Kind of a shabby little place. But very handy on the Pagosa Springs-Durango run. I'm hatin' because I think $18 is too much, but that's Colorado.
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!
At 9,300', so a short season. A dusty, cramped, low-amenity national park campground that's in a REALLY cool place.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
A washboardy, dusty couple of miles off 395. I clocked it at 2.7 miles. Very cool little spot once you get here ... in a lonely, boring kind of way.
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!
A dusty little municipal park conveniently located right off I-25 in a sad-looking part of New Mexico.
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.
A great find! Very nice BLM campground right off US 93 between Phoenix and Kingman
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!
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.
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.
A really low-tech campground, a handful of sites carved out of a gully right next to the highway.
There is one big pool with a little waterfall, then up the hill are some bathtubs for your own private soak overlooking the wide valley. Really cool setup. Camping area is 200 yards down the hill. The pools are spectacular and the actual camping area is pleasant but rest of the property is extremely derelict. Walking up the crappy trail to the bathtubs in flip flops is hard for a 70-year old. It's pretty dangerous coming back down in wet flip-flops! Electric hookups and tent/van sleeping seem to be the same price.
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.