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!
right outside Ashland, dusty little hippie place near the fancy Lithia Hot Springs Resort. The pools were excellent and clean, as was the pavilion area with wifi and electrical outlets. But the rest of the place was third world and had a weird vibe.
California state park campgrounds are too expensive. If you're paying for beachfront that's one thing, but parking my van on a level spot in the woods with a bathroom for $35 does not work for me. The fine young man at the entrance kiosk told me that a couple of miles back on National Forest land, the signs saying "Camping 14 days max" also signify "OK to camp here tonight". So that's what I did.
A dusty little municipal park conveniently located right off I-25 in a sad-looking part of New Mexico.
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.
Real good find! I thought these county parks were spendy, but $10 seems like a pretty good deal to me right now! On one of those little "creeks" LADWP sculpted out to constrain "their" water. Wide open sagebrush on one side, a column of willows and cottonwoods following the creek on the other. Very quiet and pretty today.
Not at all interesting on this visit. I hope I caught them at a bad time of day in a bad time of year, because there was neither wildlife nor good infrastructure. Four or so miles into the auto tour loop the road was blockaded - no loop. They could have given some warning at the start of the tour that it was blocked. No wildlife of any kind visible to me. There is camping nearby at Pelican Lake
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.
Very hot here. But it's a dry heat. The lake sounds kind of underwhelming from the BLM page, but there is a boat ramp and picnic area which looks like it has the best morning shade in this whole godforsaken acreage. The actual campground is a few hundred yards up the road before the boat launch. Once the sun got low it was really very pleasant there. Hawks and owls hanging out in the tree at my campsite!
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.
busy but pretty quiet, very scenic. nature trail. a short hike past the swimming pond to a great sunset over non-swimming Sardine Lake, shining off the Sierra Buttes to the left.
Pretty name, but kind of a dusty little trailer park of a campground. It felt like a lot of folks there are semi-permanent residents. There is a tiny creek. A short walk up the hill is the town of Mantua, where there is a reservoir and a swimming beach. The full service town of Brigham City is a right down the hill.
Right across the highway from the Trees of Mystery, a few miles north of Leggett. On the map it looks like it's right on the Eel River, but it's on the bluffs, quite disconnected from the river, which is a dusty, steep hike mile long hike down the hill. Full-featured family campground. Swimming pool, big play area, decent regulation basketball hoop. There's a bar and a little restaurant, a lovely shaded patio and bocce ball. Happy hour 3-6 every day!
Beautiful, idyllic spot on NV 208 right on the West Walker River. In the shade of a row of stately old cottonwoods, it's quite spacious and has at least four really nice RV spots right in the river.
Hot water pops out of the ground at numerous places around here. Get the Cal/Nev Hot Springs book for details. Today I went to the first one off Whitmore Tubs Road, called "Hot Tub" in the book, "Rock Tub" on the PDF. It was just excellent for one or two people. This is BLM land so I think you can camp. I did not this time.
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 other campground at Bryce, open longer into the fall. I like this one better, more convenient to the Lodge and Visitor's Center (wifi) and right next to the Rim Trail, which is what Bryce is all about.
The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite. As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to. Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.
Very handy, right off US 50 on a really long, really boring road with the only other option being roadside pull-offs. Far enough off the road to be very quiet. The short petroglyph trail takes you to a west facing view over a the Big Smokey Valley, and a nice sunset.
A great find! Very nice BLM campground right off US 93 between Phoenix and Kingman
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.