Placid little place in tall firs. Swimming beach on the Priest River, boat ramp, kayak friendly. Road noise is not too bothersome.
A simple loop campground on an east-facing hillside above Frenchman's Lake. I like the inside of the upper loop with my living room facing the lake. It's quiet and pretty and the sun is on the other side of the van. Eight very scenic miles north of Chillcoot. For much of the drive the beautiful Sierra Valley spreads out to your left. Then you enter the canyon of Last Chance Creek, the outflow of the lake. Hundred foot lava cliffs, dramatic formations. Then boom! you're at the dam. The other two lakeside campgrounds have flush toilets. Maybe they are more deluxe?
didn't stay here, but looks real nice, on a point of land jutting into the reservoir. There is also private camping for $6 all over the place, where you can camp right up to the water's edge
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!
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.
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.
What a welcome place! There is a lot of nothing between Boise and Bend. I saw some RVs just pulled off at the side of the road, and a couple at the rest stop, but there's no real place to stop for 100 miles except a couple of high-end RV palaces in Burns. So thank goodness for this pleasant stop.
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.
Due west of Chico, about 12 miles on the west side of I-5 is Black Butte Lake. There are two ACE campgrounds. This one is the main one, with a nature preserve and large recreation area. Open all year, on a point of land jutting into the lake, quite scenic. This campground is closer to the lake.
Except for a couple of "view lots" - sites 1 and 2 - the rest of the sites are in a compact bunch, nestled in a little canyon. Right across the road from Gull Lake.
The only other time in my life I came through here, I thought this place looked completely inviting as I pressed on past, so here I am four years later checkin' it out!. As soon as the sun goes behind the hill it's going to be awesome for 40 minutes or so. Nothing happening here. Sedate white people with American flags and dogs. There is apparently a path to the lake since some dudes headed off with their fishing poles and came back in a couple of hours.
Typical National Park campground, the parking pads aren't even close to level, the roads are very rough, but they're amazingly low cost and you are in a spectacular place! This is the place you go when you know the main part of the park will be full by 11. At the east end of gorgeous Two Medicine Lake, spectacular mountains all around.
Preposterously expensive for non-state resident visitors. Pit toilets, no showers, no services of any kind really, for $28. Flathead Lake is just a rumor, a faint glimmer between the trees. What is very real is the traffic noise, where US 93 loops around Loop A of the campground. The only other choice for 50 miles are upscale RV Parks and the Kalispell Walmart.
The BLM campground is closed for the season, so I pressed on to the free camping along the shore. Pretty cool! I'll bet it would be really buggy in the summer. The lake level is very low and the last 50 yards or so of shoreline is quite boggy and churned up by the cows, so there really isn't a "beach" per se to get to, but it is a very pretty, quiet stop for tonight in any event.
Here three days, for a Labor Day party with friends. Sites 7 and 9 are the PERFECT sites, roomy and shaded, and adjoining the lake. Everybody else has to walk around the edges of us to get to the lake. Pretty excellent place to hang out for the three day weekend. The only drag for me is that $25 is pretty steep for little ole me to hang out in the van. For me and six of my friends, whole different story!
A well laid out campground on the Georgia side of Lake Eufaula. All manner of water pursuits, many from the edge of your campsite.
mostly fisherman, got a great spot at the dead end right by the lake, a few miles from Terwilliger Hot Springs
Small campground on a little strip of hillside between beautiful Odell Lake and busy Route 58, the through-fare between Eugene and the interior. There's a nice boat launch, fish-cleaning station, some pull-through sites - all the amenities for your grizzled old fisher-dude. Site 15 is a not quite level site facing right on the lake (down a 40' embankment). No sounds but the lapping of the waves and the wind in the trees ... and the semis on Route 58. It faces west. Sunset reflected off the lake and through the trees is spectacular. This would be a perfect place to launch a kayak.
I am in Thumper Loop! A lovely, very well maintained large campground. The area is thick grass, but a wide area is mowed around each campsite. Very pleasant place to be out of the madness of Black Hills traffic.
On Strom Thurmond Lake, god help me. According to the map I am on the Georgia side of the lake, South Carolina ten miles away. There are a number of ACE campgrounds on the lake. All except this one closed at the end of September.