gas station, not the restaurant as you might expect.
At the mouth of the John Day River. Mostly families with big boats and big RVs. Like Army Corps campgrounds in general, it's a highly controlled place. I-84 is 1/3 mile away and it is line of sight with nothing but water between it and you, so it's pretty noisy. Quite pretty though, looking right out on the bay ... between the parallel parked big rigs and all their big toys.
Elevation 8,800'. Small, very handy campground in the high mountains Route 12 traverses between Boulder and Torrey. All the other campgrounds up here are closed for the season.