Really nice place, quiet and well maintained and a beautiful situation, on the side of a high hill overlooking a huge, arid valley. Wildlife refuges right down the hill.
An older Yellowstone campgrouund, which means it's dusty, rough and crowded BUT it's in a really cool place. In this case it's a short drive or longish walk to the Norris Geyser Basin.
just a parking lot, but they left me alone. Turns out where I parked was the employee parking area, so about 7AM I was surrounded by groggy 20-somethings on all three sides, going to work at the lodge.
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!
Hostel-style lodging in a cool-looking renovated brewery building behind the actual Mitzpah. Register in the hotel, walk out the back door and across the street and there you are.
At 9,300', so a short season. A dusty, cramped, low-amenity national park campground that's in a REALLY cool place.
Nice little find tucked away in an area with few other campgrounds. There's parking and hookups (for $3 more), and a sign on the bathroom door telling you rates and to slip the money under the door. It's all pretty DIY here.
On the Pit River, which is a pretty good sized river for Nor Cal in a drought. There are seven campsites and a picnic area next to the river. It's almost exactly 2 steep miles of paved road from 299 to the campground. We are in a HOT spell, 111° in Redding, 100° in the shade right here at my campsite, and I am not digging it. Some of my neighbors give off an aggressive prison vibe, others are creepily too friendly. I guess there are normal neighbors also, but I haven't noticed them.
huge-ass campground on ever-diminishing Eagle Lake. Full of giant RVs with hookups and run by a concessionaire, so it is much more bureaucratic and rule-bound that most. Site 159 is pretty sweet, unobstructed lake view (150 yds away), open, but the tall pine behind (south of) me give it pretty good afternoon shade.
expensive but deluxe, with hookups. very nice hike over to the wildlife preserve, near downtown
Convenient place to crash on a stretch of highway with not too many options. The first reasonably prices place you will find after failing to find a place in Big Sur. Close to Hearst Castle and the Sea Elephant Mating Ground!
One more in the string of handy, heavily used campgrounds up the Colorado River on Utah 128 from Moab. This one is past Drinks Canyon CG, and right before Big Bend CG. It's very small, 7 sites. So named I think, because sites 6 and 7 re hidden away in a little grove of scrub oak.
Heading north out of Moab, take a left before the Colorado River and head upstream. There are a string of BLM campgrounds along the river. This is the sixth one, about eight miles out. It is more deluxe than Drinks Canyon, it actually has a bathroom and a dumpster! Campsites here are bigger, RV sized, but equally Spartan -- a picnic table and a fire pit, that's it. But you are on the Colorado River!
One of three large campgrounds on the south side of New Melones Lake. I've also been to Big Oak on the northern side.
very pretty, next campground has wifi, level enough to bike around
Elevation 9,500. Weather is very gloomy, so I'm not seeing it at it's best. Site 22 is very nice, level, large, with an excellent vista looking over the wide, green valley with the busy highway on the other side. The camp host says she saw moose tracks at the next campsite!
pretty setting at the edge of the huge Ione Valley, short walk from the fossil site. Morning talks at the fossil beds
quiet and pleasant, easy walk to the very cool old bridge and old Florence
RV parking is way in the back of the parking lot ... That part of the lot is still gravel there and quite muddy in the rain. Casino is cozy and not unpleasant. Restaurant and bar are just fine. Wifi is terrible except close to the coffee shop.