Two campgrounds in one! A nice little tent campground on a knoll jutting into the lake, and a section of the boat ramp parking lot. RVs can only go to the latter. Since I sleep in my vehicle I'm supposed to sleep in the boat lot with the big boys, but there's already a pickup camper setting up, and it turns out that this time of year with only 8-10 site taken, nobody cares..
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.
Fifth spring in a row! Also a fishery. This may be the fishiest yet! Quite large, there is a lodge with a nice restaurant up the hill. There is wifi strong enough I could use it from my van ... but it only worked for the last 6 hours of my two days there. There was live bluegrass music in the Lodge on Friday night!
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.
Pleasant, well laid out, reasonably priced campground.
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.
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.
Nothing here except a really pretty bend in the (Salmon) river, pretty well shielded from US 93, even though it's 30 yards away. Really pleasant overnight.
Far from everything, in the high desert of southeast Oregon, a few miles east of Lakeview.
There's no signs to say it's ok to overnight (or not!). Allstays says they allow it, so I did it and it was great. I parked at the edge of what used to be the dump station loop, behind the Information Center building. There's a couple of trees, a covered area (with no picnic table), looking out over the skateboard park 100 yards away. Nobody bothered me from 7pm to 10 am. Kudos to Guymon!
Nice little spot, 1/2 mile off of 70, on the North Fork of the Feather River, near where it joins the main river. It is not well marked that the campground is at this turnoff so it's easy to drive right past. Once you make the turnoff it's well signed. $25 seems like quite a high price, but the concessionaire needs to make a profit I guess. $12.50 ain't so bad!
The only other time in my life I came through here, I thought this place looked completely inviting as I pressed on past, so here I am four years later checkin' it out!. As soon as the sun goes behind the hill it's going to be awesome for 40 minutes or so. Nothing happening here. Sedate white people with American flags and dogs. There is apparently a path to the lake since some dudes headed off with their fishing poles and came back in a couple of hours.
How have I not known about this place?! It was nearly perfect in every way for what I like to do on the road. Common Room next to the office with satellite tv. The pool is awesome. Maybe 100' across, 2-4' deep mostly, with incredibly, life-threateningly hot water comong in from the southeast end, and cooling jets shooting out from the south, so you simply ewade in and find your spot!
Turned out to be a delightful stop! A large grassy area in the back corner of the fairgrounds. $10 for hookups, $5 without. A one person bathroom with a shower. Perfect with on one else here, probably less so if it were busy.
Odd place. Separate bathhouses for men and women, nudity required. Camping is available in glorified parking lot across the road overlooking the settlement pond. No potable water, must drive a couple of miles for that. Really interesting salt flats area at the edge of town. In the last couple of years a pair of restaurants have opened. And breweries!
Nearest gas is > 80 miles in any direction. An unexpected valley full of reedy marshes in the middle of endless high country desert. There's little warm pool and bathhouse with two showers that run always forever. The whole thing is quite unexpected!
the parking lot of the folks that did my van customization. Actually, the parking lot is chained off this time, tonight's spot is the street outside the parking lot. Sleeping here solves two problems : 1. where to overnight in an urban area? 2. how to get in line early for my repairs.
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.
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.
Elevation 9500'. In a pretty meadow with a little fishing lake nearby. "The area borders on the Continental Divide and sits on top of the Park Range, offering spectacular views of several Colorado mountain ranges"
A dusty little municipal park conveniently located right off I-25 in a sad-looking part of New Mexico.