modest little spot right off the road, right on the river
A modest city park in downtown Malta. In a grassy area between the fairgrounds and the Milk River you can camp for $5 a night. Pretty sweet.
The most Difficult thing about this place is getting a site! ha,ha. 4.5 winding miles from Aspen make this the budget way for the rest of us to be able to exist for a few days in Aspen.
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!
nice simple little tents only campground - that is to say, a parking lot, a grassy field, and a pit toilet. There's a little spur in the parking lot where one can park a van away from the picnickers and have a little privacy.
5 miles east of US 101, great find when the beach campgrounds are full on Saturday night.
Unexpectedly wonderful place! Alligators, zillions of birds, nice hikes
All through the 90's and 00's this was my favorite getaway - old resort in the hills, a very hot pool, a just-right pool, a cold plunge, a lap pool that rocks on hot summer days, a cozy lodge, breakfast in the morning, expensive espresso drinks all day, world music dance every Tues and Thurs night. That whole vibe got vaporized in the fire. But the wonderful hot water is still coming out of the ground and the tubs (and beautiful ironwork railings) are still here! Last few visits before the cleansing fire I thought they were getting a little too taken with themselves. A Harbin parking ticket?! Give me a break. Then came the fire that consumed all the beautiful old wooden buildings. Everything that wasn't stone or metal was gone. On the way to rebuilding came COVID, now they're back!
Lovely, quiet campground in an amazing location, tucked in a little valley six miles south of Winnemucca. You can hike up,up,up the creek, or hike up the side if the hill for an epic view north to the Jackson Mountains.
Glad I stopped here, really nice campground at a cool place, behind a State of Oregon trout hatchery. The campground is pretty deluxe, there are heavy wooden fences lining the roadway and each campsite, I guess to clearly delimit where people should walk and where they shouldn't. So the forest ares are pretty pristine. The campground is either new or recently renovated. The hatchery has been around for a while.
Another very nice, well maintained campground built around another gorgeous freshwater spring. The one has Alley Mill, a grist mill driven by the outflow of Alley Spring - now a park info center. The mill is a short walk from the campground. If you hunt around for it there is swimming access to the river (swinning in the spring outflow, that's a no no in all these parks).
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.
Very cool state park a little south of Fort Bragg. There's a waterfall two miles up the canyon, something called Devils Punchbowl on the rocky shore, and lots of other hikes in between.
First campground coming off Independence Pass heading south. Real pretty. Still, $19 doesn't get you a lot in Colorado. Checkout time is noon. Elevation 9,620' - yikes!
Another Inyo County campground along one of those "Creeks" controlled by LA Water Authority. Dusty and low tech, but very pretty. If you come on a summer weekend you run the risk of real asshole neighbors.
20 miles north of Ketchum Route 75 opens up into a beautiful, wide valley. The road follows the west side, the Big Wood River is on the east side, and along here there is a big, flat open area in between, with good-ish gravel roads over to the edge of the river where many dispersed campsites are set up. Pretty cool! This is the same river that flows through Ketchum and Sun Valley.
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.
The camping area is just a gravel lot right behind the motel, but it's a beautiful setting right next to the creek, less than 100 yards from the hot springs. Small town, everything there is within ½ mile. He gave me a deal since it's Monday night off season.
In the style of Inyo Forest campgrounds(*), this one is hard to find(**) and kind of shabby and rough, but it's in a really beautiful location. This one is on Lee Vining Creek, in the aspen/pine forest on top of the glacial till. It's the first campground on CA 120 west of Mono Lake heading up to spectacular Tioga Pass. It's pretty cool. It's very popular with fishermen. (*) Except the Inyo campgrounds around June Lake/Mammoth. They are run by a concessionare. They are a little nicer, cost twice as much, and have three times as many rules. (**) There is an arrow for "camping", but you must turn off the road to see the "Lower Lee Vining" sign.
A few short miles up the canyon from lovely Logan UT. The next campground up, Spring Hollow sounded nicer, but was FULL on Labor Day Friday. My modest little campground is NOT reservable, so there were still two of the ten sites available. I feel lucky.