Amazing location, on a bluff overlooking Grand Junction and the wide Colorado River Valley. Loop C is the tent sites, no doubt the oldest part of the campground. Parking for the sites is cramped and tricky to navigate.
On Lake Mendocino, off SR 20 a few miles east of 101. Annoying access road with 6 or ten speed bumps, but a very pleasant place once you've been assigned your spot by the check-in. Nice, free showers! The bathroom lights are quite bright, so a spot that looks nice in the afternoon might be kind of annoying at night.
A campground on the Natchez Trace Parkway, so you don't even have to exit to get there. Drive past the M Lewis obelisk and up the hill to a really nice, free federal government campground.
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.
It pays to call the ranger! I called about spring flowers on these riverside trails (not yet he said), and as long as I was there asked about staying overnight. He said the all the other parking areas were day use only, but the one at the end of the road - Perry Riffle (cool name!) - allows it. So here I am, feeling very pleased about life.
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.
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.
Real name is Boice Cope Campground, but that hides its coolest feature, that it's on a sweet little freshwater lake! Site T-2 also looks awesome. Turns out you can park on the grass. This place is crazy popular with kiteboarders and windsurfers, of which there are many in Oregon. Floras Lake is a pretty little jewel of a freshwater lake separated from the Pacific by just one little sand dune. Crowded though the place is, I am angled away from it all pointing at the lake so I can pretend I'm all by myself.
Camping is just the edge of the forest behind the lodge. Next to a very pretty cow pasture at the edge of the huge Sierra Valley. Nice lodge to hang out in, wifi and kitchen, free to campers. The Hot Springs has also taken over the hotel in town. There is also a breakfast place and aMexican restaurant in town, both pricy but good!
shady, the camp is quiet, but there is an extremely busy highway right across the Snake River. Kind of deluxe and kind of expensive, as state parks tend to be.
On the road Maps sent me down there were no signs that campgrounds existed, and the first one was closed, which gave me a little fright. The second, Acorn was open, so all is well. Army Corp campgrounds all seem to rely on having a person at a check-in gate. The gate wasn't manned so camping was free.
There's a very nice tub at the parking lot, holds 1-3 folks - adjustable temp, great soak. Down the hill is a travertine mound that starts with a pretty hot one person tub (109°-ish?) on the uphill side, which feeds into progressively cooler tubs as the water flows clockwise around the mound downhill. The last two have a spectacular view of the valley, but are too cool and have creepy stuff growing in them. This place is too accessible from 395 and too well known. It's usually busy, and sometimes straight-up creepy with weirdos straight off the highway. The camping spot is handy even without the hot springs. When the hot springs road turns left, take a right and park at any of the several rough camping spots.
I have used the hot springs without camping, and lately I have been camping without soaking, so I'm breaking them into two spots. This is the camping spot.When the hot springs road turns left, take a right and park at any of the several rough camping spots. The hot springs is a little less tan a mile further on.
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).
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.
Twelve miles north of the town of Green River, on the Green River. A nice swimming beach, boat ramp, dramatic formations of the Book Cliffs in all directions.
An out-of-the-way state park with a good price point. The big deal here is that it is on a bluff ... in Florida. Really! My site is at the edge of a steep drop-off that falls for a few hundred feet and gives a great view ... of nothing really interesting. This feature would be unremarkable in most places, but it's the highest bluff in Florida!
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.
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.
There is a tents only campground here, but I got here late in the day and the nice lady called the supervisor and said sure, you can park in the corner of the lot. Bless them! A railroad right-of-way has been repurposed to be the Delta Heritage Trail, and this is a spot for the hikers/bikers that use it.
This place is super user-friendly. There is an RV parking area at the back of the lot, and another across the road behind the reservation gas station. The second one is more level but seemed a little sketchy. I am going for the first. Glad to be here! Wifi was dead for most of the evening, but when it came back it was pretty good. There are a couple of stations in the casino with free coffee and even a cappuccino machine! You can hear the surf at night when the traffic is gone. The ocean is right across the highway, complete with a bench on the bluffs to watch sunset. Sweet little fountain with colored lights to entertain your inner stoner. Nice, friendly place.