In a little valley off I-15, with a little stream feeding a series of little ponds.
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.
Fourth spring in a row! This one has a fishery. It's very spread out. Long drive up the hill to pick a site, drive back and check in, then later drive back to fish or walk or just see the sites. Swimming not allowed in the park, but just outside and across the bridge is river access where you can swim. Despite the reliance on driving, a very nice place. People were catching lots of fish!
Allstays calls this Indian Memorial, an ACE campground. The signage is in the standard ACE font and color, and it just has the distinctive well-engineered style, so I am calling it ACE also. If so, then clearly it has been leased back to the tribe. It's on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Nice place!
funky, but very convenient, probably awesome on a pretty day. Sadly it was gloomy and windy when I was there. good windsurfing I'll bet!
A very handy spot, right outside St Marks Wildlife Refuge. A great place to spend more time someday.
On Lake Mendicino, a little closer to 101 than Bushay Campground where I've gone before. Kyen is much more accessible, no three mile, 9-speed bump access road, but it's also much noisier and busier. Tonight I just want to park and crash, so it's working for me. It's in a manzanita scrub forest that's very, very pretty. The shower has the insanely heavy flow you expect at a reservoir campground, but in an historic drought, maybe a little too much. I again protest the arcane self-pay procedure by not doing it, and again I escape unscathed. I have a pleasant night and leave!
deluxe state park. Almost close enough to walk to town, beach and tidepools and trees and grass, pretty much everything
locals pool, basketball hoops in the water, stuff like that. -- -- -- -- Camping here this time. Offseacon it's $15=$5+$10
Camping is expensive and the pools are extra, so not my thing. However just the pools is $5 for an old person, which IS my thing. There are: - three small pools ranging from very hot to way too hot. - one unheated pool for them kiddies - the biggest pool varies in temperature, see below. The big pool has three little waterfalls set up. The middle one is very hot, the left medium and the right cold. The left is always crowded, the right empty, and the middle always has an old dude or two planted under it.
at the end of beautiful Silver Lake. Probably has great lake swimming/kayaking in the summer. Sites 16-27-ish have best lake access. Spectacular fall color spot. All the June Loop campgrounds no longer allow checking yourself in at the kiosk. A stressed-out concession employee must come and personally check you in. A step backwards, IMO.
A remote, slightly shabby historical park with campground in the hills of Alabama. Nice folks running it. Along with the Ironworks, there's also an historical church and a baseball field.
Saturdays are such a trial to the hardened traveller. Every site is taken, and it has been raining for days, so the overflow lot is a soggy mess. The nice lady said I could park on the reasonably level pad next to the bathroom. The things I do for a shower.
There is NO check-in procedure here, only check-out. Odd. Just pick a site, do your thing, and there's only one way out, so pay at the station when you leave.
A sleepy little campground in a sleepy little park. Pleasant and quiet. The Suwanee River is pretty, it would be fun to kayak it. The bathroom/laundry had a little book exchange!
Owner was a right-wing lunatic, but the campsite situation was superb, right on the river. Nice laundry room with shower (costs extra!) and tv
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).
Far from everything, in the high desert of southeast Oregon, a few miles east of Lakeview.
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.
On lovely Williard Bay, the northeastern, freshwater(!) arm of the Great Salt Lake.
On a gentle downslope between I-84 and the railroad tracks and then the mighty Columbia River, between Hood River and The Dalles. They have a ton of tent sites (80-ish?), so I easily got a nice spot at 4 PM on Fourth of July Friday - woo! Downhill I can see the river between the trees, and hear the train when it comes through, and uphill is the constant sound of the interstate - as regular and monotonous as the Pacific surf I tell myself :)